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Sales is the transfer of energy. Chris Walken needed more cowbell. Your Sales Force needs motivation. These 10 YouTube videos can help.
We love epic, inspiring videos. So much, in fact, that we built them into Ambition. Here are two case studies and a video walkthrough that prove how effective YouTube can be as a team motivator.
Inspiration and invigoration are hardly natural byproducts of the sales process. In fact, they're often diametrically opposite to the force you and your Salesforce go up against every day: Adversity.
To succeed at sales is to constantly battle through adversity. To win over, excite, and influence your prospective customers about your product or service. It's a transference of energy -- from seller to buyer -- and an invigorated, excited Salesforce is the necessary prerequisite to sustained, long-term success.
Mental feelings of disillusionment in the face of adversity are your arch-nemesis. That negative mentality must be crushed quickly and without remorse, and you need resonant, inspirational material for doing so. It's time to go the extra mile and break out one (or more) of the following videos.
YouTube Sales Motivation: 10 Clips To Inspire Your Salesforce
The 10 videos I'm about to share with you are not ones you'll be expecting. Nor should they be. You'll never be able to fire up a Salesforce with total effectiveness by showing them a clip they've already seen a million times. Some of the selections here may even seem unorthodox, which is why I'm providing a synopsis of each clip in accompaniment.
The following list is a mix of speeches, real sports clips, film excerpts, and advertisements that all call to mind a singular focus: Instilling ambition. These are 10 sources of pure adrenaline rush, and they're much healthier to digest than a 5 Hour Energy. They've inspired our own Sales Team here at Ambition, and we believe they'll inspire yours as well. Let's get to the list.
1. Hunger (Motivation)
The best motivational videos challenge you. They push the adversity you face smack-dab in front of you, and force you to embrace it.
This video is a compilation of interviews from leading figures in 21st century society -- Steve Jobs, Kevin Spacey, Adrian Peterson (regrettably) -- dispensing wisdom like Samurai nobility to potential new recruits.
What's key here, and what sets this particular video apart, is the rising sensibility that the person behind these words doesn't even matter. Everything said is universal truth. The final voiceover in the video, the source of which I can't even identify, is the most gripping.
"Habits are the building blocks of our lives. Not the goals or the grand schemes, nor the vision or the big idea -- it's what you do every single day that matters more than anything."
Powerful words, backdropped by compelling audio and visual production. I get chills every time I watch this video -- your personnel will, too.
2. The Mind of Michael Jordan
Winning is a mentality. The beautiful thing about the human brain is that it has the ability to constantly re-wire itself, improve itself, making the person it inhabits a more powerful, driven, and self-reliant individual. To evolve into a winner.
To that effect, a proven way for the brain to learn new behaviors is by studying others. As an awestruck Jeff Van Gundy relates in the opening of this video, Michael Jordan commanded himself in the rarest of ways: His opponents desperately wanted his friendship and respect, even as he embarked on ruthless missions to destroy them, professionally.
In sales, the Michael Jordans of our professions are those individuals who possess that kind of rare gift -- the dual ability to genuinely gain the respect and trust of their prospects, while having that killer instinct to know how and when to close a deal.
To that end, Jordan remains the ultimate paragon of likability and guile -- the consummate definition of what the perfect Sales Professional's mentality should be. This video is a showcase of that mentality.
3. How Great Leaders Inspire Action
It's important that your Sales Reps think of themselves as leaders. Why? Let's start by acknowledging what the hallmark of any true leader is: The ability to positively influence actions and generate desired outcomes from others. In other words, the absolute essence of sales.
Simon Sinek's "How Great Leaders Inspire Action" is regarded by many as the ultimate Ted Talk, and for good reason. He re-conceptualizes the source of leadership-driven inspiration, tracing it back to biology.
Here at Ambition, the very first thing new hires do, on their very first day with our company, is watch this video. We are a software company whose mission is to empower Sales Reps and improve company culture via science. We know why we do what we do. Our behavior, our professional drive, come from our gut.
Your Sales Reps should feel likewise. They should never have to rationalize why they do what they do. If they don't believe in themselves, if they don't believe in what you believe, they will never be as effective as you need them to be. Watching this video will facilitate that realization.
