What It Takes to Be an Athlete in Sales with JR Butler

Live Better. Sell Better.

This episode of the Live Better Seller Better Podcast features JR Butler, Founder and CEO of Shift Group. From spending hours in practice to honing skills through mentorship and personal experience, so many factors can make up a successful athlete. The question is, how can they use this if they ever get into a sales role?

JR talks about the different strengths athletes can bring to the table simply based on the skills and practices they've honed in their sport. He also puts to light the challenges that come with the transition from athletics to a sales career.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Areas to focus on when transitioning from athlete to a sales career
• Competitiveness, coachability, and practice
• Fundamental practices to work into your routine
• How JR would recommend someone start transitioning their skills

QUOTES

JR on competitiveness as a transferrable strength: "That ability to compete with somebody but still be their peer and their colleague, that's really important as an SDR in a large organization where there's a daily metric scoreboard. You want to be at the top of that list and that's where we see the competitiveness being really important in the first nine to twelve months of their career. "

Motivators and needs for athletes: "They want a scoreboard. They've had a scoreboard their entire life. And sometimes, especially nowadays, it's hard as a leader because you've got to manage things with gloves on. But with athletes, you can kind of take those gloves off a little bit more and really dig in with them and give them that feedback."

JR on getting sober and its effect on his sales and sports career: "I was still a good salesperson before that but it was another stratosphere when I started really taking this seriously, taking care of myself, and making sure that everything that I'm doing every day is the right thing to do."

You can find out more about JR in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrbutler/
• Website: https://www.shiftgroup.io/

Live Better. Sell Better. is sponsored by our proud partners:

Vidyard | vidyard.com

Dooly | dooly.ai

Chili Piper | chilipiper.com