It was 9th June 2006. The world cup of soccer was about to kick off in Berlin Germany and we had sat down to watch the opening ceremony. Family and friends all packed into my lounge eager to catch the spectacle.
As many will remember, South Africa was due to host the event in 2010 and as a result was given a part of the opening ceremony to “showcase” what the world could expect. Part of the show included some live dancers on stage, 1 of which was my wife Maria, and although we were all huge soccer fans, we had all actually gathered to see her representing South Africa on that Historic occasion.
It was around 20 minutes of dance, lights and music with the typical South African flair, passion and creativity…and boy did they “do us proud”.
Along with an estimated 250 million international TV audience our lounge watched with huge pride and admiration as Maria and the team transported us brilliantly on an African adventure that was an outstanding advert for our nation and our 2010 Soccer World Cup.
As our part of the “show” ended, our phone began ringing “off- the-hook” as calls, SMS’s and messages started flooding in from people who had seen the show and wanted to congratulate us all and tell us that they had seen Maria.
And so it should be when someone achieves something that noteworthy. They had done a great job and made all South Africans very proud. Everybody envied and looked up to them…people wanted to emulate them and be like them. I think that’s fantastic that folk are inspired by events like this…sporting, musical, business etc – it’s wonderful.
Where the experience falls short though is what people don’t see. Maria had spent 25 years practicing, stretching, learning, staying fit and strong on order to be able to perform internationally. Other than her immediate family, people don’t get to see the extra hours invested into lessons, extra lessons and then more lessons.
For this particular 20 minute performance, Maria and the team rehearsed for 8 hours a day, 7 days a week for 4 weeks. That’s around 220 hours of practice for one 20 minute presentation. You see, they had done all the hard work that made the presentation look so brilliant and easy.
All too often, in my opinion, people have great dreams and visions, they really want to achieve something great – but they’re not prepared to pay the price! The hours of cold calling to become a top salesperson, the days of preparation to give a great speech, the kilometres of training to run a 10 second race, the years of toil to build a successful business.
Very few things of significance just “fall” into place. They took time and effort and then some more time and a bunch of effort and it appears, if my research is correct, then a lot more effort. While I’m not a total 10 000 hours – Malcolm Gladwell devotee, I fully believe that there is massive merit in putting in the “hard yards” as opposed to just setting goals, positive thinking and hoping for the best.
In your sales practice, are you dong the “hard yards” that get you to the sale?
Are you deliberately and diligently building your prospecting list?
Are you making your prospecting calls?
Are you planning and rehearsing your phone calls?
Are you planning and rehearsing your meetings – or are you a “fly by the seat of my pants” – “make it up as I go” salesperson? (Are you hitting your targets?)
The close is such a small part of the process and yet we celebrate it wildly, and so we should – BUT, no at the expense of NOT celebrating all the other stuff that goes into being a successful salesperson!
Go for it!
