“Changing the minds of buyers, breaking out of the stereotypes and building real trust, not just as individuals, but as a true profession.” – Scott Ingram in today’s Tip 183
What do you think?
Join the conversation below and feel free to share your thoughts!
Bravado
Cycling’s Best Performance Enhancer: Riding in the Peloton
Study reveals the best place for Tour riders to be in the peloton if they want to make the break
Aerodynamic drag in cycling pelotons: New insights by CFD simulation and wind tunnel testing
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Yesterday I talked about some of my takeaways from having read Into Thin Air, a story about Climbing Mt. Everest. Today I want to talk about some science related to the Peloton in cycling and kind of wonder out loud if there’s an opportunity for all of us to leverage some of these findings together across the sales profession as a whole. So let’s start with what a Peloton actually is. While I’m not watching the Tour de France this year I’ve watched it many times in the past and if you want to see this in action that’s a great way, watch a stage of the Tour that’s happening right now through July 28th, but the Peloton is the main group of riders. This happens in all big bike races where you’ll see this tightly grouped pack of riders. Now they do that for the same reason that Geese fly in a V. Those at the front block the wind for those behind them, but last year some scientist in the Netherlands did some super detailed wind tunnel based studies on this phenomenon and found that it was WAY more efficient than anyone knew. I’ve got some great links at DailySales.Tips/183 to the study which has some awesome images as well as some other articles that comment on the findings that aren’t so technical. Basically, someone riding in the middle of this thing is experiencing 10% of the wind resistance that they would be experiencing if they were riding solo, and if you go even further back in the pack it’s as little as 5%. One of the articles I have linked for you suggests “it’s as if a rider is cycling at 12 to 15 km/h in a peloton that is speeding along at 54 km/h.” In other words, it’s massively efficient.
Here’s what’s interesting about all of this. Obviously, cycling is a competitive sport. It’s both an individual sport, but also a team sport, and if you really look at how the Tour and other big races play out the team element is massive as they work together typically in support of a single lead rider. What makes the peloton so fascinating is that it’s the default configuration for what I’m going to guess is easily 90-95% of any given race. That is all of the teams are working together to boost everyone’s performance and the winners are just decided in short bouts that typically take place on big climbs and in the final sprint at the end of each stage. So now you’re wondering, Ok Scott, but what does any of this have to do with sales. Well, here’s my thought. Too much of the time, we ride alone. The full force of the wind in our face at 0% efficiency. It’s a rare sales team where they truly work together to get better together and bring everyone along in their slipstream. Rarer still are multiple teams working together. I really don’t have any kind of answer here, it’s really more of a vision and a challenge. What if we started thinking both within our teams and across the entire sales industry with that Peloton like mindset. What if the strongest got out front to break the wind, but weren’t doing it as if they were in a time trial, but in a way where they were supporting the others on their team and in their industry. More proactively sharing their best practices and mentoring those who were following behind. What if together we were working to elevate the professionalism and the profession of sales. Changing the minds of buyers, breaking out of the stereotypes and building real trust, not just as individuals, but as a true profession. One company that I think is really starting to do this, and who I suspect you’re going to hear more about later this week is Bravado. They’re definitely doing some interesting things and I’ve included a link to their website at DailySales.Tips/183 for you, along with links to all things Peloton science.
Give it some thought. How can we be more supportive of each other and get to the point where we’re riding down the road at what feels like 10 mph and experience the results of moving down the road at 36 mph. I think it’s possible if we work better together. What do you think?