One of the best qualities of the successful sales professional is that when they play, they play hard, and they play to win. I remember being introduced to a potential customer many years ago, as we were exchanging personal information it came up that we both played golf, the person who had facilitated the meeting said, "Bill is a real student of the game." Bill and I did meet on golf course a few times, and I came to find that he really was a student of the game. Bill not only constantly tried to improve his golf game, his swing, and keep up with equipment changes; he also studied and appreciated the history of the game. I was and still am just a little better than the average hacker (as an active sales representative, you don't want your manager to see your handicap to low, they will wonder how you spend your time). Bill had a partner in his business, and it was a somewhat successful business, however they were in a niche that was at that time growing very rapidly, their business was also growing but not at an astounding rate. I remember thinking that if Bill devoted as much energy to his business as he did to his golf game, he would be very successful. This same analogy applies to sales people. A few years back I was running a monthly sales meeting for our group. One of our new sales reps had come to the sales force from another department, he had no formal sales training, and however someone in our organization saw some promise for him. This rookie sales person did enjoy some early successes in a territory that had up to that time been relatively ignored. I have always believed that sales is a learned skill and that the learning never stops, as such I stated that there was no such thing as a natural born salesperson, our new rookie sales rep looked as if he was going to be ill, he really thought that he was the answer to sales, that he knew all he needed to know, and we should all emulate him, we would then have his success. Im sure you can guess the eventual outcome, he was not nearly as successful in the long run, and in fact is not in sales today. The moral of the story; become a true student of the game, the learning never does stop, each week, maybe even each day, a new book, a new theory, or a new training regimen hits the street. As real students of the game, we need to devour those offerings constantly searching for that one little nugget which will reenergize us and make us better sales people. To Your Success Jim Newell |
