People make it complicated.

How many salespeople do you know who demand to be taught the "advanced" stuff because they already know the basics?

Probably quite a few.

This is partly due to ego but is also due to the gap between knowledge and skill. Take open questions as an example…

Very few sales or business people do not know what the difference is between an open and a closed question yet few consistently ask good open questions falling back on bullying, predictable closed questions in the heat of a tough sale…

This is because when we hear something simple (e.g. the difference between open and closed questions) we "understand" it therefore we don´t spend enough time practising (because we think we "know" it) so it never becomes a skill.

We have the knowledge but not the skill.

Most sales and business people fail at sales because they do not have simple skills at their disposal. They may know them but like many things in life they don´t actually do them…

Knowing what to do is not the same as doing what you know.

Related posts:

1. If Selling Is So Simple Why Can’t Everyone Do it?
2. Selling In A Recession – Why Some People Are Going To Crash And Others Are Going To Fly