WHY IT’S TRUE I was very upset many years ago when the manager of the Little League team upon which I played, substituted another player to bat in my place during the final inning of a highly contested, tied baseball game. I wasn’t the best player on the team, but I certainly wasn’t the worst either. As we left the ballpark at the end of the game, my father put his arm around my shoulder and said “Son, winning isn’t everything.” He reminded me that I was a participant on a team that had just won a very close game, and that it was my responsibility as a team player to support the overall goal “to win the game.” It was on that day that I truly understood the unselfish challenges a winner faces every day.

PLAN OF ACTION As a winner every person in your store faces the same challenge: become an active participant in guiding the team to victory. Real team players must recognize all indications the moment when the sale is going nowhere, and turn it over to someone else. T.O. the sale when you can’t close, you have no rapport or you just can’t seem to find the right item for the customer. You might say “Let me introduce you to Mary, who always has some good ideas” or “Let’s ask Bill who is involved in the purchasing of colored stones for the store.” You should then excuse yourself telling the customer “I’ll be over here if you need me,” then go pick up a selvyt and begin to polish merchandise or perform some other activity which will not distract the sale as it is in progress. Now from a team perspective, winning is truly “everything!”

[span class=note]This story is from the November 2009 edition of INSTORE[/span]