Is Experience The Best Teacher?

It’s interesting to consider the wisdom of some expressions in common use these days.

How about the phrase “Experience is the best teacher?” Or how about this gem, “What you don’t know won’t hurt you?”

And what about, “He or she is a born sales person” or “Ignorance is bliss”?

As I work these days with sales people and sales managers across Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia I see so many examples of why beliefs like these are so dangerous.
Experience is not the best teacher

It’s a funny thing about how most sales people learn about their chosen profession of selling. Usually it starts for most with them making a decision to get into sales. They apply for a job (no experience required!!) and start with a company that has a product or service to sell. Sometimes this is retail selling and sometimes it is direct selling.

On the first day on the job perhaps they get some training from the company on the products they sell. They are also taught procedures like how to put in an order or ring up a sale, and then they are usually thrown in the “deep end” to “get some experience” and learn the rest on the job.

It’s obvious that this belief that “experience is the best teacher” is often held by their manager or is a part of the culture of the company.
So what happens then?

For most, they then “bump around in the dark” learning through trial and error to see what works best.

And how long do they stay in this phase?

Well I come across some sales people who are in their 10th year in sales and are still bumping about in the dark and are still learning by trial and error. They have never ever done any formal sales training.
Tell me, in what other profession would this be an acceptable way of learning the profession?

Can you imagine someone deciding to become a lawyer or a doctor and learning through this process?

Even professions like being a plumber or a builder involves formal learning, classes and in many cases doing an apprenticeship. And these classes and schooling are not free. They cost money. Doing a university course costs big bucks and requires and investment of many years of a person’s time to obtain the qualification necessary to practice in the chosen profession. However once they enter the profession in most cases they start to earn a pretty good income. If not right away, eventually their investment of time and money pays a dividend back to them, and they are often now set for life.
But does their learning stop there?

Of course not. Their education continues. Accountants need to keep abreast of new tax laws, new procedures, new accounting methods, new accounting software. They have to understand businesses, business trends etc.

Doctors have to keep up with new medical research and procedures. It’s an ongoing process of learning that never stops.
So what about sales people?

Well there are sales people and there are sales professionals. There is a major difference between the two. A true sales professional regards selling as a true profession, whereas a sales person often sees it as just a job.

The true sales professional does not learn through trial and error learning. They realise how ridiculous that is. They realise that…
Trial and error learning is very expensive

They understand that experience is not the best teacher because it takes so long to learn that way. And every time they get it wrong and lose a sale that costs them and their company money. It’s like taking money right out of their pocket.

The sad thing is that many are happy to keep learning this way, month after month, year after year and many companies are also happy to let their sales people continue to struggle and learn this way.

I often have conversations with sales people and sales managers about sales training and they tell me that they can’t afford to do any right now, or that it’s not in the company’s budget. (I wonder why they can’t afford to do any???)

This is because they see sales training as an expense and not as an investment.
The “hidden cost” of trial and error learning

It’s also because they fail to recognise that every sale they lose is a “hidden cost” to them. I guess it’s because they didn’t have the sale in the first place, that they don’t feel the loss of it when it is not closed. They don’t see it as a as a cost to them.

However ask a sales person how they feel about losing a sale that was in the bag, because the customer cancels, and it’s a different story. They are usually pretty upset about this loss because of the commission they are about to lose. However it’s exactly the same as losing a sale that they never closed due to their lack of skills.
Lost sales cost big bucks

The true Sales Professional however takes their chosen profession seriously. They learn all there is to learn about being a sales professional. They invest the time, the energy and yes – the money, into being the best they can possibly be. They realise that skills make all of the difference, and that the good thing about skills is, that all skills can be learned – if we are serious.

I think that this is one of the major causes for failure in the sales profession. It is full of people who are not serious about being a true professional. It is full of people who simply see selling as a job. It’s full of amateurs.
The myth of the born “sales person”

Yes it is true that some people are born (or is it a product of parenting and their upbringing?) with certain natural abilities to get along with people well, build rapport and trust easily etc, but most of the true sales professionals I know and get to work with these days, were not “born sales people”. They simply made a decision to become the best they could be by developing their skills. And it is often these sales people who are sitting in the front row of my seminars and workshops every time, updating their skills, learning new skills and being reminded of strategies and techniques that they once used but have forgotten about.
What you don’t know WILL hurt you.

Not knowing how to prospect for new business will hurt you and hurt your bank account.

Not knowing how to conduct a “diagnosis interview” to uncover a prospect’s needs and “disturb them” about their current situation enough that they are motivated to want to buy your solution, will hurt you and your bank account.

Not knowing how to handle objections when they come up will hurt you and your bank account.

Not knowing how to get past excuses and get to the real objection will hurt you and your bank account.
Ignorance is not bliss

Ignorance is misery. Ignorance leads to mediocrity and pain. Not having enough money to provide for our family is not bliss. Not being able to afford the things we want in life is not bliss.
Investing in yourself is one of the best investments in life

I get to work with thousands of sales people each year who have made the decision to go from average to professional in sales. They attend my Sales Bootcamps or work with me over several months through my TOP GUN® Sales Coaching Programme and the transformation is remarkable. In many cases it was not easy for them to come up with the enrolment fee or find the time to get this training, but they were serious enough to find a way and in some cases we helped them with payment plans.

Like one young man in Brisbane recently. He was struggling and failing in his commission only sales job. Gavin’s company provided very little sales training and his sales manager was not very skilled himself. Gavin made the decision to do our 12 week Sales Coaching Programme and saw immediate improvements and in the first 5 weeks he closed 4 deals which made him a little over $20,000 in commissions. He was over the moon with excitement and his investment had been immediately returned many times over. Since then he has not looked back. His life has changed for the better and he will never struggle to make a good income ever again. He now has the skills for life.

I see the same thing happen with Sales Managers who are struggling. They invest and do my 2 day TOP GUN® Sales Managers Bootcamp and suddenly they know how to get improved performance out of their sales team. Their life gets easier. Then they often then invest in having me do in-company training for their team or have their team members do our workshops or Sales Coaching Programme. Sales then go through the roof and their investment is repaid may times over. You see good sales training is free. It pays for itself. Not training is what is costly.
So are you a true Sales Professional?

Have you invested in your future? My friend USA speaker Tom Hopkins says that “Selling is the highest paid easy work you’ll ever do.” But he also says that “Selling is the lowest paid hard work you’ll ever do”. By that Tom means that it’s our skills that will make all of the difference.

If hope your selling will be highly paid and easy this week. Until we speak again…

Have a great week. Make it a great week.


Wayne Berry

Is Experience The Best Teacher? - To learn more about this author, visit Wayne Berry's Website.

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