The Path to Mastery

In his book Outliers Malcolm Gladwell proffers that those who achieve mastery in their endeavour of choice do so by investing at least 10,000 hours honing their craft.  How are you doing on your path to sales mastery?

Gladwell points out that it is not necessarily those most naturally gifted that succeed splendidly.  He argues that the thing that distinguishes top performers is how hard they work.  That’s it.  He states “the people at the very top don’t work just harder or even much harder than everyone else.  They work much, much harder.”

Here are a few ways from easiest to hardest that you can work smart while working harder to attain mastery in sales;

Easiest:  Before every sales interaction write down [yes, old school pen and paper] what your measurable goals are for that meeting.  Ensure these goals are things that will move your sale forward.  Immediately after the call measure your success.  Did you attain your sales call goal?  If yes, how did you do it.  If not, why not?  This simple action, if done religiously for every sales call, will make you a better sales person. 

Moderate:  Every selling day identify one specific sales skill to focus on and practice.  In every sales interaction that day be mindful of doing that one thing better and better.  For instance, if you want to improve your listening skills make that the focus of the day.  Then in each call bite your tongue, button your lip, or do whatever you have to in order to stay quiet and let the other party do the talking.  Score yourself out of 10 for each sales call to measure your improvement.  This approach to improvement will sharpen your selling skills.

Hardest:  Practice your selling skills with a peer.  Have a big sales meeting coming up?  Sit with a colleague and run your planned approach by them.  Ask them to give you tough love feedback around where your strategy is strong and where it is weak.  Then, role play, [yes, role play!], the call with them.  Sound goofy?  Where would you rather practice, in front of the buyer with a deal at stake or in front of a peer where nothing except your continued improvement is at stake?  Your choice.

Hardest Part II:  Ask a peer or manager you respect to be a sales coach for you.  Meet with them every week to do the above mentioned practice work.  Treat this meeting as sacrosanct.  Make it a point to never miss it.  Tough?  Yes.  Effective?  You bet.

Sales success is predicated on good sales habits.  You don’t develop good sales habits by continually repeating bad ones.  You develop them by identifying your good habits and making them strengths, and identifying bad habits and dumping them.  This takes time and practice, and working smart while working hard.