How to be an elite Sales-Athlete

I call anyone serious about selling a 'sales athlete'. If you look at elite athletes, many if not all, seldom step outside the realms of what they do best. It's very hard to achieve an elite level in life, sport or selling - multi-tasking. In particular if multi tasking requires a completely different or contradictory set of skills.

To be an elite sales athlete you need focus, dedication, determination and an unwavering commitment to self improvement. Most elite athletes train, in some instances every day for several hours, they then rest, recover and rejuvenate, and then only compete at a very small percentage of the time in comparison.

Business and sales people on the other hand do the exact opposite; spending most of their time working/competing - and doing little if any time training and developing skills and behaviors.

Can you imagine a professional athlete competing 40 - 50 hours a week for 48+ weeks of the year? This is what the average sales person does. This scenario in athletic terms would lead to reduced performance, exhaustion, fatigue and injury, not to mention more than likely a mental break down.