Chapter Six: Practicing to Improve Results
Winning football teams just don’t show up for the games and expect
to win. They practice continually to get to the next level. In the spring,
they work on the fundamentals and the basics. In the summer, they come
together to begin the process of learning their plays, the systems, and
the reads; also, they practice the execution of plays and formations
until the players don’t have to think about the variables. They
have internalized the knowledge and now they just execute their assignments
with consistency and effectiveness.
So why is it that sales people tend to only show up for their games?
What is their reasoning for feeling that they can be successful by just “winging-it” when
in the presence of customers? This is one of the big questions in the
world of selling. Why don’t sales people practice more?
In this chapter, we will explore the importance of practice and personal
improvement using practice time. We will also explore a couple of the
most effective techniques for learning and internalizing the best practices
for selling. Like the great teams, sales people can learn to practice
and train for improving their results and moving to the top of their
field and then the hard part… staying at the top every year. The
key is to stay active in your learning and stay ahead of the thundering
herd of average sales people. Make a commitment to be a winner and read
on through this chapter.
Continuous Improvement – the Kaizen Process
When you are an intense fan of college football, you will follow the
development of players from the time they enter as freshmen to the last
game of their college eligibility. Watching a player improve each year
is a true pleasure. The winning programs are designed to get good talent
in the program and allow them to develop through good coaching and individual
drive to get better each year. Football players will get faster, stronger
and smarter as they progress during their tenure. Occasionally, we will
see a player that does not improve. Why don’t they improve? Usually
that player has a couple of issues. The most common is an attitude problem.
They believe they are already good enough, and lose focus on the fact
that everyone around them is getting bigger, faster and smarter. The
other major issue occurs when the player does not take personal responsibility
for his own development. Here we find that the player does not get involved
in the off-season or voluntary development process. They assume that
the only thing they have to do is to show up at practice, practice the
plays, and then they will play in the games. In other words, it becomes
the coaches’ responsibility to get the player ready to play on
game day. This is a very unfortunate situation, as the player does not
reach his full potential. People discuss this player in terms like “He
shoulda, coulda, and woulda been great!” followed by a statement
like “Wonder where he is today?”
Sales people need to be aware that the sales manager and training department
are not responsible for their ultimate development. The top sales people
take an attitude of continuous learning and development. This leads to
taking personal responsibility for learning to be the best in their profession.
In fact, our experience in working with sales teams finds the top people
are always the first in line for a developmental opportunity. Often they
fund the development process from their own paychecks.
Becoming a lifetime learner is the key to being employable for a lifetime.
This is very different from being employed for life in today’s
corporate environment of reorganizations, mergers, restructures and even
company failures and closings. Some of the people that expect the company
to take care of them because of their tenure make a very poor assumption.
Top performers take control of their progress by setting a goal of continuous
learning. It is amazing what can be learned from seminars, books, and
articles on the sales profession and specific industries. We often hear
self-learners state “It’s amazing. I’ve been successful
based upon what I didn’t know last week, last month or last year.”
Some sales people ask why do they need to learn when there is nothing
new to learn? First, these people are in denial about learning and information.
The information age is accelerating the discovery of new things to learn.
In fact, the experts are reporting that general knowledge is doubling
every three years. Assuming this to be true, it is then possible that
one third of a person’s knowledge will become obsolete or incomplete
by the end of the year! This means we have to continuously learn to maintain
our current knowledge base. Learning does not guarantee getting ahead
of the knowledge curve. Focused learning in specific areas will increase
the probability of getting ahead of the knowledge curve in the sales
profession. However, doing nothing or very little in the areas of learning
and development will place a person well behind the knowledge curve.
When companies begin looking at reducing head count in the sales organization,
the non-learners are at risk of losing their job. Increase your abilities
and knowledge to avoid warming the bench in times of critical needs or
crisis.
One insight that has been pointed out from people who excel at their
personal continuous improvement process is that when they are actively
learning an interesting thing happens - they discover more “secrets” to
success. Their natural curiosity increases as they are exposed to more
information, and they move into the world of the unknown! Yet, as they
study the information or processes, they realize it has been there for
a long time – they were just unaware of this knowledge. The addition
of knowledge and the ensuing application of this knowledge improve their
productivity and performance results. We’re back to the old “Law
of Cause and Effect.” Change the causes and you will get different
results.
Application Exercise
When a football team installs a new offensive play, they don’t
wait until game day to execute it for the first time. They practice the
play first. In fact, they practice it over and over again until they
have achieved total memory of how to do it right. This allows for explicit
learning and application of the fundamentals of the play so that the
execution during a game will be more successful.
In the world of selling, unlike football, salespeople have the opportunity
to practice plays before ever getting in front of the customer. Role
Playing has been available to sales teams for decades. Since role playing
is against the most knowledgeable and hardest critics – our peers – there
has been a tendency to avoid this excellent tool for learning. The ability
to adjust and perfect our selling techniques using this old method is
priceless and can be used in meetings, on the phone, while driving to
a customer site, and with formal developmental processes. However, many
sales people tend to dislike this tool. Frankly, when they hear the term “role
play” some actually get sick and leave.
Therefore, a new term has emerged to replace role play. It is the “application
exercise”. When you are learning something new, the best practice
is application of the new information in a simulation of real time situations.
Application exercises allow the sales person to practice a new technique
or method before they are in front of a real customer. This practice
allows the sales person to get active feedback relative to their performance.
Suggestions and helpful hints can be provided on the spot for performance
improvement. Experts in adult learning have found that the immediacy
of feedback is a key factor in higher levels of retention in new learning.
Since people tend to remember what they did wrong in situations, the
use of immediate feedback will allow the sales person to remember or
even internalize a new concept after the first practice session.
