How Not to Learn

Many of you, especially aspiring golfers, will recognize the cartoon below illustrating appropriate “swing thoughts.” In fact, anyone who has attempted to learn the fundamentals of golf at some point in life will no doubt quickly relate and probably laugh out loud. Conceptually, golf involves a pretty simple idea. Your goal is to strike a stationary ball with a flat-surfaced club and advance it to the green and into the hole – in as few stokes as possible.  

That’s where the simplicity stops. Because anyone who has tried the game quickly gains an appreciation for how difficult it is to hit that stationary object with any degree of control.  Having been around for a few years (the first documented mention of golf in Scotland appears in 1457) there has been ample time for literally hundreds of ideas and theories to develop on the best way to master the golf swing. In fact, if you Google “golf training” more than 500,000 results return. The joke here is obvious, and so are the parallels to sales training. Like selling, golf is a complex discipline – and there is no shortage of ideas on the best way to succeed at both. There are tapes, books, boot camps, classes, DVD’s, Internet programs … sound familiar? 

The golfer in our cartoon has the best intentions – he’s just trying to apply every piece of good advice he’s heard about a perfect golf swing. While none of the ideas are necessarily bad, the probability of remembering and applying even a small subset of them is highly unlikely. No realistic golf school would try to teach this much content in a short period of time. In addition, it’s not considered unacceptable if mastery takes more than a few months. But a lot of sales training still reminds us of the cartoon. We want to infuse as much knowledge into our salespeople as possible in the shortest period of time. Maybe that’s why only 15% of companies seem able to get to “world-class” levels of sales process and methodology adherence.

But like golf (or any complex discipline), a more realistic approach would entail a “staged” learning process that begins with basic concepts, and then involves ongoing practice and application – followed by more advanced learning, practice, and reinforcement. And many golf (and tennis) schools work this way. Even the top tour golfers still retain swing coaches, and are constantly seeking refinement of their craft through continual learning. Their livelihoods depend on it. We think sales training can work better this way too.

On Wednesday, January 19 we’ll be cosponsoring a webinar with TrainingIndustry.com called Re-Thinking Sales Training – 2011 and Beyond. We’ll be exploring key barriers to sales training success and provide a new model for sales training to incorporate into your 2011 plans. This webinar will change your perspectives on how your company invests in sales training, and provide insights into taking a new, sustainable approach to performance improvement.

To Register, CLICK HERE>>>