I was golfing one weekend with my father-in-law. He’s usually a decent golfer, but not this round – he was hitting the ball all over the place. Before we got to the course, he mentioned that he had taken a lesson on Thursday. So, after the third hole I asked: “Are you using the tips you learned in your lesson?” Sure enough, he was, and he hadn’t practiced since his lesson. Worse yet, the tip from the lesson was about changing his grip. If you’ve picked up a golf club more than twice in your life, you know how sensitive it is to change your grip. No one – not even the Tigers and Jacks of the world – can take a lesson and successfully implement the changes on the course. It takes hours of practice to make new techniques feel natural and improve performance.
Unfortunately, most sales professionals follow my father-in-law’s pattern after they’ve learned valuable ideas during sales training. They leave a session – whether in-person, via webinar, or after reading an article – and they try the new idea on the next customer they see. Once they fail, they gravitate back to their old method of selling. The process isn’t nearly as clean as that description. Most times, they don’t even get half way through the new technique because it feels so strange, and they unknowingly shift back to their old ways. The next attempt is even less impacted because they’re sensitive to the awkwardness, and think they’ve discovered the perfect hybrid technique. By the third customer visit, they’re performing in the same way they’ve always performed. In this case, sales training equals wasted time and money.
This is a common mistake (and why we incorporate action items in our training). Below are three things you must do to avoid this pothole…
- Practice.
If you never read another word of my writing, then let me leave you with this: practice with your peers by role playing. It’s the most effective and least practiced method of development in our craft of selling. After a sales training session, practice with your boss, your peers, your spouse, etc. After practicing with these people, performing in front of your customer will be easy. - Visualize.
Whether people are not available, or the technique doesn’t allow you to role play, sometimes practicing is impossible. For example, one of our most popular sessions is Getting in the Door with Email, where we provide a method to develop the best message for you to gain appointments with your prospects and customers. The follow-up lesson is to use our worksheet to develop your own message. That lesson is pretty difficult to role play. However, you can visualize your prospect receiving the email and imagine how they’d react. This visualization will help you decide on the right time to send the email, the right things to attach, and the right tone. - Persevere.
In the story above, I was very impressed with my father-in-law’s perseverance. He didn’t give up and go back to his old grip. He worked through the whole round, even though he never got much better. He persisted, will continue to practice on the range, and will eventually get much better. As sales people, it’s a lot harder. Persisting through a frustrating round of golf is one thing, but losing a sale is a totally different matter. You have to have guts to persevere your way through a new process. For example, another popular session we have is How to Ask Questions. The premise is to position yourself as an expert before asking probing questions. This process feels strange – we’ve been diving into probing questions our whole career. To start differently feels like writing with your opposite hand. In our sessions, I drive the point of perseverance to a level of annoyance. My audience probably thinks: “Ok man, I get it.” I don’t mind being annoying. I do mind when my clients don’t succeed. When implementing a new idea that you learn in sales training, persevere until you get it right. (Of course, numbers 1 and 2 above will help shorten this time of perseverance.)
The science and art of selling is changing rapidly. It’s not like it was 15 years ago when you could learn the concept of sales one time and take a refresher every few years. Today, you’ve got to be engaged with sales training to understand the dynamic ways companies buy. However, don’t just attend sales training. Follow the three actions above after the training, and watch your success soar.
