The Geek Masters: Business Lessons From This Week’s Golf.

Horse Racing may be the sport of Kings, but golf is definitely the sport of Geeks. Anything with golf’s dress code and arcane rules is always going to appeal to the geeky crew! This week Spring has well and truly sprung, you know how we can tell? The US Masters is here and we are in for a treat of 4 days of amazing golf in the magnificent, beautiful surroundings of Augusta, Georgia.

There are plenty of European’s that are looking to take the Green Jacket from last years winner Patrick Read. Maybe Sergio can repeat his feat from a couple of years ago? Maybe Rory McIlRoy will finally wear the green synonymous with his nationality; or is there a longer shot than 2016’s winner Danny Willetts ready for their first taste of superstardom? We don’t know, but we do know there are some damn good business lessons we can take from the Masters Tournament.

Now if you aren’t into golf, then don’t fear, because what follows should make some sense, even if you don’t know your Niblick from your Jigger! So let’s get on with it.

Drive Long, Putt Great!

The key to winning at Augusta? Smash it off the tee and find the touch of an angel on the greens! The exact same formula that you need to succeed in business.

To win in business, you need ambition as meaty as that Big-Dog driver in your bag and have an audacious target that only your driver can reach. We call it a BHAG at Sales Geek – a Big Hairy Audacious Goal and if your going to win, you are going to have to shoot for that target. Grip it and rip it, John Daly style. But that ain’t enough!

Drive and ambition are only part of the deal, just like they are at the Masters. You can’t forget the small stuff. And more than that, you’re gonna have to be great at it, a world leader. “The devil is in the detail” and quite often a business is too. By getting to grips with all the small stuff, all the little 1 percenters, that is where you will build your success. And like you, anybody that wins at Augusta is going to have master the the small stuff of golf, with the wedge and putter around the greens.

Embrace Amen Corner!

Amen Corner at the Masters is the legendary stretch of the 11th, 12th and 13th holes. Fans love it, pros fear it. It is where the champions separate themselves from the pack and the also-rans are gobbled up by the field. In recent memory Jordan Spieth made quadruple bogey on the 12th in 2016 and gave up his 2 shot lead and ultimately his hold on the green jacket. It was the ultimate hide behind your fingers moment for those watching on TV, it was compelling nonetheless.

Every business will face it’s Amen Corner, a moment of reckoning. It is the moment we understand there are decisions to be made that will shape the future. Decisions, that if we make them correctly, or get lucky, will set us up for the final stretch. We all know those Amen Corner moments. They are the opportunities for success that stretch out in front of us, if only we can grasp them? When we are successful, we embrace the moment, feed off the pressure, seize the opportunity and feel like champions. The key though is not to let those moments consume us. If we get them wrong, then right there and then it can seem catastrophic. But just like in the golf we will get other opportunities. We will be right back at Amen Corner next year, only this time we will have an extra club of experience to draw upon. Now isn’t that a beautiful thing?

It’s The Masters For A Reason

You know why people love The Masters?

Magnolia Lane, Amen Corner, Rae’s Creek, Sarazen Bridge, Blooming Azaleas, white caddy jumpsuits, pine needles, the overwhelming beauty of the course, the Green Jacket, the anticipation of Spring? (Bear with us we just went all misty eyed?) No?

It’s the tradition.

The Open may be older (by 74 years!!!!) but the Masters is ALWAYS held at Augusta National, always: not rotated like the Open is across an array of (admittedly) pretty spectacular Links courses. It really doesn’t make a difference who is playing or even who wins the Masters, because the tradition determines that the course is naturally the star. The course is so overwhelmingly familiar that any avid golf fan knows every shot and every putt. The majority of golfers will never play it, but it will always be listed as their favourite golf course in the world.

Those traditions have been borne of consistency. Always being there, always providing such a supreme experience, time-after-time-after-time, that no-one will ever move the event anywhere else.

Now imagine if our businesses could deliver such a consistency of high level experience that no customer would ever go anywhere else? Wow – that’s what should really make us misty eyed! And maybe we could take it as a call to arms – let’s make our businesses more Masterly!

It’s All About The Green: No not that stuff!

The Masters, every year boils down to one thing: The Green Jacket! That’s the ultimate goal for every golfer that tees off Thursday; to be the last man standing in the Butler Cabin on Sunday, being presented with that Green Jacket (Nobody said golf was stylish!).

And maybe many think the green is what business is all about?

At Sales Geek we want to reclaim that outdated notion. The Green Jacket represents more in golf than just being the best. It is acceptance. The green jacket is automatic membership to one of the most exclusive clubs in the world. It represents achievement and belonging.

And maybe that’s the ultimate goal for us at Sales Geek? We want to create a Geek Jacket rather than a green jacket. A sense of community, where we all have each others back. Where being a Sales Geek is synonymous with not just excellence but with a spirit, a “way of playing”. So take a sneak peak into what a ‘Geek’ Jacket means…

This is our club

We believe that sales is not a dirty word and we want to change the perception of sales. We believe in ethical sales and want to help 1 million people to ethically sell more products and services by better understanding themselves, their products and their customers. That is our club, our Butler Cabin, our Augusta National.

Fancy stepping up and pulling on a Geek jacket?

Come and Join The Revolution.

Enjoy the golf and drop us a line anytime?

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