Objection Drills Mils

I've long groaned in exasperation at how little most salesteams reinforce their recurring selling routines internally.

At the turn of the millennium even, there was a movement I saw across corporatedom to bring coaching skills to managers.

The previous decade wrought swingeing cuts to management.

Many contributory factors precipitated this. Including the overlayering that had run amok up to that point, much heralded marches of technology enabling spans of control to be widened, and the reaction against a prevailing culture of rigid micromanaging stick-wavers.

I'm not talking abut bringing in outside 'trainers'.

Although I myself attended classes put on for sales leaders at my clients.

Developing talent became firmly on-trend. Crafting coaching 'programs' collaboratively between two close-working individuals of separate rank sought. Even football were busy swapping labels from old school Manager to bright future Coach. Crucially, evolving the role too.

So I avidly read an insider account of how uber-coach Pep Guardiola goes about his work.

Alongside his obsession with tactics and continually imbuing his charges with confidence, he also runs through an inordinate amount of drills.

In their "millions".

A player is tasked with playing in a particular position. They undergo countless practices in training. So that during any game, when a specific moment occurs, they have run it through in practice to exhaustion. They instinctively know what to do come the live match situation.

Training sessions are not solely based around this. Variety being a spice of Pep. Yet his flavour of Total Football results.

Many a salesperson knows this route to success. Yet do we take this best-practice into our arena?

This isn't just about the rehearsal of say, a key slide for a big pitch meeting. Its focus is on the regularly encountered dialogue when in conversation with buyers.

It's not just the act of practice, it is the volume of repetitions too.

How often do you bat objection routines around with a colleague?

When did you last try explaining some key concept, vision or testimonial to someone who was not a prospect?

What options do you have for when you're asked, 'so what do you do, then'?

There's plenty more 'live game situations' on top of these as well.

Any or all of them could do with the Pep-Drills treatment. Are you putting them into practice aplenty?