Jeff Garrison

Sales and Commitment to Improve

Entering the sales profession is a lot like being a kid who has reached the age where they begin playing competitive sports.  Virtually all kids have the ability to be great at one sport at least.  Unfortunately, a variety of factors will cause many kids to put away the bats, balls, rackets, skateboards, etc.

Fortunately, many will try a variety of sports and find at least one in which they develop a level of competence to enjoy playing.  Most of these kids will perform at an average level and are likely to end their competitive careers during their high school years.

A handful of kids will go on to have college careers and a handful will go on to play professionally.  These college athletes represent a small percentage of those who began playing sports as kids. 

Many people enter the sales profession, but only a small percentage reach a level of peak performance like many collegiate and professional athletes.

What are some of the elements that have contributed to their success?

• They are with a company selling a product that suits them (i.e., they enjoy it and are able to develop basic competence in their niche)
• They find themselves in a supportive environment
• They receive good training and coaching

• They are Committed to Improve

Commitment to improve is the most important factor. 

Those who study their industry, read books about sales, attend workshops and seminars, network with other sales professionals, and deliberately practice their skills will wind up performing at an elite level.

Here is a deliberate practice suggestion.

Ben Franklin has a list of thirteen virtues that he strove to improve upon.  His strategy was to focus on one per week.  He carried a chart with him to track his progress daily.

Like Ben Franklin, identify the key ares to your sales success and document what they are.  Focus on one per week to make at least a little improvement.  In less time than you think, you will find that by increasing your competence, your confidence, the amount of fun you have, and your sales results will also increase.

Please share what you think the key areas of weekly focus should be for sales professionals.

Photo on flickr by Keith Allison

Practice Your Sales Skills

The NFL season is about to begin and I am a big fan.  What I love about the NFL (and all professional sports) is the precise execution of a game plan one play at a time.  Imagine the number of passes an NFL receiver catches in practice everyday and in his pregame warm up.  He will catch dozens of passes in practice to prepare for typically less than ten opportunities to catch a game time pass.

In addition to catching passes, these professional receivers work on their speed and conditioning, running precise routes, blocking, watching game films, and studying their opponent.

Great sales professionals also practice so that they can execute precisely.

Things you can do include...

• Practice asking networking questions
• Practice presenting your value proposition (elevator speech)
• Role play your cold calls
• Role play your initial sales calls and the needs analysis
• Practice responding to objections and common questions
• Practice asking for the sale

The most challenging part regarding practice is to actually schedule time to do it. 

Pick one thing that you would like to work on.  Make an appointment for yourself to spend thirty minutes practicing.  Keep the appointment.  Even slight improvements are energizing and build confidence.  Do this once or twice per week for several weeks and you will find yourself closing more deals with seemingly less effort.

What have you done in the past to practice your profession?  How has it helped?

F.E.A.R. Kills Sales

Back in the early 90's I was a guest at the Pecos River Learning Center in New Mexico.  I was there with leaders from companies such as Toyota and Pioneer where we were learning about change management.

It was there that I first heard that the word "fear" is an acronym for "False Events Appearing Real."  We were told that when you imagine something occurring, your brain experiences that event.  Think back to a time when you were apprehensive, scared, or embarrassed.  Can you feel it?

As a young sales person I experienced all kinds of "fears."  For example:

• The prospect will be offended or angry when they receive my cold call.
• The prospect will think I am too young or inexperienced to know what I am talking about.
• What if I can't answer their questions?
• They won't see the value in what I am offering and will chastise me for what I charge.
• I won't know what to say when they pick up the phone.

I was right!  All those things happened.

Of course, my real fear was that I would not recover.  I might somehow die.  Well, that didn't happen.  After thousands of cold calls and presentations, all those things did happen once or twice.  Howeverer, it was rare.

Odds are, it you are trying, you will run into a few jerks.  But don't let "fear" of a few people discourage you from doing what you need to do.  The fact is, for every jerk, there were dozens who appreciated my call and a lot who became clients. 

The fact is, the population of courteous and curios people far outweigh those who are not.

So, what do you do to overcome fear?

1. Have a game plan for your prospecting calls, prospect appointments, presentations, etc.  Imagine how the questions you will get and your responses.
2. Practice!  Every world class performer spends more time practicing than playing.
3. Celebrate!  At the end of the day, review the good things that happened and reward yourself for creating some momentum.

4. Build on positive energy!  When something good happens like you just turned a new introduction into an appointment or if you just made a sale, take that energy and call a prospect or a client.

Photo by ClatieK

Form New Habits to Increase Sales

When I was about thirteen I was trying to be a compete in Iowa and on the Missouri Valley tennis circuit.  There were a few kids who dominated in my state and they all had the same coach, Allen Jones.  My oldest brother persuaded Jones to work with me.

When we began, I agreed to do exactly what he told me.  We started working on my backhand because that was the least, worst part of my game.

For a month, all I was allowed to do was hit backhands!

When I did drills with other kids, they were only allowed to hit it to my backhand.  I was not allowed to play any matches during that time either.  The other boys in the Jones stable made fun of me relentlessly, but he knew that under that pressure, my new habits would crumble. 

Jones wanted me to integrate new habits that he knew would work instead of me trying to make my old habits work.

Eventually, I moved on from the backhand to other strokes and when I was 17, I was an Iowa State High School Champion.

Here are the lessons for the sales professional and life in general.

• Progress takes hard work!
• Acquiring knowledge of a new skill or tactic is only the first step towards progress.  You can't read "The 5 Keys to Doing This or That" and expect to get results.
• It takes time to get results.
• It takes Deliberate Practice to get results (one of the Sales Habitudes).
• Practice must be done in a controlled environment (like in front of the mirror) where the stakes are low.
• If you go into a high stakes situation without having practiced, when the pressure mounts, your mind will default back to your old habits. If you don't recognize this, you'll just say that the new ideas don't work.
• Again, progress takes hard work.

Photo on flickr by smellyknee