Business Lessons from Tim Tebow

Ugly. 

Won’t ever make it. 

Worst I’ve ever seen. 

Pathetic. 

He makes a mockery of football as a game of skill. 

You can’t play the game like that.

I suspect every NFL fan recognizes those as recent statements by various football commentators and pundits about Tim Tebow. All of these men have a certain vision of what an NFL quarterback should be. For them there is a set of skills that anyone who wants to be a successful quarterback must have. 

There are also accepted offenses that can be successful in the NFL, and by extension there are others that are doomed to failure.

Does Success Have to Follow a Formula?

Football for these folks is a predictable sport -- the right skills with the right offense mean success, and anyone who deviates will inevitably fail.

These guys recognize that Tebow doesn’t fit their predetermined concept of what an NFL quarterback should -- must -- be.

But the rookie quarterback has something that doesn’t fit into their nice, neat, predictable formula -- he has a knack and a drive to win.

He is a winner -- one who finds a way to make the football world bow to his talents and more importantly, his will.  Despite all the predictions of failure, he wins.

Certainly Tebow isn’t the only individual who seems to be able to will success.  There are many in every field -- including sales.

Unfortunately many times these natural winners end up losing.  Not because they can’t win but because their coaches and managers try to force them to conform to what they believe a quarterback -- or salesperson -- should be. 

They try to force them to work with a process or system that the individual’s skills can’t support. They try to make the individual win pretty according to the industry accepted definition of pretty, and thus destroy the individual’s ability to be successful. 

I’ve seen many sellers who had an unconventional sales style (unconventional, not unethical) fail because their manager forced them to work within a system that they were unsuited for.

Process and systemization is currently a hot topic within the sales field. I’m a big advocate of process. I have a disciplined, proven process for almost everything I do. I think most of us need to work within a system that gives us order and as much control of the outcome as possible and every company should have a universal process for their sales team.

Winning Outside the Box

But I also recognize that there are some -- a few -- who are more comfortable and more suited working within their own unconventional, seemingly haphazard system. Their sales style may be ugly. It may not make a great deal of sense to the more conventional sales mind.  It may break all the “rules” of selling.

So what?

If it is ethical and the seller is meeting the needs of the prospect without shortchanging or cheating his company, what difference does it make?

Why managers can’t recognize a winner when they see one -- as it appears the football commentary world can’t recognize an unconventional winner when they see one -- is beyond me. 

Why must we try to force everyone into the same  box just because it works for the majority?

Is it a misguided need to treat everyone the same? Well, folks, not everyone are the same.

Is it a need for the manager to be in control? 

Is it a trust issue that if the person is successful outside the “rules” he or she must be doing something unethical?

Is it just laziness since it’s easier to treat everyone the same instead of dealing with individuals?

To date, Tebow’s coaches are giving him enough freedom -- at least at the end of the game -- to be himself and do what he knows how to do: win. Time will tell if he can continue to will wins from a weak team. 

Hopefully those managers who have a Tebow on their team will learn the lesson Denver is learning -- not everyone is conventional. Not everyone needs to be.