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The Myth of Sales Habits and Competencies

Guest post by: Dave Kurlan

Article Overview: When they give feedback, Veteran salespeople like to talk about how they "forgot about" this or that, or "got out of the habit of..." Was it really ever a habit if they stopped doing it? What prevents them from admitting that they either never knew it or never did it?

The Myth of Sales Habits and Competencies

Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.

I get a kick out of the feedback we get from some veteran salespeople and sales managers after their first training sessions.

We hear things like:

• It reinforced the importance of...
• It reminded me to always...
• It provided more clarity on....
• I realized I had away from the habit of...

Here is what I think.

The training couldnothavereinforcedtheimportanceofanythingbecause if they had already acknowledged that something was important, whyweren'tthey doing it?

The training couldnothaveremindedthem toalwaysdoanythingbecause if they had forgotten to always do something then they probably didnotreally know to do it in the first place.

The training may very well have provided more clarity on multiple topics but more clarity comes fromnothaving much clarity or understanding to begin with.

Now my favorite.

If they realized that they had gottenoutof the habit of doinganything, then did they reallyeverhave ahabit? When something is a habit, onealwaysdoes it andnothingwould prevent it from getting done. So it is far more likely that there wasnever,everanything evencloseto resembling a habit.

So why do some veterans feel the need to provide feedback in this manner?

Could it be their egos? Could it be that they are simply too embarrassed to admit that the material was either new to them, or they had rarely, if ever, used or implemented strategies and tactics like these before?

For instance, they have surely heard the importance of asking questions before. But just as surely, they haven't been tought exactly how, when and where to ask in a simple, effective, non-threatening manner. They haven't been shown how long to continue the questioning, how to continue it, exactly what they are seeking to learn, when to stop, how to summarize, and how to turn the resulting urgency into a commitment to spend more money to do business with them.

Ego. They simply can't admit that they didn't know.

Read Frank Belzer'srelated poston ego from earlier today....

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Article Tags: ego, sales, sales management, salespeople



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