How Much Do You Study?

Another school year is about to start and an article in a local newspaper recently highlighted the academic achievements of a dozen students who had an average of 95% or higher. As I read the article it quickly became apparent that each student invested between two and three hours a day on homework or studying.

In the thirteen plus years I have been working with sales people, I have noticed that the top performers usually study more than their counterparts. They invest more time improving their skills by reading sales-related books, magazines, newsletters and articles. They invest more time studying their prospects and customers. Top performers study their approach and modify it as required. They study their competition and determine how they can differentiate themselves from those competitors. They also study everything they can about their products, and finally, they study their goals on a regular basis and determine what action they need to take to achieve those goals.

This may seem like a lot of work. However, achieving a high level of success requires effort, energy, and commitment. Are you prepared to change your study habits to improve your results?

Kelley Robertson helps sales professionals and businesses discover new techniques to improve their sales and profits. Receive a FREE copy of 100 Ways to Increase Your Sales by subscribing to his free newsletter available at http://www.RobertsonTrainingGroup.com. For information on his programs contact him at 905-633-7750 or by email.

Comments

[mike mccue]

Nathan and Kelley,
This reminds me of something I hear a lot of sales executives tell me in my travels and interviews: that the bar has been raised and there are certain things that used to be competitive differentiators, but today are just bottom-line requirements. In the column, Kelley correctly points out that hard work and commitment are required just to get into the competition, let alone win. Sales executives tell me that product quality and price are the same way. High quality used to be a major differentiator, but now it's where the discussion starts. In other words, if you don't have a high-quality product, you aren't even in the discussion. It's the same with hard work, I think. Having top-notch people skills and great powers of persuasion are highly desirable traits in salespeople, but they aren't enough anymore. If you don't put in the time -- learning and doing everything you can to be an asset to your customers -- you just won't be around at the end, when purchasing decisions are made.
Thanks for the reminder -- there is no replacement for hard work and dedication!

Mike

[Nathan Poling]

Good post. It's true in almost any discipline: hard work beats out natural talent. A study of top pianists showed that they practiced 8X as long as average pianists. Talent will get you interested in a profession, but it's the long hours of work that make you succeed. It's a good lesson to remember.

Nathan Poling
Salesbenchmarkindex.com