1. Learn to use the application exercise for such examples as:
2. New product rollouts,
3. Special promotions,
4. Learning new rapport building techniques,
5. Learning to flex to the different behavior styles you will meet,
6. And any other new processes.
Our experience with sales people is that they need to actually do the
new process in a practice environment, or they will not attempt it in
an actual customer meeting defaulting to old and comfortable methods
with no positive results. Having knowledge available and not using it
at the appropriate time is the same as not knowing it in the first place!
To be like the great football players, you need a personal developmental
process that you work in every year and all year. Success does not come
as a natural event for most of us. We are responsible for developing
our winning edge. While working with industry superstars in selling,
we have found that they are not two, three, five, or ten times better
people. They just stay focused and execute on the little things all the
time. Their results, interestingly enough, are often two, three, five
or ten times greater than the average sales person. Be a winner, practice
your skills and become a real professional.
Using Video and Audio Techniques
One of the things that makes the best teams better is the amount of
time they review game and practice videos. The coaches use the video
review principles to remove any doubt regarding the evaluation of practice
sessions or game time performance. The video shows the real story to
the player and the coach.
Like role play, the video camera does not see much time in the halls
of sales groups. Why not? There appears to be many different reasons,
yet the common theme is that sales groups just don’t want to, or
there is some unknown fear factor that causes very outgoing people to
become very shy. Again, this is an unfortunate reaction. The sales teams
that have used the video process as a tool to improve their performance
have learned to overcome deficiencies uncovered in the early videos and
they see immediate improvement. Most of the time, the sales person’s
self-esteem and self-confidence increases on the spot. This leads to
higher levels of performance results within days and weeks rather than
months and years.
The practice of video taping presentations or mock customer interactions
is like role play on steroids! Why? The individual also gets to see him-
or herself in action like everyone else. In some cases, this is the first
time they have seen themselves perform a sales activity. The learning
is instant and very memorable. Sales people tell us, years after the
initial video sessions, about the positive impact it had on both their
confidence and performance. The reason for this is simple. When people
see themselves improving, their performance in presentations, questioning
methods, gaining rapport or any other sales related practice, the application
moves from positive thinking to positive knowing. As a sales person I
may think I’m good now. When I see myself perform at a high level,
I now know that I can do it and do it well. This drives an increase in
confidence, and provides a new feeling of reinforced self-efficacy or
mastery of the sales skills, thus becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy
in performance. When people are willing to take action regarding their
personal development, ultimately the results come in multiples.
Another tool that can be used by a sales person is the audio tape or
digital recorder. This small handheld device can be used to practice
a presentation as you are traveling to work or to a customer’s
office. This tool is especially useful for capturing new ideas or creative
ways to solve a customer’s issues. It has also been used to learn
about your speech habits and patterns. You can practice where to place
emphasis in pointing out information to customers. Since most sales people
have a tendency to “wing-it” with customers, this could be
the planning tool of choice when used to capture those winging thoughts!
Some sales people have used tape recorders to learn how to control pace
and tempo for presentations or how to deal with customers with a very
different style than the sales person. Again, practice when used as a
development tool rather than punishment or a negative tool, will have
immediate and positive results for both the sales person and his or her
company.
The key for any improvement process is the active use of the tools and
techniques for evaluating the level of performance. Having tools and
not using them is as bad as being able to read and choosing not to read.
This is a clear sign of impending stupidity. Become a winner and practice
your trade using application exercises and video yourself for immediate
review and improvement opportunities.
In summary, it is your responsibility to accept the role of developmental
officer for your personal improvement process. Learn what your natural
strengths and weaknesses are by using assessments. Think about what traits
are necessary for you to perform your job at excellent levels and compare
to your assessment information. Develop a plan of action for improving
the traits that are important to your job performance. Fine-tune your
strengths and work on your weaknesses that impact your results.
Use application exercises to practice your techniques and learn how to
improve these techniques using the immediacy of the feedback. Use the
video camera to capture your performance. You can review the practice
session and accelerate your learning. See yourself improve during retakes
or after learning new techniques and applying them. Feel the difference
in your self-confidence and self-esteem as you eliminate the uncertainty
or ambiguity that existed when the video captured your performance.
Using audio tape or digital recorders to capture your voice, pace, tone,
and behavior style gives you the opportunity to make choices and actively
plan and practice your presentations. Go the extra mile in developing
your skills and maintain that winner’s edge for your lifetime.
Be a winner and practice like a winner. Losers avoid practice time and
are excellent at the negative emotion of denial – “Didn’t
even know I am lying!” Be responsible for your excellence. Take
an active stance and launch your career to the next level of performance.
To reach the highest pinnacles of success, a salesperson must be prepared
to use the proactive techniques covered in this chapter. Self-discipline
and focus combined with continuous improvement will separate you from
the average player. Follow the old slogan – “No pain, no
gain.” Practice will create some initial pain, yet the results
of your gains will move you into the “playmaker” status.
To borrow a quote from an old pro coach - “Perfect practice leads
to perfect plays.” Make a personal decision to unlock “all” your
hidden talents.
Coach Voss's Chalk Talk
Chapter Six: Practicing for Improved Results
- Continuous improvement is a personal choice and responsibility.
- Losers “wing-it” while winners have a plan for improvement
- and follow the plan.
- Role plays and “Application exercises” allow you to learn
to do things the right way without real penalties.
- No Pain, No Gain - swallow your pride and practice with feedback.
- Use videos for awareness and faster personal improvement.
- Use self-discipline and focus to separate from the average performers.
- Remember this quote: "Perfect Practice leads to Perfect Execution."
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