Winter 2011 Online Extra: Where Golf Meets Packaging Sales

The mere suggestion that competitive golf can work as an effective conditioning program of sorts for the competitive world of paperboard packaging sales is guaranteed to bring a facial twitch or two to a hard-line few in our industry. The “business-is-my-only-business” types tend to view an alleged golf/box-selling connection as an affront to all those prebroken cartons that bend over backwards to serve and protect before turning their lives over to the recycling process, just to do it all over again, as if the fate of some selfless seal-end carton represents the most poetic rendition of the so-called circle of life. A bit weird? Maybe. Cool? Kind of. A little obsessive? No doubt.

Sports in general and golf in particular have long availed to open-minded people a variety of insights and lessons that are versatile, enduring and applicable to a wide range of other endeavors. Be it exercising intangibles such as patience, determination and focus; or honing performance-related traits like preparation and execution under pressure; or sharing in the regenerating benefits of good health and humor and friendships that generally go forth and multiply; these are all character builders that can expedite the development of a multi-faceted business skill-set. They also can foretell – when used for good and not evil – the first partnership-friendly ripples of grace between companies of integrity.

Bottom line, all the above behaviors are at the heart of virtually any constructive quest, whether it’s competitive golf or packaging sales. Preparation, focus, determination, patience, execution, having fun and making friends (read: networking), it’s all pretty righteous – and none of it’s a secret.

It’s also no secret that bona fide achievers are wired to ride the cumulative momentum that is developed from stacking multiple successes in whatever they do so as to become better at everything they do. This includes, but is not limited to, taking responsibility for being a mildly interesting person. Maybe even someone that others would want to be around. In sales, this does not hurt.

To dig deeper into the underbelly of competitive golf and packaging sales both, there are other overlapping qualities, rituals, and practices that oh so vital to success. It’s sweaty, grimy, dirty work – with stakes and consequences in a world where, purportedly, “the numbers don’t lie.” Here’s a straightforward look at the less glamorous crossover examples of golf and packaging sales.   

Gambling. In both the risk-taking sense and as a competition for agreed upon stakes. There are times in every sales cycle when a rep has to gamble, to take a chance at a moment when hard questions must be asked and nervy assumptions are wrapped up in a we’re-in-this-together burrito of partnership. That goes for the relationship one has with his own company, as well as with the customer’s. As for agreed-upon stakes, well, money isn’t everything, but it makes everything more interesting – and motivating – for both the golfer and the packaging sales rep.  Unfortunately, the once simple, sacred covenant of “sell more, earn more” has been modified or leveraged for our economic times. And the rep’s responsorial fallback position, “guarding against mistakes,” can bring unintended consequences to bear. In golf, you still get what you earn because your score is still your performance.

Grinding.  This is akin to the “safety first” approach to U.S. Open-type golf and the antidote to gambling. It’s a day-in/day-out commitment to tiny victories and inch-by-inch progress for the benefit of what’s often a long-term goal. But, ideally, and unlike Sisyphus and his rock, without the golfer losing control of the ball or the rep his account, or his mojo, or even managerial support. If one isn’t careful, this can actually turn into the previously mentioned “guarding against mistakes” approach, where one may survive but rarely win.

Amnesia. The ability to forget setbacks, bad choices, poor rulings, tough luck, disingenuous people, a string of bogeys and/or “dreaded others” – and then go on to succeed anyway.  Successful golfers and sales reps either develop this kind of on-demand memory shortfall or they commit to vegetable gardening or perish altogether.

Scrambling. In golf, to scramble is to escape a misplay, to fix a situation such that the damage is kept to a minimum through a precise and often delicate maneuver. Sales?  Same. Exact. Thing.

Ultimately, within the worlds of both competitive golf and packaging sales, it is honor that remains foremost among the traits that drive and define both pursuits beyond anything measurable. That makes for a difficult standard to meet, or prove, but like some other sports that involve contortions, selective memory and poise, it’s precisely that “difficulty factor” that helps determines the greatest quality in any performance.     

Haines is a veteran folding carton salesman and author of the golf novel "Danny Mo." Reach him at hainerb@wi.rr.com.