"Comfort is the enemy of progress."

P.T. Barnum

Salespeople, let the P.T. Barnum quote sink in, as comfort feels good, but comfort can quietly become the ceiling on your career.

When you stop prospecting because your current accounts are good enough, stop asking better questions because you’ve been doing this forever, stop seeking coaching because you already know how to sell, or stop challenging yourself because your numbers are respectable, you may not be failing, you may simply be settling.

Plain and simple, settling is dangerous.

The elite sales professionals understand that growth lives on the other side of discomfort.

They stretch themselves, sharpen their skills, invite coaching, practice their craft, and willingly put themselves in situations where they might not have all the answers.

Your experience should never be an excuse to stop growing; it should be the foundation that gives you the confidence to keep pushing.

I must ask... Where have you become comfortable and what's that comfort costing you?

Fasten your seat belts my friends, as you might start to experience some turbulence.

There's a strange disease that can quietly infect successful salespeople.

It doesn’t show up when the numbers are terrible, it doesn’t always look like laziness, and it rarely announces itself.

Instead, it sounds like this...

• I’ve been doing this for years

• I know what I’m doing

• I’ve heard this training before

• My manager doesn’t need to coach me

• I don’t need another sales book

• I know how to sell

• I’m too experienced for role-play

• I’ve already proven myself

Honestly, many of you have said those things or have thought them, and if you have, I’m not here to shame you, I’m here to challenge you.

There's a massive difference between being experienced and being finished, and too many salespeople confuse the two.

The Professional Athlete Would Think You Were Nuts

Imagine walking into the locker room of any professional sports team and telling one of its veteran players... You’ve been doing this for 15 years, why are you still training?

Imagine telling an NFL quarterback... You’ve played hundreds of games, you probably don’t need a coach anymore.

Imagine telling an elite golfer... You’ve already won tournaments, why are you still working on your swing?

Imagine telling an NBA basketball player... You know how to shoot, stop practicing.

These athletes would look at you as if you had lost your mind, because the best athletes understand something that many experienced salespeople forget...

Mastery is not the absence of practice, mastery requires practice.

Professional athletes train because they know yesterday’s performance does not guarantee tomorrow’s performance.

• They work with coaches because they know they can't see everything about themselves.

• They study film because they want to identify the tiny things that separate good from great.

• They practice fundamentals because fundamentals become even more important as the level of competition increases.

• They deliberately put themselves into uncomfortable situations because discomfort reveals weaknesses.

• They never reach the point where they say... I’m above getting better.

If a professional athlete with millions of dollars, years of experience, championships, and elite ability still believes they need coaching and training, why would you believe your sales career is the one profession where experience eventually makes learning unnecessary?

Experience can either make you wiser or make you comfortable.

Experience Isn't Immunity

There's nothing wrong with being experienced, as experience is valuable.

You’ve accumulated knowledge that a new salesperson simply doesn’t have, however; experience becomes dangerous when it turns into entitlement.

At some point, the very thing that made you successful can become the thing that prevents your next level of success.

• You stop asking questions

• You stop seeking feedback

• You stop experimenting

• You stop practicing

• You stop reading

• You stop attending training

• You stop listening to your manager

• You stop allowing someone to challenge your thinking

• You begin operating from memory instead of curiosity

Slowly, without notice, you stop growing.

In my book Selling From The Heart, I encourage salespeople toward self-reflection, self-awareness and challenging themselves. The challenge is straightforward... Seek expertise, crave feedback, be radically honest with yourself, set goals and never stop learning.

Your Mirror Moment

I would like you to look at your calendar from the last 30 days.

How much time did you spend...

• Practicing?

• Role-playing?

• Reviewing your calls or meetings?

• Asking for feedback?

• Reading?

• Learning something new?

• Working with a coach?

• Studying your clients?

• Improving your prospecting?

• Challenging an assumption about how you sell?

Now compare that with how much time you spent...

• Checking email?

• Moving meetings around?

• Talking about how busy you are?

• Complaining about the market?

• Blaming pricing?

• Blaming your company?

• Blaming your competitors?

• Servicing existing accounts and calling it prospecting?

You can become comfortable and stagnate, or stretch yourself into discomfort and grow.

Discomfort isn't necessarily evidence that something is wrong, it's evidence that something is changing.

Professional Athletes Understand Discomfort

A professional athlete doesn't walk into training expecting every drill to feel easy.

• They expect to be challenged

• They expect to struggle

• They expect to discover weaknesses

• They expect their coach to point out things they don't want to hear

Why am I saying this? Because the goal isn't to protect their ego, the goal is to improve performance.

The coach isn't there to make the athlete feel good, the coach is there to make the athlete better.

Now think about your relationship with coaching.

Do you welcome the coach who challenges you? Or do you prefer the manager who tells you that you're doing a great job?

Do you want feedback? Or do you want validation?

Do you want someone to tell you what you need to hear? Or what you want to hear?

High-performing professionals understand the difference.

Maybe You Don't Hate Coaching, Maybe You Hate Being Exposed

If you're not uncomfortable yet, then brace yourself.

Maybe your resistance to training isn't really about training. Maybe your resistance to coaching isn't really about coaching. Maybe the real issue is vulnerability.

Coaching requires you to admit...

