By John Carroll

In two earlier columns we focused squarely on the ballpark where the Charleston RiverDogs play minor-league baseball with a style and substance that provide excellent lessons for professional selling. Here are several more valuable lessons from that ballpark:

Walk the talk. RiverDogs announcer Ken Carrington isn’t one to sit around while he’s working. That’s obvious to even the least observant fan since Ken moves through the crowd and the stands with a remote headset microphone and his notes in hand. As a result, he can announce the next batter, a relief pitcher or the between-innings fun and games from any place he chooses to roam. So yes, Ken is literally walking and talking.

In sales, walking the talk is being who you say you are and making it obvious. If you say you’re the best at what you offer, find a way to back that up, prove it and set yourself apart in that particular way from anyone who sells what you sell. If your all-in-one copier/printer/fax/scanner operates with the lowest downtime in the industry, find ways to prove that through customer testimonials or offer a test period during which the prospect can measure availability, ease of use, etc.

Tie in. The RiverDogs are always looking for opportunities to tie into other local events, teams and organizations. Each season they show up at a hockey game near the end of the South Carolina Stingrays’ season and remind fans that baseball will begin very soon. They also welcome several Stingrays each summer and promote their upcoming season in true RiverDogs style, having fun at every step.

Tying in your sales efforts could include co-promoting with another local organization. For example, by aligning yourself with a group such as Lowcountry Local First, as I’ve done with my firm, you show your support of doing business with local businesses first, thereby strengthening the local economy. By sponsoring an event with this or another group, you gain an instant identification of your business with that purpose or focus. You also give your prospect a greater perspective of you and your business, sensing your depth of commitment to a specific issue.

Give back. The RiverDogs promote and are active in dozens of charitable events and causes. This is in part because they’re good local citizens who believe in giving back and partly because they understand that they do well by doing good. These tie-ins are intended always to be mutually beneficial, generating goodwill and good results for all involved.

You can give back in your sales efforts through any number of means. Create a promotional period during which a percentage of every dollar sold goes to the local charity of your choice or your customer’s choice. Sponsor, host or participate in a local charity event and buy enough room for several of your customers to attend and participate. There are literally hundreds of these opportunities throughout the year, from breakfasts, luncheons and dinners honoring high-achieving organizations to golf events, fishing and even being carted off to “jail,” all for a good cause.

Do it again. Even as the final RiverDogs home game of the season comes and goes, you can count on the team to be there once again, on the banks of the Ashley, opening the gates, smiling as you enter and then playing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during the seventh-inning stretch, making the entire experience memorable and fun. This successful formula, which has helped them generate yet another season attendance record in 2007, contains the same set of basic ingredients you’ll find next spring and summer. And, while some things may be new and different, knowing that certain elements will remain adds a level of comfort that keeps people coming back for more.

Doing it again in selling means that you practice your work, your expertise, your profession repeatedly, day after day, week after week. The best performers in sales are those who get a high number of repetitions, or reps, as they say in reference to major-league sports practice sessions. Do it again, hone it, get it better than right and find ways to make it better still. That happens only when you continue to repeat what you’ve done many times, putting yourself in front of as many people as possible.

Do as the RiverDogs do by looking at and sharpening every area of your business, which in their case is the business of fun. Make your business a bit more fun as well by following this great local example of excellence in sales, service and relationship building.

John Carroll is a business coach, consultant, serial entrepreneur and president of Unlimited Performance Inc. in Mount Pleasant. E-mail him at john@johncarroll.com.

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