In this episode of Against the Sales Odds, Lance Tyson breaks down the very first sales process — the foundation every deal is built on. Too often, sales is overcomplicated with jargon, shortcuts, and “hacks.” But at its core, sales is a simple game of following the basics. Lance shares how top performers win not by reinventing the wheel, but by executing the fundamentals with consistency: building trust, asking the right questions, and moving prospects through a proven process. Whether you’re a new rep or a seasoned leader, this episode is a reminder that success in sales doesn’t come from complexity — it comes from discipline, clarity, and sticking to the process.
👉 Tune in now and rediscover why the first steps in sales are the most powerful.
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Selling is an Away Game – https://tysongroup.com/books#sellingisanawaygame
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In-Sights: The First Sales Process
Playing Sales Without The Home Advantage
My first book I wrote was called Selling is an Away Game. If anybody here plays sports, would you prefer if you played high school or college sports to play at home or would you prefer to play an away game? Away would be perfect. Why? You got a home field manager. You know where the divots are on the field. You know where to bounce the basketball or not or where to pick off the boards. Our premise is selling is in a way game because it ties back to someone we talked about because it happens in the mindset of the buyer.
The away game happens in their mind. Your ability to engage the mind and the buyer willingly. Now, they’re profiled. You know who buys from you. You know what that profile is or you have a few different ideal prospect profiles. People that can afford games set. Maybe they’re stuck in a check or other types of buyers that buy from you but ultimately, you know who they are and what they’re about. Their ability to share with you their opinion, thoughts, agreements or disagreements allows you to advance the ball. Does that make sense?
Following The Same-Old Sales Processes
I’m going to share some concepts out of this that will give you a pathway like Waze or Google Map will. There’s not a lot new in sales processes. I would tell you the sales process that you follow. I’m a Penn State, History major and all my sons are history majors. I don’t know what that got us, but I have to stand up on stage and give business advice that has something to do with something. I like studying business. The first sales process ever rolled out was the guy that founded NCR or national cash register. That’s a sales process you all should follow.
Selling always ties back to someone. It happens in the mindset of the buyer.
Picture this. Some dude in this giant machine that’s tall. You put your money in it and then it calculates the ledger. Imagine that happening in the late 1800s. You’re not going to advertise this monster machine in some catalog. Not even the mail system was working that good at that time. There’s no internet. There’s no phone. It was all show and tell. Think about this. You’re a salesperson for the national cash register. You load this up and your horse is buggy. You’re heading out the Walnut Grove to meet Mr. And Mrs. Ingles and Nellie’s parents who run the local, whatever you call that, the mercantile. It’s a mercantile. They’re running a mercantile.
You got to go in and open and say, “You spend a lot of time balancing your books. Are you always recounting your money?” Somebody would pull out a shotgun and go, “Why are you asking me about my money?” That’s the process you still follow now. It was some introductions, presentations, objections and clothes. You followed a very similar process. Nothing’s changed and we get leads a little bit quicker and stuff like that.
There are some parts of the process that we spent time with like we talked about. You would increase your odds like you would on the casino floor, but because we want you playing craps. The problem with craps, if you roll up to the crap table. You’d sit there. I play craps. I don’t gamble a lot. I like odds but I’;; gamble every once in a while. We do a lot of stuff in Vegas and I even have to spend a little time taking the game in for a moment because there’s a lot of action. There’s so much action at the craps tables. I was with my brother one time at the ARIA in Vegas.
He goes, “Mama needs a new pair of shoes.” I’m like, “Who? Where’d you get that?” He’s buying people free drinks and stuff like that. There’s a lot of action going on. A lot of people throw things and make side bets because there’s only one game I’m going to play there. They’re all side bets. That’s what sales is. There’s a lot of action going on. A lot of noise. You’re getting a lot of emails and texts. You’re getting fragmented phone calls. You’re getting half information here and half information there. You end up presenting and dealing with the same things in different media.
Sales Lessons From Mouse Traps
You got to take the crux of what you do. They’re the intersections and make sure you’re disciplined in intersections. For instance, I was talking to Jules. We got to spend a lot of time on what you would call discovery or needs analysis. There’s a lot of words for it. I go back to the Starbucks stuff. Let’s call them what they are. Language is important there. You get pulled in a lot of directions and distracted, so it becomes a craps game. You need to understand the game to get your best odds. As simple as genius. Has anybody live in the city and does anybody here deal with mice? Who’s dealt with mice in their life?
I went into a Kroger. Kroger is a big thing out in Ohio. I went in one day and I asked for help at Kroger, which is like finding somebody in the lost and found. I said to this manager, “I’m looking to buy a mouse trap. I want to know your best mouse trap.” I did it at Lowe’s and at Home Depot. He showed me the wall of mouse traps. They all have 4 or 5 of them and even grocery stores. He showed me one that was like a little sticky pad.
I don’t know about you. I’m a big guy but I don’t want to deal with the pissed off mouse on a sticky pad. What are you doing? You’re bending over and kicking it and it’s alive. There’s ones that look like little bear traps. They don’t do anything. That’s things wiggle around and moving and stuff. I go, “What is the bestseller? Which one sells?” He goes, “This is the one that sells.” This is full collateral damage. We have come a long way with how we feel about animals and stuff like that. That is the 1800s. That has not changed. The most popular mouse trap company in the countries of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Victor mouse trap. It’s a piece of wood, high-powered strength.
You know that you ever load one of those up, you load that thing back a little peanut butter on there. You don’t hurt your finger because that thing goes boom and it’s all over you. You got to be careful but that’s the one that sells. I asked myself, “Why does that one sell?” When somebody first introduced that mouse trap, that became the standard of all mouse traps going forward. It was sold as the mouse trap and still the mouse trap. It is the oldest trademark of mouse traps.
I look at sales as a very simple process. I don’t think complicated problems require complicated solutions. It’s simple and it’s probably the only thing I do linearly in my life, because I understand the front and back. I don’t even think I give it to the dentist every once in a while. It’s like, “Do you go up and down or back and forth?” Every dentist has an opinion. Sometimes I do it before the shower or after shower. I don’t do anything in order but I do sales process in order.
Important Links
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- The Human Sales Factor
- Selling is an Away Game
- Download our Playbooks
- Schedule a call with one of Tyson Group’s member
- Check out Tyson Group’s Open Enrollment Programs
