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Is there such a thing as natural sales talent? Are top-level sales professionals born that way? Do they possess a gift from God that powers their ability to close sales? On this Money Monday, I answer these age-old questions.
For the Love of the Game
When I was 9 years old, after going to the Masters tournament with my Dad, I cut a limb that was shaped like a golf club from a tree, dug holes all over our backyard, and started playing “backyard golf” with a wiffle ball.
I loved my little backyard golf course and played every day after school. One day though, my Dad, who had been watching me, said, "Why don't we just go play real golf?"
My dad didn't know anything about golf. He didn’t grow up playing. But we went down to Walmart, bought some cheap golf clubs, and started chasing little white balls.
We played at a legendary course in Augusta called The Patch—a municipal course with hard dirt fairways and patchy greens but a super fun place to learn the game. Our game was terrible, and we never practiced or took a lesson. But I loved going out with my dad to the course, and we had fun!
In high school, I started playing on the golf team. That might have been a turning point for my game if we’d had a real coach, but instead we had a math teacher who did not play golf assigned to babysit us. So, we were on our own, but we had fun. Those years playing on my high school golf team were a blast!
In college, I continued to play golf for recreation—usually with my fraternity brothers. Golf was about going out, telling jokes, and drinking a lot of beer. I have so many fun memories from those days.
The Myth of Natural Talent Stole My Joy
After getting out of college, I continued to play—mostly in business situations—and that’s when golf stopped being fun. I would golf with clients and peers who were so much better than me. It didn't make sense that they could hit the ball so well and I could not.
I would go out to the range and practice until my arms hurt, but I never got any better. It never occurred to me to take a lesson.
By my mid-30s I was so frustrated with golf that I started to believe something that would haunt me for the next 20 years: I convinced myself that people who could play golf well were just naturally gifted. And because I wasn't naturally gifted, I would never be good at golf.
So I quit.
For two decades, I didn't pick up a golf club.
A Massive Mindset Shift Leads to a Comeback
If you have read my books and listened to my podcasts you know that I'm a big horse person. I've been involved in equestrian sports since I was a kid. I've had formal coaching and training with horses. On horseback, I thought I was naturally gifted. I believed it was something that God had imbued in me. So I forgot about golf and poured my time and energy into horses.
Eventually, though, my son got older and started playing golf. And being an equestrian at my age became more and more dangerous. A bad day on a horse means you're in the hospital in traction. A bad day on the golf course means you go to soothe your wounds with a cold beer in the clubhouse.
So I picked up the sticks again.
But this time, I sought out a golf coach. A pro who could help me learn how to play the game.
Starting over has been hard. It is difficult to learn new skills. But with lessons, I've gotten better. In fact, last week I shot my lowest score ever.
Over the past two years of working on my golf game, I’ve come to realize how much the story that I kept telling myself about not being naturally talented hurt me and how much it stole from my life. That story cost me 20 years of enjoyment of a game I loved.
The difference between my success with horses and my failure with golf wasn't natural talent. It was coaching and instruction.
The Power of an Open vs Closed Mindset
Once you stop believing that you have to be naturally gifted in order to do anything well, you open your mind to new possibilities and amazing things happen for you.
For example, a couple of weeks ago, my good friend Mike Weinberg sent me a book called Putting Out of Your Mind. I read it and started putting those lessons into practice on the green.
Over the next round that I played, I took 10 putts off my game. Ten putts! Just from the lessons I learned in that book.
I've gotten better because I have a different mindset. I changed the way I look at the game because I changed the way I look at myself. Rather than believing I'm not naturally gifted, I started to believe that through coaching, reading, training, learning, and focus, I could get better. And I have.
Sales Professionals are Made, Not Born
The irony of all of this is that I’m a sales trainer and coach who for years has said emphatically that salespeople are not born, they are made.
I’ve written 17 books on the subject including my latest book The LinkedIn Edge. People who read my books, attend Sales Gravy training, and put the techniques they learn into practice get better and sell more.
Yet it's not uncommon for me to be working with leaders who hire a young rep, stick them in the field or put them on the phones, and then when this inexperienced rep somehow doesn't display natural intuition or natural ability to sell, they begin doubting whether this person is a good fit for their team.
When I sit down with these leaders, I ask them: "How would the rep know what they're doing wrong if you never taught them how to do it right? How are they going to change what they cannot see if you don't provide any coaching or feedback?"
Just yesterday, as an illustration, I was out at the range working on my swing. The PGA professional I take lessons from stopped by where I was hitting. He gave me one small tip about where my club face was on the swing plane, and I immediately started hitting better.
That had nothing to do with natural ability and everything to do with someone teaching me technique. I couldn't see what I was doing wrong. But with a coach holding a mirror up to my swing, I could.
Breaking the Myth of Natural Sales Talent
Here's the truth: There is no such thing as natural sales talent.
What we call "natural talent" is usually just someone who had good coaching, learned the right techniques, or developed good habits through trial and error. But none of it is innate. None of it is genetic. None of it is a gift from above.
Earlier in my sales career, I had great training and a coach who invested in me. I read every sales book I could get my hands on and listened to sales training programs in my car. I ran the sales process and leveraged the techniques I was taught. That’s how I became the top sales rep in my company and was always at the top of the leader board. It had nothing to do with natural talent.
If you are a leader who believes that somehow people are naturally gifted to sell, then you're always going to have lower-performing salespeople because you will not invest in training and coaching them.
Should you believe this as a salesperson, you're never going to focus on making yourself better because why do so when you think you don't have natural sales talent.
But the truth is, you can learn how to sell. Everybody can.
You can learn the skills and exactly how to run the sales process. If you come to a Fanatical Prospecting Bootcamp with me, I can teach you how to make a cold call that will get you results - how to ask better questions, overcome objections, present, close and negotiate.
Being great at sales has nothing to do with "natural sales talent," whether you're an introvert or extrovert, or whether you have "the gift of gab." It has everything to do with mastering techniques and process.
The Learnable Components of Sales Success
Just like golf, sales success comes down to several learnable components:
Fundamentals: In golf, it's your grip, stance, swing mechanics, and course management. In sales, it's your prospecting discipline, discovery and communication skills, closing techniques and sales strategy.
Mental Game: In golf, it's focus, staying calm under pressure. In sales, it's managing rejection, maintaining confidence, and staying true to the process.
Practice: In golf, it's hours on the range and playing rounds. In sales, it's role-playing, getting reps on sales calls, and continuously honing your skills.
Coaching: In golf, it's working with a pro who can see what you can't see. In sales, it's having mentors, managers, and trainers who can guide your development.
Continuous Learning: In golf, it's studying the game, reading books, and learning from better players. In sales, it's consuming sales content, attending training, and learning from top performers.
None of these components require natural sales talent. They all require commitment, practice, and the right instruction.
You Don’t Have to Be Naturally Talented to Pursue Your Goals
The belief in natural talent is not just wrong. It holds people from reaching their potential, pursuing their goals, and doing things that give them joy.
You don't have to be naturally gifted to be great at sales. Rather, you need to be willing to learn, practice, and get better every day.
Looking back now, having re-discovered my love for golf and that I can actually improve, I have deep regret for all those years I could have been playing a game that brings me so much joy because I believed I didn't have the natural talent.
Don't let the same thing happen to you. Do not allow limiting beliefs prevent you from achieving the success you're capable of or waste years believing you're not cut out for golf, sales or anything else in life when all you really need is proper coaching and training.
If you are finally ready to break through and get better Sales Gravy has a plan for you.