One of my favorite books (and movies) is Moneyball by Michael Lewis.  

Billy Beane (the GM) must rebuild his team (the Oakland A's) every year because the richer teams (the Yankees) lure his best players away because they can pay more.  

So Billy decided to play a different game and began using data to select players.  

He was the first GM in professional sports to fully implement this concept. 

Prior to relying on data, choosing who to draft (and pay millions to) was based entirely on human judgement. Why? Because in the traditional world of baseball, that's how it had always been done, and nobody thought there was anything wrong with it.  

Billy's new approach focused on one statistic measuring a players contribution to winning:

On-Base Percentage (OBP).

More players on base = more runs scored = more wins.

A similar metric exists in sales.  

In sales, on-base percentage = getting appointments with good prospects (GAGP).

More meetings = more presentations = more sales. 

Billy's focus on this metric enabled him to find undervalued players.

His approach caused on uproar in the baseball establishment ... Outrage, anger, disbelief, doubt, resentment ... even from his own scouts, manager and players.  

He risked his career, because early on they didn't win. 

But about midway through the season, things began to click.  

The Oakland A's went on a record-setting 20 game win streak. 

That year, Billy changed professional sports forever.  

In the world of B2B selling, I've noticed ... through many years of personal experience, there exists a similar old-school mentality.  

It's a reliance, and stubborn, sometimes nostalgic insistence on cold outreach as the only way of finding new business.  

When it has been proven - and demonstrated - that lead generation marketing can outperform cold outreach. 

And to deny it, to not embrace it, to not study it, and learn from it, is to act like one of those old baseball curmudgeons who refused to believe in data. 

A quote I really like from the movie ... not sure it really happened ... but Billy's head scout Grady is upset about the new strategy.  

Billy says: "Adapt or die".  

Darn right.

If you work in sales and are required to cold call to find new business, my book - White Collar Prospecting - can help you.  

LinkedIn users can obtain a free digital copy by following this safe link:

WhiteCollarProspecting.com