Nugget #5 - Sales is a personal development game with a compensation plan.

Last post talked about a mindset to approach your career like a video game. Let’s take that idea one step further.

In the early days I used a sports analogy to solidify this idea.

Imagine a soccer field. There is a situation where a penalty kick needs to be scored in order to make $100,000,000.

Talk about pressure.

There are only two people available that can be chosen to make this kick. You and Lionel Messi. (Don’t ask me how this situation happened, just roll with it.)

The obvious choice to be selected for this kick is Messi. Duh.

Why is it obvious? For one, he’s arguably the greatest soccer player ever. That makes it easy.

But what makes him great? Certainly he was blessed with unbelievable talent. Nothing he did to earn that. That’s “Nature”.

However he absolutely did dedicate his life to mastering every skill he could within soccer. His whole life has been invested in being the most exceptional player he could be. That’s “Nurture”.

Within this frame we have to understand that the Lionel Messi today (the GOAT) didn’t happen overnight. He had to develop into the player he is today.

This idea can be applied to all of us. We don’t become great within our field overnight, even if we’re gifted unbelievable talent.

The more we grow into the best version of ourselves with our given talents, the more valuable we will be to the world.

We can all be our own Lionel Messi. Everyone of us has our own unique talent. Some discover it more easily than others. Some take advantage of it and dedicate ourselves to the pursuit of excellence.

When it comes to sales the idea is the better we get at the craft, the more money we will make. It’s really that simple.

Simple doesn’t mean easy though. You have to be bad at things before you’re good. You need courage to try and fail, to learn and grow. If we can approach our sales career as a continuous learning opportunity we’ll be primed to grow through all of our experiences.

Here’s a decent example: The fear of rejection is an innate human condition. Salespeople run face first into this pain everyday. If we don’t personally grow to be able to withstand that pain we will fail. Growing in our ability to handle rejection will have direct impact into how we execute our job.

You can’t hide your fear of rejection in sales. You need to confront that demon head on.

Here’s the gist. As you grow personally your ability to do your job well improves. As you get better at your job, you make more money. And the cycle repeats itself.

Take that mindset across everyday of your sales career and you’re see obstacles and challenges for what they are: learning opportunities that will help you make more money and be a better person.

Who knows, maybe you can become the Lionel Messi of your profession.