I’ve spent the last two weeks watching world-class individuals achieve things that would be impossible for most of us to even attempt. Then I go home and watch the Winter Olympics, which are pretty good, too. We work with some of the best software sales talent on the market and, while watching luge the other day, I decided that I’d love to see a Sales Olympics where the best talent from every company goes head-to-head every four years. I even thought of a few events for the inaugural games.

Winter, Summer and Sales?

Sales Team Relay

Team versions of individual events have been a recurring theme in the Sochi Olympics. (Luge relay, team figure skating, etc.) One of my anchor events would apply that principle to sales and collect the top performers from complementary disciplines.

The Sales Team Relay would involve three-person teams including a cold caller, a sales representative and an account manager. Each team would be selling the same solution to ‘prospects’ and allowed 1-year to develop the account. Medals would be handed out based on revenue generated over that time.

30-Second Voice Mail

Ski jumpers are judged on distance and style and I’d apply a similar system to the 30-Second Voice Mail. Callers would receive points for how close they came to total time with deductions for going over or under. The judges would also evaluate the content and award style points based on clarity, enunciation and value proposition.

Freestyle Prospecting

Leads are great but ultimately it’s up to a sales professional to keep the pipeline full. For Freestyle Prospecting each competitor would be given a product, a vertical, a computer and a phone. The goal would be to produce the most impressive prospect list within an allotted time. Judging would be based on vertical fit, quality of contacts and lack of duplication.

That’s my list of proposed events but I think we’ll need a few more before we can convince the IOC to make the 2018 Sales Olympics happen. Share your ideas for events, host cities and mascots in the comments!