Sales Speakers Should be Sales Reps First
My daughter and I are learning to golf together. We’re both pretty terrible but we were making good progress until one day my daughter started hitting it to the right. No matter what she did, it went SUPER right. We couldn’t even play a round of golf because EVERY SINGLE BALL left the course immediately upon impact and smashed through trees.
We decided to hit the driving range to practice and we ran into Liam, our instructor. Even though we didn’t have a lesson planned, we asked if he was available and luckily he was! He fixed her shot within 30 minutes. It was truly amazing to see what some good instruction could do in such a short time. She still has lots to learn, but the ball stopped going right. Not only did he tell her what to do, he SHOWED her what to do because he’s an amazing golfer.
This made me think of sales reps because just like golf, sales is a skill. And it’s taught best by people who have DONE it. Who have lived that life. Who have driven three hours each way in one day for a one-hour meeting when necessary. Who have sweated out quotas and late POs. Who have tried out different techniques. After years of going through training myself and putting in the hard work, I decided to become a “Liam.” Through experience AND research, I can fix bad habits quickly. I can show how to use the phone effectively. I can show how to write emails that get responses. I can teach sales reps how to use AI in a smart way.
Investing in sales training is a gift to your team, but it always amazes me how often people are being paid to "teach sales" who have never really done it. I was proud to be in sales and now I'm proud to use my experience and my research, to speak about it. To all my customers, past, present and future: thank you.
What do you think? Share with me in the comments!
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