In any martial arts it only takes a few minutes to teach what you need to do. But the catch is that you need to practice it 10,000 times for it to work in the real world.
That is the same in sales, the concepts that are required for success are very simple to teach, yet one has to practice it 10,000 times for it to work in the real world.
Efficiency in martial arts is only 10 moves practiced over and over again.
Most companies will do 4000 things at the same time without taking it to the point of efficiency.
I remember watching Mike Miles, a three time world champion, training in the gym. Mike everyday for 30 min. hit the bag over and over again with the most basic 3 punches, the foundation of his success. Even after he had won the World Title, he practices the basic punches.
It is amazing how as sales people, once we taste a little success, we start to complicate things instead of taking the basics to a point of efficiency.
We need to become aware of the basics and the foundation of what makes our business successful. Without this awareness you will always have turn over, technology issues, budget issues, relationship issues, always a reason why something is not going your way. Mean while you will not be able to put a finger on it but spend a portion of every day complaining about it.
Ask yourself, what was it that initially got you started in your business? Was there an event? Was there something that ignited that passion? In the beginning you did something to get clients and then you will realize you stopped doing it, you got complacent.
Always readdress your beginning.
Fred Sarkari
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
This is a great post.
It reminds me of George Leonard’s Mastery (a very worthwhile read) and the whole concept of the almost zen-like appreciation of getting really good at a consistent action. This is the state I got into with my golf practice and again it was influenced by a story about Bruce Lietzke which I just dealt with in my blog – http://www.scratchtoscratch.com/blog
In essence though it’s about him hitting the same shot for 6 hours. These tasks can seem horrendous to many people but ultimately and in an odd way there is enormous joy to be had in practicing one very consistent action.
Cheers
John
Hello John,
Anthony Robins said it best “Repetition is the mastery of all skill”
How many times does an infant try until he / she can walk? We can understand this most basic yet most powerful principle before we even have the cognitive power to realize the fact.
When did we lose this precious gift?
Fred Sarkari
Good question – I think much of it is tied up in the whole concept that we think we are better than that and of course the relentless “immediate gratification” that we are bombarded with.
So we gradually assume that we really don’t have to, or shouldn’t have to (because we are older and theoretically wiser), bother with relentless hard graft. And of course we regard it as “graft” which doesn’t help.
The battle therefore is to get to a stage where we realise that actually there is huge pleasure to be had in those simple actions performed repeatedly and to an excellent standard.
So, as ever, it boils down to changing the mindset.
How right you are, especially with the ‘immediate gratification’.
It is more powerful to efficiently master one skill then it is to be effective at many things.
Take a look at your golf industry. The greatest golfers spend countless years trying to perfect one swing with one specific club. And when they think they have mastered it they do it again and again.
The most dangerous of them all are the ones that think they know it all. A true leader in any industry will know, through experience, that the more they learn and practice something the more they realize how little they truly know.
That my friend is one of the highest levels of intelligence.
Fred Sarkari