Becomint the master of our craft

Few people outside our trade can even begin to appreciate the amount of work and time it takes to develop into an above average salesperson. Not a personality. Not a type. Not a specific profile, which can be duplicated, but a master of his/her craft.

By master of the craft, I mean the master of a technique (or combination of techniques) that you can rely upon deal after deal, in any and all situations.

Not many people are ready to invest that much time and effort in their sales career. The emphasis usually is not on career development but on quick returns. Anybody in sales can name a number of professionals who left the sales business for something less profitable because the "price to pay for success was too high".

Initial frustration is part of the process, and it can't be avoided. There is no concert pianist alive who hasn't spent years practicing scales. There is no winning athlete who hasn't come back from a few bad games. There is no top salesperson that hasn't overcome disappointment, fatigue or financial stress in order to get to that higher degree of excellence. The good side is that the frustrations are soon forgotten and the laurels remain to remind us that it was a long, but worthwhile journey, although with no destination in sight.

Muhammad Ali said: "It's lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believe in myself." Many people never pursue their dreams, not because they don't have dreams or because they don't know how to get there, but because they don't have the faith in themselves to be able to carry out their dreams. We can sometimes look at successful people, especially the very successful, and believe that they are somehow better than us or different than us. We believe in them, but not in us. Most successful men and women in the world are not much different than you and me. I wonder how many boxers could have been another Muhammad Ali but didn't believe enough in themselves to get there.