I loved playing baseball as a kid. I'd take my book about pitching outside with me and pitch for endless hours to my younger brother (probably my earliest experiencing in selling was learning how to "sell" my brother on being catcher to my pitches even after he wanted to quit).
It didn't take me long to figure out that pitching was a skill. You had to throw the ball the right way to get the ball to go where you wanted it to go and to get it there taking the path you wanted it to take. Great baseball pitchers need to stay healthy, to be able to work when called upon, and to handle pressure effortlessly, but they also need the skill to get the ball to do what they want and need it to do.
I am a trained classical musician with two degrees in music. I played two instruments semi-professionally, and taught, and conducted and composed music. Performing music requires skill.
Just think about the number of hours that top music students in top music conservatories and universities across the world spend honing their craft. It's crazy. But anybody pursuing music at this level understands that performing music requires skill. It requires more than that, too, but it definitely requires skill.
Readers of this blog will know that I had surgery earlier this fall. My surgeon was very skilled - I know this not only by the quality of his work, but also by the checking I did before my procedure. But the only reason I needed surgery is because the surgeon that performed this surgery on me one year ago was unskilled. He had botched it. Surgeons need knowledge, but they require copious skill, too.
And so it is in the profession of selling. The mission of sales training is to improve the skills of professional sellers. Just as with pitchers, classical musicians, and surgeons, salespeople need to have their skills developed to a sufficiently high level to result in sufficiently high sales performance.
If you want to get better at selling, work hard. Treat people well. Be helpful. But make sure you have developed the skills you need to achieve what you want.
Read over 100 posts in this blog about sales skills.
If you like this post (or don't) please click on "comments" below and share your comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, in the financial, real estate, and insurance markets, and other consumer-selling industries.
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