In Praise of the Basics

I’m working with a client and I wanted to get the sales team diligently working on their practice skills. In other words, I wanted them to practice how to practice, and to strengthen the practicing habit.

To encourage that discipline I had the salespeople spend a little time on how to get a registration card, to re-think their technique. I encouraged them to focus on the strategy and quality of the request. I asked them to suspend their traditional approach and just try something different. Again, the purpose was just to practice how to practice.

The results were surprising…and powerful. The majority of sales professionals immediately noticed that they were in reg card ruts, and that trying something new breathed new life into the sales conversation. They stated that they had more energy and a more meaningful customer conversation.

The lesson to me is clear: we tend to take “the basics” for granted. We treat them as, well, basic, and we say that with a certain derision.

That thinking needs to change. The fact is that the best salespeople in the world are not those who are doing things substantially different, but only that they are doing things substantially better. They have the basics down stronger than everyone else.

What basics would be beneficial for you to revisit? What routine disciplines might you be overlooking?

Change your presentation…and change your world!