Why practise makes perfect when sales training
When running sales training sessions, sales seminars, sales motivational speeches and sales consultancy I am constantly amazed by the lengths that salespeople will go to avoid practising sales techniques. Like any skill, selling requires practise and the more your practise the mor successful you will be. Check out this excerpt on closing the sale from my forthcoming book, Real World Sales Skills: How to Sharpen Your Sales Skills & Win More Sales…
The more your practise the more success you are going to achieve. When I make this suggestion a lot of sales and business people get a little nervous. Many people dislike practising sales techniques and skills because they find it unrealistic.
Some years ago I watched the English soccer team crash disastrously out of a tournament on a penalty shoot-out. For those not in the know, if two teams play a whole game and the scores are tied and then they play extra time and the scores are still tied some competitions use a penalty shoot out to decide who wins. Each team gets to have 5 shots at goal and the team scoring the most goals wins.
Frankly, you could pick your year because England are appalling at this particular exercise and although they may have won at some point, I do not remember them ever winning in this particular way!
After England had crashed out of the competition, several pundits and supposed experts said that it was impossible to practise penalty shoot outs because you could not replicate the pressure of a big competition and therefore it would serve no purpose practising.
What?! I am no football expert but it’s patently obvious that this excuse is feeble.
If this excuse were true, golfers would not be able to replicate the pressure of the 18th drive on the last hole of a tournament so they wouldn’t bother practising!
Snooker players wouldn’t be able to replicate the pressure of a World Championship final so they wouldn’t bother practising!
Concert pianists wouldn’t be able to replicate the pressure of playing in a concert to thousands of people, so they wouldn’t bother practising!
You get my point.
Just because practise is not the same as the real thing doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do it consistently.
If I was teeing off on the 18th hole of the Open needing par to win I would like to know that I had played that shot hundreds of thousands of times before. Likewise, I do not want to worry about positioning for the colours when I am on for a clearance to win a snooker game. And I certainly don’t want to be sight-reading the music in a concert representing my big break.
England would have felt better, looked more comfortable and performed better if they could all have stepped up knowing that they could bang the ball into the back of the net blindfolded, time after time after time. If you know that you can make the shot then your energy can go on calming your nerves not on worrying about the technical aspects of the shot itself.
The same is true of selling. If you know how to close and you have practised closing, your energy and focus can be targeted at closing naturally, at the right places in the process and on staying calm…
For more check out Real World Sales Skills.
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I linked to your post in my 17th GIC Sunday Blog Carnival.
Stop by and vote for your post as this weeks best. I stumbled this post.
You are so right Gavin, practice does make perfect.
But I also put the emphasis on “perfect practice” makes perfect too. Practicing old, outdated methods is pointless after all!
Also, it amazes why sales people do not like role play. “It’s fake” “It’s not real” they say. What a load of bull! That’s just an excuse!
It’s as real as you want to make it. We are both regarded as two of the best sales gurus in the UK and, speaking for myself here, I practice more than anyone I know and I’m regarded as one of the best around.
Tiger Woods practices more now than he did when he first started out!
Very good posting Gav
Sean
The Leading Authority On How To Sell To The Sophisticated & Sales Savvy Buyer Of Today
Sean
If you’re not moving forwards, you’re more than likely sliding backwards. Without practice this is almost a dead cert… you’re moving backwards.
Whilst stressing the importance of tenacity and resilience when practising it is important to recognise when you’re drilling poor performance, to take a break and to raise your standards or to do something else instead.
Carrying on with your analogy, what point Tiger smashing the balls the wrong way 100 times?
None.
Have a great week.
Gavin
Hi Gavin,
I couldn’t agree more. The more you practice the better. The idea is when you are under pressure or tired you want to be able to do things automatically. There is an old story about Larry Bird a famous basketballer. He was filming a commercial and had to miss a shot from the free throw line, then take some vitamin and make the shot. He couldn’t miss ! Apparently he had to try 10 times before he could miss the shot ! He reportedly threw 1000 free throw shots a day for practice! What about boxers. They are trained to bob and weave so when they get hit hard and are semi-conscious they just bob and weave automatically. I have no doubts, “when the going gets tough, you get what you practice”.
Regards Greg
Thanks Greg.
Those are great examples. I like the idea of not being able to miss! That’s the power of practice. Just imagine being so well rehearsed in selling that you couldn’t not make the sale. Now that would be cool!
We may not all be able to achieve that but think about how good we could be if that goal was what we were pursuing!
Gavin