Science Before Art - The Science and Art of Selling and Sales

"Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures."

- Henry Ward Beecher

Do you know someone who has made an art out of cooking? Do you know someone who conjures up the most magnificent dishes by tossing together "a little bit of this, and a little bit of that"?

My grandmother would bake exquisitely by touch. No recipe required, just a taste and touch here and there. Yet even without a formal process her baked goodies were always consistent, down to the last crumb. Her chocolate chiffon and baked cheese cake were works of art.

There was a time however, when she was taught to bake by following a recipe. As a young girl learning to bake with her mother, she would have followed the same recipe over and over again, without changing anything. Then over time she would have experimented.

"What if I threw in a touch of cinnamon? What if I added less sugar and more eggs? What if I baked at 120° for 20 minutes versus ½ an hour at 140°?" and slowly baking her had become "art".

First however, came the science (recipe), and then came the art. The same is true when it comes to developing the "art" of persuasion. First you must learn the science and then you can begin to sculpt the tactics and techniques you learn from others. First practice the skills you learn, see and hear to perfect your form and then the material will have become yours to "play" with.

Think back to when you learned how to drive. Remember the concentration it took to become a competent driver? Now think about the last time you drove to work and when you reflected back could remember little or nothing about the trip. Where were you whilst driving? You were on autopilot. What did it take for you to get to the point of unconscious competence? Practice.

Practice, practice and more practice. Research has shown that for any skill to develop requires a process of continuing and ongoing repetition over time. Only through regular practice the new neural pathways and patterns in your brain are established and thereby enable the new skill. It is whilst learning the "new skill" that the neural pathway is immature and underdeveloped, making one feel unnatural with the new desired routine and the skill feels weak.

Just like developing a muscle the new skill must be worked on over and over again until it it has become a part of your persuasion repertoire. So train.

Keep on learning and practicing because as the 1st century roman slave and writer Publilius Syrus once said, "Practice is the best of all instructors."

Practice, drill and rehearse until you become competitive. Hone your sales skills to the point of "art" and you will leave your competition in your dust!

As one of Australia's leading authorities and coaches in sales management, Ian Segail has been involved in the coaching, training and development of sales managers and salespeople for over two decades.

Drawing on 25 years of experience in sales, sales management and leading an HR and training team, Ian brings a strong dose of fiscal reality and practicality to his works as a Sales Performance Coach.

Engaging directly with business owners and both novice and experienced sales managers alike, across a wide variety of industries and selling disciplines, the focus of Ian's work is to transform sales results for companies by improving sales management practices.

Ian is the author of "Bulletproof Your Sales Team "The 5 Keys To Turbo-Boosting Your Sales Team's Results" and a number of business articles, business reports and white papers including "The fish stinks from the head!" and "Why Sales Training Doesn't Work."

Ian has an insatiable hunger for studying selling and people management and has passionately pursued answers to the question "How come some people can sell and most can't?"