4. The 2008 U.S. Men's Swim Team 4 x 100 Relay
The brain responds to shocks to its system. You want to work some neurons into a frenzy on a sleepy Monday morning? Put on this electrifying clip from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
In case your memory of this particular race is a little foggy, here's the context: Michael Phelps was gunning to become the first Olympic swimmer to sweep all 8 Gold Medals. This was the 2nd race he would be competing in, as part of an underdog U.S. Men's team going up against a heavily-favored French team. Adding to the drama, the French had just trash talked the U.S. in the press the previous day.
A compelling enough premise, to be sure, but nothing compared to the actual race itself. The best scriptwriters in Hollywood couldn't equal the real-life drama that plays out over the race's 180 seconds. Commentators Dan Hicks and Rowdy Gaines (perfect name) deliver the ultimate play-by-play, as U.S. Team anchor Jason Lezak gives new meaning to the phrase, "true grit."
I'm not a swimmer. I'm not someone who even considers himself that patriotic. But this video makes me thirsty for blood. It's an incredible depiction of team effort, resilience, and professionals performing at the highest level, on the biggest stage, with the greatest stakes. Forget the morning cups of coffee, have your Sales Team go to the 4:25 mark and feel the adrenaline rush that comes from witnessing the epitome of "clutch."
5. Secretariat Winning the Belmont
Sales can feel like a never-ending race, a sprint towards beating quota, staying ahead of the pack, obtaining the revenue needed to get that bonus, that promotion, or just to stave off feelings of job insecurity.
Like a hard wind pushing up against you, every Sales Professional runs against constant feelings of adversity -- prospect apathy, objections, seemingly impossible quota targets. In many cases, there's that bleakest-of-all feeling of loneliness. Even though you're moving with the pack, you're truly running in isolation.
These existential quandaries, of course, transcend the Sales profession. They come into everyone's life, at one point or another. And maybe that's why watching this clip of Secretariat, the greatest of all racehorses, winning the Belmont Stakes to secure the 1973 Triple Crown is an unexpectedly moving experience.
Watching Secretariat gallop gallantly, neck-and-neck with Sham for the first third of the race, there's the sense of doubt as to whether he'll be able to maintain the pace needed to win the race. To cement his legacy of greatness.
But as the strains of the dramatic background music heighten, Secretariat begins forging ahead. The roars of the crowd begin to ascend. The lead never stops widening. And in a breathtaking moment, the camera finally pans far enough back so that it's only Secretariat in the shot, truly running alone, leaving the race itself behind.
No longer merely a Racehorse, but something else entirely. Moving like a tremendous machine. A one-of-a-kind individual triumph, worth watching with your Sales Team before its personnel takes their places at the starting line for another day.
6. The Any Given Sunday Speech
Hollywood has a way of turning the "Big Coach Speech" into a hackneyed, cliche-driven perpetrator of misty eyes and swollen hearts (to subvert one of the better Hollywood Big Coach Speeches from Friday Night Lights). Not so with Al Pacino's classic speech from Any Given Sunday.
If the Secretariat footage was about firing up your Sales Team, as individuals, the Any Given Sunday speech is about firing them up as a singular unit. Al Pacino delivers a four minute monologue that slowly, subtly builds in intensity and culminates with an emotional finale that will have your Sales Team wanting to run through a brick wall.
Ponderous and heartfelt -- Pacino's words resonate, alluding to the harsh realities of existence. Not merely of football, but of life itself. The content translates beautifully to the realities of the Sales industry.
"The inches we need [to succeed] ... are everywhere around us." He growls, capturing how one trait above all else -- resourcefulness -- can make the difference between success and failure. Your Sales Team, at one point or another, will feel disillusioned. Disconnected with one another. Doubtful of their ability to meet the expectations set before them. These will be the words they need to hear.
7. My Better is Better (Nike)
There's a reason Nike is one of the most powerful brands on Earth -- this might be the only commercial you'll ever watch that makes you feel invincible.
To go back to Simon Sinek's video, people don't buy what you do -- they buy why you do it. This clip is a living, breathing example of that mantra executed to utter perfection.
The sense of urgency in Nike's classic 2007 advertisement for its Nike Sparq shoe line is unparalleled. The video captures the qualities every Sales Executive on this planet wants to see 365 days a year from their Sales Team personnel: Driven. Relentless. Undaunted.
