Practice makes perfect

Oh my! We're at it again. The sales guys on Linkedin have got into another discussion on selling technique...this time it's the #1 reason why salespeople can't close. And it's getting very competitive!!! 

And so it should be. Sales people need to be competitive. Not because they have to be pushy and assertive but because selling is a performance event. In athletics, tennis or boxing, success comes through the application of technique, stamina and correct attitude...and only the top few who train and compete hardest achieve real success.  So it is with selling.  Well that's my view...but I don't think I'm alone.
Very similar conclusions are offered in a new article from  the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. Looking at the issues of success and exceptional performance amongst entrepreneurs, they determined that these are  not necessarily linked directly to talent, experience, or luck. They say it is about "sustained, intense, and deliberate practice in a particular area of expertise, in order to improve performance and cognitive thinking levels."
The authors show that across many fields of expertise most people work only "hard enough" to achieve a level of performance that is deemed "acceptable" by themselves and others. Successful entrepreneurs of course want to perform above the "acceptable" and many of the most successful are seen to have previously excelled in another field of performance such as sport, art, music and science.  It seems that these experiences condition minds "to expect to have to work long and hard, and to delay gratification in pursuit of a more long term goal."  Such high performers instictively parallel the sustained intense effort associated with their sporting or musical excellence as being the qualities necessary in building a successful business. They become resourceful under pressure and acquire what the authors call mature intuition.

Highlighting what they call the principle of deliberate practice, the authors claim that through this principle most anyone can rise to true excellence.  Most of us will connect with that in some way of other. Expressions like "practice makes perfect" and golfer Arnold Palmer's famous quip "The more I practice the luckier I become!" occur to mind.

Thinking back to my earlier years in sale management it was recognised that ex-servicemen would make excellent sales recruits. They were certain to quickly respond to training and always semed to develop into exceptional salespeople.  This recent research suggests that their background of intensive situation-focused training is a very probable explanation.

Now this may seem like I'm stretching the point a bit! But I have aways argued that the intensely repetitive training I received on my introduction to selling contributed much to my success in later years.

I might just lob that suggestion into the Linkedin Discussion Group and see if anyone bites!!