We do a lot of practicing here at Sandler. In fact, one of the major misconceptions people have is that our training means learning about things -- like the best techniques for asking questions, creating bonding and rapport, or prospecting. It is certainly important to learn about the submarine and the system, but learning about the system is only the surface of our training.

You already know our training is more than a couple of days in a seminar. Since we are committed to fixing what might be broken or improving sales processes to help sales forces accomplish their goals, we are usually eager to help people modify their behaviors. Some people might think training is like going to school. Maybe that is why I often hear prospects asking me: "What will people learn in the training?" When I think of training I think more about spring training for baseball players.

When major league baseball players come to spring training, don't they already know how to play baseball? Don't they know how to bat, catch, run and pitch? So why do they have to come to practice? They have to practice to reacquaint themselves, not with knowledge, but with the behaviors, attitudes, and techniques that will help them accomplish their goals. These highly trained players are hoping to make the best behaviors automatic so they don't even have to think about how to respond to thrown balls, oncoming runners or high flying balls. And they have to reacquaint themselves every day.

Maybe practice doesn't make perfect as much as it makes automatic (and unconsciously competent). In training, people move from not knowing they don't know how to do something (unconsciously incompetent), to knowing they don't know how to do certain behaviors (consciously incompetent), to knowing how to do behaviors, but only if they are paying attention to what they are doing (consciously competent), to the place where professional baseball players try to live: where they do the right things without even having to think about their behaviors (unconsciously competent).

So we are not trying to be perfect. We are trying to become so familiar, so comfortable with a system of behaviors, attitudes and techniques, that we will automatically use them, even under stress. Ask a baseball player: This is not easy. It might take several years or even a good part of a lifetime to become the best baseball player one could be. Does it make sense that it might take two, three or more years of focused practice to become the best sales person one could be?

Each year baseball players come to spring training to reacquaint themselves with the behaviors, attitudes and techniques that will equip them for success. They practice every day to make these automatic.

If you were to come to our training sessions, would it be appropriate to say the same thing about what you would be doing? The only real question is: How good do you want to be? How good do you really want to be? How much time are you willing to commit to make what you learn automatic? What kind of difference would there be in your life if you were that good?