Consistency Pays

Jeff Garrison at JCG Consulting (yes we're related) tells a great story in one of his presentations about growing up on the rough and tumble tennis courts of the Midwestern United States.

When he was about 13 or 14 years old, he was competing around the state (Iowa) and on the Missouri Valley tennis circuit (so was I, he was just much better at it).  There were a few kids who really dominated around the state and they all had the same coach, a guy by the name of Allen Jones.  My oldest brother Randy persuaded Jones to work with Jeff.

When they began, Jeff agreed to do exactly what was asked of him.  They started working on his backhand because that was the weakest part of his game. For several weeks all Allen would let Jeff do is hit backhands! It was frustrating for Jeff (and hilarious for me).

When he did ground stroke drills with other guys, they were only allowed to hit it to his backhand.  Jeff was not allowed to play any matches during that time either. Jones knew that under the pressure of tournament play those new habits would crumble quickly.

Eventually Jeff went on to win an Iowa State High School Championship.

Whether it’s practicing your ground strokes, losing weight, or improving punctuality, being habitual in your activity is key. It’s no different in sales. Sales takes work. It takes consistent activity to keep the ball moving. Today, Jeff teaches businesses how to build effective and consistent sales habitudes.

Here are a few of his pointers:

1.    Progress takes hard work!
2.    Acquiring knowledge of a new skill or tactic is only the first step towards progress. You can't read    "The 5 Keys to Doing This or That" and expect to get results.
3.    It takes time to get results.
4.    It takes deliberate practice to get results (one of the Sales Habitudes).
5.    Practice must be done in a controlled environment (like in front of the mirror) where the stakes are low.
6.    If you go into a high-stakes situation without having practiced, when the pressure mounts, your mind will default back to your old habits. If you don't recognize this, you'll just say that the new ideas don't        work.