Mastering Sales | The Key to Profitability

The evolution of going from where you are, to where you need to be! When people first come to the conclusion that they need improvement in areas of their lives, they go through a multi-step process.

Step 1: Acknowledgement  A person cannot begin the process of effectuating change until he or she acknowledges the need for change, or that a certain aspect of life or business is not yielding the results desired from the efforts put forth. 

Step 2 Externalization —On the surface this phase appears to contradict the Acknowledgement phase as people take the natural direction of first looking at factors other than themselves in order to determine why they are not getting the results they feel they deserve. For example, when a business owner recognizes that change must occur within the organization, they tend to blame economic or market conditions for their current results. Often they will point fingers at what they see as a complacent sales team, without acknowledging the responsibility of those who hired these people initially and those responsible for managing, motivating and providing the sales advice required for the effective performance of a sales team.

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People do what they do because they believe it is the right thing to do—however it is not always the most effective thing to do. Business Owners and Sales Managers who desire change in their organizations must understand that two things remain constant: The Business Owner/Management, and the sales problems. Although sales people come and go, the sales problems seem to be common and constant. Until the business owner/management looks within to determine what they must change then they will find it difficult to change others. After all, you know YOU, better than you know them.

Sales people also tend to externalize. They point their fingers in many different directions. It is the economy they say. Or they talk about how their prospects have no need, or no money. Some simply point their fingers at management saying that they don’t understand what really happens on the front line.

Step 3: Unconscious Incompetence: This term relates to not knowing what you don’t know or not knowing how much room there is for improvement. When you begin the process of learning, you don’t comprehend the extent of what you have to learn. This Unconscious Incompetence also applies to what you do on a daily basis that is ineffective or counter-productive in the sales or sales management process—there are those mistakes you make that you can identify, but most treacherous of all are the ones you don’t realize you’re making. 

Step 4: Conscious Incompetence: This is the stage in the learning process where you come to realize just how much room for improvement you have and recognize the beliefs or activities that have been unproductive. This is the point at which learning, or a willingness to learn and unlearn takes place. This internal acknowledgement creates an incentive to change. When you believe that you are as effective as you could be, then the incentive to change is not present. The most effective and fastest way to uncovering this improvement gap is through sales and behavioral evaluations.

Step 5: Conscious Competence: This is the point at which you begin to understand how much knowledge you have received and how this new knowledge, helps to change overall results. The fastest way to change your results is to change your routine. This is the phase where you become conscious of the importance of changing your routine. This can only occur when Step 4 takes place because in order to change your routine, you first must change your mind. Short-term boot camps fail to take sales people or sales managers to the point of Mastery. Knowing and owning are two very different things!

Sales Mastery, is like anything else you want to master. You must first become aware of what you are doing that is counter-productive before you conclude that change must take place. Like the game of golf. Many golfers remain in a long-term routine that produces a fairly consistent score each and every time they play. After taking some lessons they first become aware of what parts of their routine are ineffective, followed by understanding what to do and how best to do it. The unconscious competence of new skills can only achieved through - Repetition - Active Participation, and - Ongoing Reinforcement Training