How to Cultivate Rare and Valuable Sales Skills with Deliberate Sales Practice
From the desk of Norlumen founder, Suzan Alakas:
What is “Deliberate” Practice?
Over this past holiday season, I read two books: “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” by Cal Newport, and “Little Red Book of Selling” by Jeffrey Gitomer.
As I was sitting in front of the fireplace, contemplating the perspectives of these two best sellers, I noticed a key theme that arose in both books.
Deliberate practice.
In “So Good They Can’t Ignore You”, Newport argues why he believes skills trump passion in the quest for work you love.
While I personally don’t agree with the premise that skills are more important than passion in creating work you love (I give the edge to passion), Newport’s section on craftsmanship and developing rare and valuable skills really resonated with the work we do here at Norlumen.
Newport laid out his framework to develop rare and valuable skills - by adopting
“an approach to work where you deliberately stretch your abilities beyond where you’re comfortable and then receive ruthless feedback on your performance”.
So in other words: 1) practice something challenging, and 2) evaluate yourself and adjust.
He goes on to say that “musicians, athletes, and chess players know all about deliberate practice ” but knowledge workers, do not engage in deliberate practice.
While most of us in corporate environments do take occasional trainings and slowly improve our skills over time, “deliberately stretching abilities” and “receiving ruthless feedback” does not seem to be part of the daily culture in corporate settings.
How does Deliberate Practice apply to sales?
Which brings me to “Little Red Book of Selling” by Jeffrey Gitomer.
Written in a much more abrasive tone, this book is full of direct questions and guidance to lead the reader towards more specific (deliberate) action in order to become a more effective salesperson.
“Do you have all the sales training you need?”
“Do you watch TV at night when you should be getting ready for your sales call the next day?
“Between now and next week attend three networking functions.”
While I don’t agree with all of Gitomer’s guidance (eg. that we should compromise our sleep to “outwork” the competition), he gives many valuable exercises for improving sales skills that fulfill the “stretching abilities” and “getting feedback” aspects of deliberate practice:
Generating a list of “Power Questions” - to deeply understand your customers’ needs
Using the SCAMPER framework - to improve your creative problem solving skills
Reviewing your sales calls to see how effective you were in communicating the value of your product/service to your customer
Deliberate Practice for Sustainable Selling
At Norlumen, we believe that taking a sustainable approach to selling leads to 1) long-term business relationships and referrals, and 2) organized, structured and repeatable results for sales teams.
Here are some key areas of deliberate practice for you to consider for your sales team:
Developing and asking high-impact questions - to deeply understand your customers needs
Preparing written responses to common customer objections - to address logical and emotional hesitations
Role playing with colleagues to practice a variety of sales skills - to build sales reps’ confidence
Mapping customers needs to specific product features and benefits - and sharing these with customers
Written, self-evaluation after sales calls
An annual audit of your sales organization - with concrete follow-up items
The nature of developing rare and valuable sales skills is that it takes effort and is usually uncomfortable at the beginning.
However with a strong intent, continuous practice and evaluation, implementing a deliberate practice can help all sales teams master even the most challenging sales skills.
If you’d like assistance cultivating deliberate practice for your sales organization, we can help!
Norlumen offers sales trainings for your sales personnel to improve their sales skills and effectiveness.
👉 Book a short discovery call→ and we’d be happy to discuss solutions for your sales force’s challenges and needs.