Sports and Sales are More Similar Than You May Think

By Colin Sheehan, RCS Reporter.

Learn why the core qualities of an athlete make incredible salespeople and sales teams.

Sales Transformation Group CEO and founder, Ryan Groth, sat down with Tatsuya Nakagawa for an episode of Tats Talks, a Specified Growth Podcast. The podcast’s theme centered around a simple question: how can contractors build the best sales team? The conversation focused on how Ryan was able to take what he learned as a professional athlete and translate it into a more than successful career in sales.  

Sales Transformation Group is dedicated to helping roofing companies and contractors improve their sales strategies and technological capabilities to transform their businesses. Ryan was originally involved in the trades as a teen, and after playing professional baseball decided to go back into the trades and help contractors make the transition from individual workmen to successful business owners.

In this episode, Building Great Sales Teams with Ryan Groth, Ryan and Tatsuya discussed Ryan’s history as a professional baseball player and the work ethic he built on the field that has continued into his career in sales.

“I got a scholarship and then got drafted, and then went to a Division 1 school in Tulsa, Oklahoma at Oral Roberts, played baseball there and I got drafted again, played a few seasons, and it was just cool. I got to experience that, but more importantly, it showed me what would happen if you just gave it your best and didn’t have any regrets,” said Ryan.

Despite his love of baseball, Ryan’s one priority in life was to have a family, so after several years as a professional athlete, he decided to shift his focus on building a business and making money. He ended up getting connected with a roofing contractor in South Florida who encompassed Ryan’s entrepreneurial spirit and sporty background.

“He saw my hunger and started mentoring me. I didn’t work for his roofing company specifically, I worked with him,” Ryan continued stating how the analytical side of the work clicked immediately, “It’s like sports!”

As Ryan transitioned from athletics to sales, he continued to utilize some of the same core qualities that he learned from a life of competitive sports. These included determination, a strong work ethic, team-centric thinking and the desire to win. In fact, Ryan pins these characteristics as the main reason why a lot of athletes end up excelling at sales.

“They’re used to the work. They know, if I’m going to play well in the game, I got to put the reps in and so with an athlete comes thousands and thousands and thousands of reps. In sales comes thousands and thousands and thousands of reps. So, their muscles mentally are prepared to do whatever it takes.”

Additionally, Ryan emphasized that with sports and sales there is both winning and losing, something athletes are deeply familiar with.

“Here’s what I love about sports and sales. You either win or you lose. Not everyone’s a winner and gets a trophy. You didn’t make the sale, [and] the company didn’t make the money. Either you’re not on the team or you had to let go of somebody, or [you’re] winning and able to re-invest that back into the growth of the company to continue to win. So, I think winning and losing is something that athletes are used to. . . People that haven’t had to compete and put their feet in between the lines and play, don’t know what it’s like to win or to lose, but athletes know that if they define what winning and losing is, or if the company has done that within a certain culture, it really magnifies that spirit in them,” said Ryan.

For your free 45-minute strategy session with Ryan visit his special RCS promotional page.

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