Bruce Lee and Sales Training

Arguably, one of the most quoted lines from Bruce Lee is “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” How could you apply this to sales training?

And if you’re a fan of Bruce Lee, you’ve probably seen the image about when you should be practicing which basically comes down to all the time you’re not actually doing the thing you’re practicing for.

And with that, let’s just firm a few things up:

You’re either expanding or contracting which in the case of sales training, you’re either getting better or you’re getting worse. You need to maintain your student mindset throughout your entire career.
In sales, know that there is always someone better than you. Whether that’s a competitor down the street, a customer who’s a better negotiator or the reason you’re not number one on the board or in the rankings. There is always going to be someone better that you, and since we already know that “If You’re Not First You’re Last“, then you better defer back to #1.
I once heard that in sales, you’re either with a customer, looking for a customer or you’re training. That means you getting better at being with a customer or looking for one. Simple and effective.

So let’s start off by identifying what you do?

Are you a business owner, a manager or a salesperson?
What business are you in?
List off the top 3 objections you’re hearing right now that are stopping you dead in your tracks and grinding your gears.

How much time have you invested into completely eradicating those objections?

What I mean by that, is are you so good at handling these three objections that they literally just go away? As if the buyer KNOWS that “that one is not going to work on this person.” How many times would you have to practice handling that objection to produce that kind of result?

So when we combine Bruce Lee and sales training, 10,000 times would appear to be the magic number. Have you ever drilled an objection handling 10,000 times?

ACTION IDEA:

You have your list of three. Which one of the three is driving you the most nuts? Meaning, which one is costing you the most money? How many deals or opportunities are you missing as a result. And do not schuck that number by saying something like, “a lot.” Put a real number on it and confront it.

Complete the following sentence:

“Because I’m not proficient enough at handling [insert objection here] I miss [X] deals every month cost me [$XXXX dollars]. To completely eradicate this objection, I will dedicate, at least 15 minutes every morning to drilling and practicing handling this one objection until I can’t get it wrong.”

What will happen when you do this?

Can you imagine the depth of understanding of this one thing? How do you think it will bleed over into other aspects of your selling? Would you be more inclined to make cold calls? Do you think you’d present your product differently? Is there a chance you’d be more confident in presenting your proposal simply because, “if this guys says “THAT” I got that handled!”

What else can you apply this Bruce Lee and Sales Training strategy to? You can go way beyond handling objections. What about incoming phone calls or how to respond to RFP online? Pick any area you’re deficient at and dedicate 15 minutes per day to drilling and practicing. What if you did it twice a day? Once before work and once after work? You’d get there twice as fast.

FINAL THOUGHT:

The sooner you get to this place that nothing is happening to you, it’s happening because of you, the better off you’re going to be. Mastery at anything will require time, money, attention, humility and lots of practice.

Could you do that? Could you create and set aside the time? Of course you could, but would you? And if you would, then when? When would you like to get to work?

Bruce Lee and Sales Training