When You Play the Game of Sales You Either Win or Lose [Infographic]

Nick Hedges — December 15, 2016 Follow @Nick_Hedges

The popular HBO series Game of Thrones has taken viewers by storm, quickly making its way to the top of the charts during its first season and beyond. Given the popularity of the show, we decided to take a look at some lessons that could carry over into the “Game of Sales”.

Any avid Game of Thrones fan will quickly catch on to the theme of the rival houses. In Game of Thrones, the popular houses include the Lannisters, Starks, Baratheons, Tyrells, Greyjoys, Tullys, Arryns and more. Much like the show, we have identified sales professionals according to their rival approaches to achieving, and hopefully exceeding, quota.

Our infographic showcases these differences in the form of three houses: house archetype, house mold breaker, and house trailblazer. But instead of warring families battling for the crown, each house represents a specific sales style fighting to win more deals!

The characteristics and attributes chosen to differentiate each house are borrowed from a recent study of 1,000 sales professionals aimed at understanding The Persona of Top Sales Professionals. House archetype is represented by reps who exceeded quota by 125 percent, house mold breaker represents reps who achieve between 75 percent and 125 percent of quota, and house trailblazer represents reps who met less than 75 percent of quota. The Velocify research team paired up with acclaimed sales expert Steve W. Martin to conduct the study of salespeople.

The infographic also displays six key battles: Focus and Motivation, Career Orientation, Attitude, Personal Attributes, Customer Interaction and Self-Perception, which were the areas measured in our study. By understanding the kind of sales person you are based on your unique values, motivations, and selling style, you can better adapt your unique approach to each new or existing prospect.

Which house do you most closely align with? Read on and find out!

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