Geoffrey Colvin's subtitle for the article, "Research now shows that the lack of natural talent is irrelevant to great success. The secret? Painful and demanding practice and hard work."

He cited Tiger Woods as an example. You see, Tiger Woods has been playing golf since he was three. Now I can't prove this but I bet he has more hours on the driving range than anyone else his age.

Sure he's good. Sure he has talent. His success though comes from deliberate practice. That's what most people miss.

Not related to this article but something I saw on the golf Channel last night. Tiger Woods, early in his career, asked someone in the clubhouse who's the guy still hitting golf balls on the driving range in the rain? The response was, "Arnold Palmer."

Anyone can become great. You can too, if you willing to pay the price.

Here's an interesting line from the article. "To see how the researchers could reach such a conclusion, consider the problem they were trying to solve. In virtually every field of endeavor, most people learn quickly at first, then more slowly, and then stopped developing completely. Yet a few do improve for years and even decades, and go on to greatness."

So why is it only a few go on to achieve the ultimate - greatness?

Apparently it has something to do with that 10 year rule - commonly referred to by researchers. Regardless of the field, it usually takes 10 years of really hard work to achieve any kind of world-class status. And most researchers say 10 years is the minimum amount of hard work and dedication required for greatness.

Back to Tiger Woods. He had 15 years of practice under his belt and in his head before he won the US Amateur Championship when he was 18.

So, if you want to become a sales champion you have to push yourself even harder.

And how does a sales champion practice? Now there's a question for the ages!

First - you have to identify the critical steps in your selling process. Note - this will vary by company and industry which means you'll have to roll up your sleeves and do some homework - maybe a lot of homework.

Once you identify the critical steps in your selling process, you should analyze the skills required for each step.

You then need to master the skills and unfortunately for you, this is where the hard work begins. Like Tiger, you have to go to the driving range.

Just as Tiger devotes time to practice the critical elements of the game of golf including driving, putting, sand shots, short iron, medium iron, long iron, Chip shots, pitch shots etc.

As professional sales representative you have to go to the driving range too. And like Tiger if you want to be great, you do it everyday.

To become a sales champion you should practice telephone calls, building rapport, asking questions, sales presentations, product presentations, handling the price objection, negotiating, sales proposals, securing the next appointment, asking for the business etc.

In the game of golf Tiger uses golf clubs. Golf clubs are the tools he uses to win tournaments.

In the game of sales you use words. To win bigger sales you have to use the right words in each critical step in your selling process.

Anyone can be good, it takes years of practice to become even better.

Are you willing to commit?

Remember anyone can become great, including you. Are you willing to invest in yourself? Are you willing to work hard?

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