Southwestern Sales Talk
Since I am ostensibly in charge of Southwestern‘s Sales School, I’m always eager to share (read “impose”) training wisdom on my kids. Katie, our youngest (12), is a good athlete. She plays a number of sports, but
loves travel softball. It’s no soft, coach-pitch league–the competition is pretty serious–year round tourneys, a World Series and 50+ mph pitchers.
Every week without fail, we take her to the batting cage to practice hitting. You can imagine how excited she is! “Can we just skip this week? Do we have to?” (And just for the record, we aren’t the stereotypical, psycho I’m-living-my-life-through-my-kids parents.)
“You play like you practice!” we say. ”If you want to be good at something, you have to do extra work!” “If you train hard, rewards will follow!”–all wise parental maxims.
So it is with sales improvement and personal growth. We may see no progress made by a long series of consistent, dogged efforts. You may study your sales presentation, gain product knowledge, increase your calls, improve your demonstrations…all without apparent progress. And then it happens. All of a sudden you turn a corner, a truth is revealed, a bad habit loses its grip.
But all this doesn’t happen suddenly. The gain was made, one close at a time, one call at a time, one swing at a time, by all the seemingly ineffective, probably forgotten efforts before your breakthrough.
Longfellow, the poet, once wrote:
Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate,
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
Have faith in the process of growth. Don’t expect a medal for each lap run.
What’s your story? Share a story or comment for everyone, please. (Oh, and good news! Katie batted between .500 and .700 with two triples in the last couple tournaments. Persistent effort pays off.)
Nice. Very nice. Good story to share with SMs and FYs both.
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
October 16th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Thanks, Elinor! I did think it had a bit of universal appeal–even for athletes. thanks for the comment!
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so relatable. this totally brought me back to “i don’t WANNTTT to practice clarinet” until i started winning some scholarships for music.
good stuff.
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
October 19th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
well put–I think we can all relate to your example, whether it be music, sports, or selling books
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Good reminder. Alot of times, when starting something new, I find the learning curve is the most frustrating part. The expectation to be brilliant at a job/sport right away is sometimes the cause for people to give up. It is a vote of confidence for me, knowing that if I pratice anything enough, in time, I can be successful at it. Thanks Lee!
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
October 19th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Well put, Joe, expectation is everything and patience is also an ingredient to success–especially at the beginning of a new project or learning opportunity.
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Great blog – it reminds me of the “10,000 hour” thing. I’ve definitely had my share of frustrations with things that are new … I used to be a terrible singer before I just swallowed my pride and practiced through all the noise. I’m definitely glad I didn’t give up!
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
October 20th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Yes, Chad, there is usually some suffering at the front end of a new skill one is learning. Good stuff. Thanks for the comment.
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Hey Lee, great stuff. It’s true “practice does make perfect.” I truly believe that if you do anything right for a certain amount of time you can become an expert. That is why I am starting my own sales ‘n life blog so that I can practice and get feedback on ideas.
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
October 21st, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Good idea, Peter. Link to my blog and we can share sales traffic! I like “Sales ‘n Life” because they do intertwine completely.
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The thing I like about the advice on these blogs is that its not just for Sales, but can be easily transferred to Life. I also liked the analogy to sports in the way that your seasons (summer) success is determined in a big part in your pre-season work.
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
October 21st, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Grayson–good to see you in PHX! Thanks for the nice comment. I’ll attempt to maintain my high level of production quality in my blogs.
But you’re right: all these success principles tie together.
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Hey Lee, the blog is up! Its Called Sales and Life: Collaborating for Success. Everybody check it out at http://salesnlife.blogspot.com/.
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Yes! Another good reminder to keep doing the little things. We don’t see the effect in the short-term and so we grow lax in our efforts sometimes (at least, I do!) I like the Longfellow quote
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:49 am
Yes, I’ll be throwing in some good literary references from time to time. Thanks for the comment, Charlotte.
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