The Salesman: A Learned Trade – Not an Inherited Gift

Think of the greatest sports stars to come out of American baseball history since its genesis in the 18th century.  Not one paramount player was born with a glove and leather bound ball in hand.  Every single one of those unparalleled sports figures had one thing to accredit their success to…PRACTICE.  Icons in any profession are not born…they’re made.  The same goes for the salesman.  His or her success will always be more attributed to a procured skill than a born attribute.

What components of “Practice” creates a “Professional” out of the action of practice?

1. Be Present – Al Levi, from Managing Your Business says, “What I learned first is to slow down. Block out time for doing sales and nothing else other than being present on the call.”

2. You must be eager to learn. There’s a reason there’s off season training in baseball. What you neglect you’ll never perfect. Same with your pricing. Salesmen must fine-tune their pricing, standard flat rate or menu flat rate, fine-tune before presenting your tune.

3. Learn how to quickly “Find Their Pain” – Find what truly separates the customer from the sale (money, personal, lack of knowledge) then find what tool alleviates the pain.

4. Don’t sell your product, sell what your product can do! – It’s never about the book, or the pill, or the class…it’s about what those actions produce.  Consumers buy results.  Make it about results.

It’s easy to look at the salesman on the other line making 5 out of 10 sales per day and say, “That guy just has the gift.”  But, I guarantee if he’s “winning” that much in the field, there’s some off the field training happening somewhere…even if it’s his 15 minutes of reading before bedtime.  Pursue growth and you’ll see change…neglect and you’ll remain the same.

P.S. Have you ever seen the movie ‘The Natural’ with Robert Redford? We all have talent, but even talent must be developed, studied, and perfected.

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