The background audio is tough as nails. The only text that appears is a series of declaratory statements. Nike captures the prevailing attitude of a successful Sales Professional: Defiant toward adversity, dripping with total confidence, willing to go the distance to prove that his or her 'better' is better than anyone else's. One minute of pure adrenaline that stays with you long after you're done watching it.
8. The Miracle Speech
"Great moments ... are born from great opportunity." Kurt Russell's delivery of that opening line, by itself, delivers enough inspirational fuel to power a Sales Professional the rest of the quarter. But this epic scene from Miracle doesn't stop there.
What makes this speech such a classic, inspirational piece of footage is, ironically, its brevity. Playing 1980 U.S. Men's Olympic Hockey Team coach Herb Brooks, Russell spits out each line as gruff, matter-of-fact truth.
Why will the U.S. team beat the heavily favored Soviets? Brooks's feelings about the seemingly insurmountable odds before his crew of college-aged players are the same as his feelings towards the Soviets themselves. "Screw 'em."
Like Pacino's speech in Any Given Sunday, this a great clip to play for your Sales Team when the chips are down, heads are hung low, energy is lackluster, and trepidation reigns. It's a perfect reminder that, by working together and putting forth the individual effort, a great Sales Team can accomplish any feat.
If you happen to be on a smaller or mid-sized Sales Team, the speech has an extra layer that is especially applicable to you, my friend. Can you skate with the big, bad leaders in your industry? Damn right you can.
9. The 1995-96 Chicago Bulls Player Introduction
It's a beautiful thing to hear, those opening strains of "Sirius" in this video. They portend what's about to follow: the most epic Starting Lineup introduction in sports history.
The crowd is bloodthirsty. The audio/visual production is perfect. The stage (Game 6 of the NBA Finals) is as big as it gets. And the team just happens to be the greatest in NBA history.
I don't know about you, but I'd be more pumped to come into work each morning if my day started with an Introduction like this at 9 A.M. Monday through Friday. For the time being, I'm stuck using my imagination, but the key here is this: I conceive of myself as a SaaS industry counterpart to the guys in this clip.
A member of an elite team, competing at the highest level, with a ton at stake, professionally -- when I come into work with that kind of healthy mindset, I'm exponentially more effective, as a Marketing Director. That's the right kind of self-identity for a professional in Sales, and this is the premiere depiction of that identity. Because people like us might never be able to hit a game winning jumper in the NBA Finals, but we sure as Hell can close an industry-shifting deal stealing away a top client from our biggest competitor. Watch this video, go close a major account, and make Jordan, Pippen, Phil Jackson and the rest of the 95-96 Chicago Bulls proud.
10. The Glengarry Glen Ross Speech
You know this one already. You've watched it 100 times. Memorized every word. Recited a couple of its lines in timely moments at the office.
Am I introducing you to anything new here? No. But let's face it: a sales-oriented list of epic, inspirational Youtube clips that omitted a mention of Alec Baldwin's speech from Glengarry Glen Ross might as well be as valid as a Greatest Films list that lacks The Godfather.
I don't need to tell you to have your Sales Team watch this clip. I do, however, need to give you one key piece of advice on how I would use this video with my Sales Team.
Stow it away for once a year. Don't talk about it. Don't mention it. Don't even allude to it. But when your Sales Team is going through a real tough time, when it's just wrapped up a particularly dry month, and everyone is walking around with the wind taken completely out of their sails -- unleash it.
Sales Managers overdo the Glengarry Glen Ross speech, shoving its mantras about attitude, toughness and guile down their team's throats until true meaning is lost and its timeless lines are greeted with jaded sighs. Do not be that person. Wield it with care and discretion, like a treasured family heirloom you put on and wear out only for the most momentous of occasions. Your Sales Team will appreciate you, and most importantly all of, feel the full impact of the greatest motivational sales speech in movie history once again.
This concludes our list of 10 Epic Youtube Clips to Inspire Your Salesforce. We welcome any feedback from you in the comments or via email at jeremy.boudinet@ambition.com.
Ambition: 360° Sales Force Motivation & Analytics
Ambition is a sales management platform that syncs Salesforce and other data systems on one simple interface.
Ambition brings clarity, context, and visibility to sales performance and helps sales leaders manage people and operations more efficiently. Create compelling sales contests, reports, analytics, and recognition via simple drag-and-drop interface.
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