• I don't know

• I could be better

• I missed something

• I have a blind spot

• My approach isn't working as well as I thought

• I need help

For an experienced salesperson, those statements can feel threatening, especially if you've built your identity around being the expert.

Hear me out on this... The strongest professionals are often the most coachable. They don't see coaching as an attack on their ability, they see it as an investment in their ability.

Feedback doesn't diminish competence, it sharpens it.

Your Mirror Moment

Think about the last time a coach, sales manager, or senior leader told you something about your selling that you didn't already believe.

First, can you remember it? What did they say?

• Did you listen?

• Did you get defensive?

• Did you explain why your approach was different?

• Did you immediately explain why your customer is different?

Or did you get curious?

If nobody has challenged your thinking lately, there are two possibilities... Either you've reached a level of mastery so extraordinary that nobody can see an opportunity for improvement or you've stopped inviting people close enough to challenge you.

Ten Years Of Experience Or One Year Repeated Ten Times?

I hate to break this to you all, years in sales doesn't automatically equal years of growth.

Someone can have 20 years of experience, or they can have one year of experience repeated 20 times.

If your process, mindset, habits, conversations and approach haven't materially evolved over the last several years, your tenure may be giving you a false sense of progress.

You have more time in the profession, but that doesn't necessarily mean you're better at the profession.

This is where the concept of disciplined habits becomes so important.

Discipline isn't...

• Not occasional

• Not when you're motivated

• Not when your pipeline is empty

• Not when your manager is watching

Disciplined consistency is about...

• Practicing when nobody is watching

• Making the call when you don't feel like it

• Asking the extra question

• Preparing more deeply

• Following up with meaningful value

• Learning something new

• Seeking feedback

• Reviewing what happened

Discipline is discipline as consistency fuels growth. Consistency is rarely glamorous.

The Athlete Analogy Gets Even More Uncomfortable

Imagine two professional athletes...

The first athlete says... I've been doing this for 15 years. I know my body, my position, what works for me, I'm not interested in coaching.

The second athlete says... I've been doing this for 15 years, which means I have 15 years of experience, but I also know there are things I can't see. I desire feedback, improvement, and I want to stay ahead of the competition.

Who would you bet on?

Now imagine both are salespeople, which one are you?

The marketplace doesn't care how long you've been selling, your customers don't owe you loyalty because you've been in the business for 20 years, your competitors aren't going to slow down because you have tenure, and your quota doesn't get smaller because you're experienced.

You have a choice, you can protect your ego, or you can improve your game.

What If Your Success Is The Problem?

Failure forces us to examine ourselves, while success can allow us to avoid examining ourselves.

When you're struggling, you look for answers. When you're winning, you can convince yourself you already have them.

Your success can create a comfortable story...

• I'm doing fine

• My clients love me

• My numbers are good

• Why change something that's working?

What if good is keeping you from becoming great?

What if your current success is masking a weakness that will eventually become expensive?

What if the thing you're avoiding today is exactly the thing that could unlock your next level?

What if your unwillingness to be coached is costing you opportunities you don't even know you're missing?

Just saying...

Your Mirror Moment

Here's the question I want you to wrestle with... What would happen if someone challenged the way you sell?

I'm not referring to your character or your worth, but your approach.

Would you get curious? Or defensive?

Would you ask... Tell me more, or would you immediately explain why your situation is different?

Would you welcome the challenge? Or would you quietly dismiss the person giving it?

Sometimes the attachment to being the experienced salesperson becomes stronger than the desire to become a better salesperson.

Your identity shouldn't be... I am the salesperson who knows everything.

Your identity should be... I'm a professional who is committed to getting better.

Don't Become The Veteran Who Stopped Training

The greatest salespeople aren't necessarily the people who have been around the longest, they're the people who have stayed hungry the longest.

• They remain students

• They remain curious

• They remain coachable

• They remain willing to practice

• They continue developing authentic relationships

• They continue learning how to create meaningful value

• They continue refining the client experience

• They continue building disciplined habits

• They continue asking better questions

• They continue challenging themselves

• They continue looking in the mirror

Becoming a professional isn't a destination, it's a commitment.

Maybe today isn't about learning another sales technique, maybe it's about confronting your attitude.

Maybe you don't need another book, maybe you need to open the last one you bought and apply something from it.

Maybe you don't need another training program. maybe you need to take the last training seriously.

Maybe you don't need another coach, maybe you need to become coachable.

Maybe you don't need another strategy, maybe you need the discipline to execute the strategy you already have.

Maybe you don't need more experience, maybe you need to do something with the experience you've already earned.

Your Final Mirror Moment

As we bring our time together to a close, the question isn't whether you're successful, or whether you've been in sales for five, 10, 20 or 30 years, or even whether you're better than the salesperson sitting next to you.

The question is quite simple... Are you still willing to grow?

If the answer is no, you may have stopped being a professional athlete in the sales arena and started becoming a spectator of your own career.

It's about to get deep, and this question has nothing to do with sales techniques, quotas or training... What if the reason you believe you're above coaching, training and growth isn't because you have nothing left to learn, but because you're insecure about what someone might discover if you let them challenge you?

What if your resistance isn't confidence? What if it's insecurity?

Lastly... What could become possible if you finally stopped protecting your ego and started training for your next level?

Originally. published on Larry Levine's LinkedIn.