Suggestopedia

I was gripped by the climax of golf’s US Masters. What a blight that the host club themselves are such disgraceful dinosaurs. Still, although the winner was an American, rather than my favourite tractor boy from near Cape Town, Louis Oosthuizen, it was an American of which we can be proud.

For Bubba Watson is not only a fellow lefty like me, that shot (the clincher blind hook to within a few feet of the pin, when in deep do-do on the second playoff hole) enabled the commentators to wax on how the chap has never had a golf lesson in his life. Not a single coach has ever sullied his game.

It seems the sole instruction from his father when first picking up a club was along the lines of ‘whack a few balls and work it out for yourself’.

Reading around the subject, I discovered Suggestopedia;

this is the concept that everybody has the capacity to be a genius, but that the conventional approach to coaching – with its emphasis on correcting faults – intimidates development

I have long maintained that the superstar salespeople are those that are self-aware. By that, I mean that they are constantly working on one aspect or another of their selling “game”.

And I agree that most sales “coaching” involves working on the flaws, rather than building on what they do which is already good.

It is why I have never had much truck with personal SWOT analyses. Even if the ‘W’ is altered to another letter, pertaining to something politically correct like Improvement Area.

I feel to focus on your strengths will not only deliver better results but also diminish the weaknesses almost by magic. It is way easier to broaden from your best skills than build on something that’s shaky.

If you are self-aware, you’ll know the trick or two you need to work on right now.

The problem is, that I know very few salespeople who think this way. It’s why so few make quota each year.

What are you yourself working on at the moment?