“To become a top producer requires excellent communication skills, a specific objective plan to measure against, and intimate knowledge with the process. If you come prepared with the first two, the third is a matter of time, experience, and commitment. ”

- Jeffrey Kurt Hansler

The Masters: Sales and Golf

I took up golf 18 months ago at the urging of a friend. I use to think golf was a silly sport about grown people chasing a little white ball around all day - and now I just wish I could master it. 

The more I practice and play the sport, the more I see the similarities to the art of selling. While it's the nuances that the masters struggle with, it's three primary disciplines that provide the opportunity for  excellence and ultimately mastery in golf and sales.

The first disciple is skill excellence and the awareness of how to achieve it under all conditions. In golf, this discipline is a repeatable swing that can be carried onto the golf course from the driving range. The swing is the foundation of every other aspect of golf. It's how the golfer 'communicates' with the ball. While simple in concept, there are many elements required to create a repeatable swing: grip on the club, stance, balance, back swing, tempo, and the swing plane. Each element requires a learning and familiarity process not only for the swing itself, but how to retain that swing under different conditions and on different terrain. The beauty is that each element can be worked on separately. Finally, as one begins to earn a repeatable swing based on a standard, the work begins on finding your own unique swing: something that can't be taught or learned - only played.

In sales, the first discipline is an ability to build persuasive communication passages that can be carried into the sales meeting. A command of persuasive communication skills is the foundation of every other aspect of sales.  While also simple in concept, persuasive communication has many elements that create the opportunity for guiding the sale: agreement language, flexing personality style and frames, the ability to ask effective questions, and understanding what drives the decision-making process. Each element requires a learning and familiarity process so that the salesperson can focus on the customer. Each element can be worked on separately and ultimate proper execution will be based on unique personal adjustments.

The second discipline is the establishment of and measurement against targets. Tiger Woods was once asked by a golf fan, "Tiger, I hit a 100 balls a day and I'm not getting better. What's the trick?". Tiger's response, "Hitting a 100 balls a day won't help. Hitting a 100 balls a day to a target 150 - 200 yards out and measuring your shots to how close they get to the target will make you better." Without targets for both activities and scoring how can you possibly determine whether you are improving or not in golf or in sales.

Even if it is true that golfer's are just as interested in tracking their golf scores as salespeople are their sales levels, unless both have measurements prior to the game, neither can expect much improvement. Measuring all activity against prior results is a critical aspect of determining if you are improving. For sales, it's more than measuring closing ratios, sales quantity, and sales value. It's about measuring your ability to pre-think a sales call, pre-planning your questions in response to expected objectives, and measuring the activities required to even gain the sales appointment. 

If you only play golf and don't practice, it's unlikely your game will change much. It's the same with sales, it's not just measuring what happens based on sales calls, it's about measuring the activities that lead to each sales calls: how time is spent, sorting through leads, generating interest for sales meetings, etc. Each one of these activities is the equivalent to practicing on the driving range and preparing for the 'game'.

The final discipline is an intimate knowledge of the process. In golf, it's about bringing your driving range game to the course to determine if what you've learned holds up under pressure. In sales, it's about consciously using the skills you've practiced and learned and measuring the results with a multitude of prospects. It's a mindset of commitment at all levels and being honest with yourself about the results. It's about keeping what works and changing what needs to be changed.

It's been said by some of the best golfers in the world, that if you believe in the result and are willing to commit to the actions for the result, the odds are in your favor of attaining the result. And if you don't get the expected result, then honoring that is the best thing you can do to prepare for future improvement. Improvement is a commitment to change that which is not getting you the results you have targeted. If you do not change the actions of the past, you will not get different results, which is why it is so important to both golfers and salespeople to be honest about what works and what doesn't.

One final thought, on your journey to mastery. There are many methods of learning, tools for learning, and philosophies for learning golf and sales. Some core ideas are being questioned lately and I see it as more of an opportunity to develop your own personal style. Hey, batter, batter...

Sincerely,

Send the gift of knowledge this year!