What Bumper Cars Taught Me About Selling

This past weekend, we went to an amusement park. One of the rides I always enjoy is "Bumper Cars." At this park, the ride was set up differently, there was basically a oval course, the objective was to get around the course as quickly as possible. It was fascinating to watch the different approaches people took.

Some looked at the course, realizing if they went to the center, they would have the least distance to cover. They raced to the center and tried to cover ground as quickly as possible. Because a lot of people had the same strategy, the center was congested, cars started hitting each other, they'd get spun around and things got jammed up. There were a few very focused drivers, that tended to avoid the worst spots, and made their way around the course quickly-they had a strategy, they watched what was happening and adapted their strategies to avoid getting trapped and slowed down.

Others took a more cautious route, they saw people rushing for the center and the congestion. They decided to stay at edge of the course, knowing they had a longer distance to go around it, but hoping they could avoid the accidents and traffic jams.

Then there were those who were aimless, they had no strategy. They wandered all over the floor, hoping to get around the course, constantly rebounding off the vehicles they struck or that struck them, slowly working their way around the course. more the result of being bumper cars manufacturers than any purposeful strategy. Finally, there was a small group intent on hitting the other cars, knocking them off course, bumping them, slowing them down or diverting them. They weren't focused on getting around the course to the destination, they just wanted to create whatever havoc they could.

After watching for about 20 minutes, it was easy to see those that had a focused strategy for getting around the course, avoiding congestion and accidents, all the while adjusting where they were going based on the current situation on the course. Those people consistently made laps of the course most quickly. It was also interesting to see there were only a small number of those people. Too many others got distracted, they'd start getting caught in jams and lose focus, others, started reacting to being bumped by others, attacking them, rather than trying to get back on course. Still others spent all their time avoiding being bumped, but not really getting anywhere.

After watching the excitement for a while, it seemed to me that battery operated bumper cars represented a nice metaphor for selling.. Some sellers have a strategy-perhaps identifying the shortest route, watching out to avoid collisions and diversions, but quickly adjusting strategies when those happened. Some start with a plan, but quickly get bumped off course, lose focus, react to the bump-then the next-then the next, but not reaching the end. Some have no plan, wandering aimlessly through the process, often getting bumped off course or diverted, often never making it to the end-or doing so accidentally. Finally, some just sought to divert everyone else, spin zone bumper cars for sale them off course, not really focused on the goal, but just creating havoc.

While driving Bumper Cars is just fun, sales is different. We need to produce business-we need to get to the goal. Those that have a strategy, execute the strategy, adjust to changes that happen, but stay focused on the end goal seem to be the winners.

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