Practice

From Jeff Garrison:

Practice Your Sales Skills

Posted: 09 Aug 2009 09:36 PM PDT

The NFL season is about to begin and I am a big fan. What I love about the NFL (and all professional sports) is the precise execution of a game plan one play at a time. Imagine the number of passes an NFL receiver catches in practice everyday and in his pregame warm up. He will catch dozens of passes in practice to prepare for typically less than ten opportunities to catch a game time pass.

In addition to catching passes, these professional receivers work on their speed and conditioning, running precise routes, blocking, watching game films, and studying their opponent.

Great sales professionals also practice so that they can execute precisely.

Things you can do include...

• Practice asking networking questions
• Practice presenting your value proposition (elevator speech)
• Role play your cold calls
• Role play your initial sales calls and the needs analysis
• Practice responding to objections and common questions
• Practice asking for the sale

The most challenging part regarding practice is to actually schedule time to do it.

Pick one thing that you would like to work on. Make an appointment for yourself to spend thirty minutes practicing. Keep the appointment. Even slight improvements are energizing and build confidence. Do this once or twice per week for several weeks and you will find yourself closing more deals with seemingly less effort.

What have you done in the past to practice your profession? How has it helped?

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