"A stubborn fool thinks his own way is right, but a wise person listens to advice."

Proverbs 12:15

Your biggest blind spot may be believing you already have the answer.

The best salespeople aren’t the ones who talk the most, they’re the ones humble enough to listen, curious enough to ask meaningful questions, and wise enough to seek perspective before prescribing a solution.

When you stop trying to prove you’re right and start trying to understand what your client truly needs, trust grows, conversations change, and meaningful value becomes possible.

Don’t let your ego close the door that your humility could open.

Allow this to sink in... Your experience should make you hungrier to get better, not more determined to be left alone.

Last week, I challenged you to think about comfort... You’re Not Above Growth... The Dangerous Complacency of the Experienced Salesperson.

I challenged you to look honestly at where you may have become comfortable in your sales career, because comfort can quietly become the ceiling on your growth.

This week, we're going to take that conversation one step further, and I’m going to be direct.

I believe there are two very different mindsets in sales.

One says... How can I get better?

The other says... Leave me alone, I’ve got this.

One belongs to the professional athlete, while the other has quietly infected far too many experienced salespeople.

You can be experienced, successful, respected, and still have a leave me alone mindset.

• You can hit your number and still be getting worse

• You can have a great book of business and still be becoming complacent

• You can have twenty years in sales and still be repeating the same year over and over again

You can be considered a sales veteran and still have stopped developing the one thing that determines how far you will ultimately go... And that is YOU.

So, buckle up, there will be turbulence as you read. This one is going to be direct.

The Professional Athlete Doesn't Think Like That

For a moment, imagine sitting in the locker room of a professional sports team, the coach walks in and says... It's time to practice, and the veteran player responds... Coach, I've been doing this for 15 years, just leave me alone, I know what I'm doing.

Someone, please tell me what happens next?

• They don't get a pass because of tenure

• They don't get to sit there because they've earned the right not to practice

• They probably won't be on that team for very long

Why? Because professional athletes understand something that experienced salespeople sometimes forget... Experience doesn't eliminate the need for practice, as experience increases the responsibility to practice.

Professional athletes train religiously.

They study film, work with coaches, practice fundamentals, analyze performance, work on weaknesses, prepare for competition, seek tiny advantages, and they do it even after they become successful.

Yesterday's performance doesn't guarantee tomorrow's performance.

The marketplace changes, competitors improve, customers change, technology changes, buying behaviors change, expectations change, and if you're standing still while everything around you is moving, you're not actually standing still, you're falling behind.

Your Mirror Moment

A bit curious... When was the last time you deliberately practiced your sales craft? By this I mean, not working but deliberate practice.

• Practicing means you're intentionally getting better at something

• Practicing means role-playing a difficult conversation

• Practicing means asking someone to critique your discovery questions

• Practicing means studying why you lost a deal

• Practicing means rehearsing how you're going to create meaningful value before the meeting

• Practicing means identifying a weakness and attacking it

Again, when was the last time you practiced? If your answer is I don't remember, we've found something worth talking about.

The Leave Me Alone Mindset

This mindset rarely sounds like laziness, and that's what makes it so dangerous.

It sounds professional, experienced and confident.

It sounds like...

• I know my customers

• I've been doing this a long time

• My numbers speak for themselves

• I don't need another training session

• I've heard this before

• My manager doesn't understand my accounts

• That's not how my customers buy

• I've already tried that

• I don't need someone looking over my shoulder

• Just let me sell

How many of those sound familiar?

Maybe you've said one of them, thought one of them, or maybe you have a salesperson on your team who says them all the time.

Experience can become a shield.

It can shield you from feedback, accountability, discomfort, vulnerability, and ultimately, it can shield you from growth.

When this happens, you start protecting what you already know instead of pursuing what you don't yet know. This is when experience stops being an asset and starts becoming an excuse.

Don't Confuse Confidence With Coachability

Confidence is good, but arrogance isn't.

Confidence says... I know what I'm good at, and I also know I can get better.

Arrogance says... I already know enough.

Confidence welcomes coaching, while arrogance tolerates coaching only when the coach agrees with you.

Confidence asks... What am I missing?

Arrogance asks... Why don't you understand why I do it my way?

Confidence gets curious, while arrogance gets defensive.

The professional athlete wants the coach who can find the one small adjustment that creates a competitive advantage.

The leave me alone salesperson wants the manager who says... Great job, keep doing what you're doing.

Here's something many tenured salespeople need to hear... You don't need more validation, you need more development.

You don't need someone to tell you how good you are, you need someone who cares enough to tell you where you can become better.

Your Experience Isn't Your Finish Line

Time for us to talk about tenure.

Maybe you've been selling for five, fifteen, or even twenty-five year, congratulations.

I believe there's tremendous value in experience, but here's the question... What has your experience produced?

Has your experience produced...

• Greater curiosity?

• Better questions?

• Deeper client relationships?

• More meaningful conversations?

• Stronger preparation?

• Better prospecting?

• Higher win rates?

• More discipline?

• Greater emotional intelligence?

• More self-awareness?

• More willingness to receive feedback?

Or has it simply produced greater confidence in the way you've always done things?

There is a massive difference between... I've been doing this for twenty years and I've spent twenty years getting better at this.

As my August 29th article pointed out, you can have twenty years of experience or one year repeated twenty times.

What Does Your Practice Routine Look Like?

Professional athletes don't leave their development to chance, and neither should you.

Imagine if you treated your sales career like an athletic career.

• You would have a training schedule

• You would know what skills you're working on

• You would review your performance

• You would have a coach

• You would track results

• You would identify weaknesses

• You would work on fundamentals

• You would prepare for game day

• You would recover

Then you would do it again and again, and again.

Instead, many salespeople wake up, check email, attend meetings, react to whatever lands in front of them, service existing customers, chase opportunities, complain about pricing, blame the economy, and then wonder why the pipeline isn't where it needs to be.

That's not professional development, all that's professional survival.

Professional athletes don't wait until game day to decide whether they're going to practice, so why would you?

Your Mirror Moment

Right now, pull out your calendar, and look at the last 30 days.

Now answer these questions...

• How many hours did you spend intentionally improving your sales skills?

• How many times did you ask someone for honest feedback?

• How many sales books, articles, podcasts, or training sessions did you consume?

• How many times did you practice your opening?

• How many times did you practice discovery?

• How many times did you practice handling resistance?

• How many times did you deliberately step outside your comfort zone?

Now compare that with...

• How many hours did you spend checking email?

• How many hours did you spend in internal meetings?

• How much time did you spend talking about being busy?

• How much time did you spend complaining about the market?

• How much time did you spend servicing existing business while calling it prospecting?

This comparison may tell you more about your future than your current sales numbers do, just saying.

Stop Protecting Your Ego

Sometimes the biggest obstacle standing between you and your next level isn't your company.

It isn't your territory, your pricing, or your competitor. It isn't the economy, it isn't your manager, it's you.

More specifically, it's the version of you that has become so comfortable with what you know that you're no longer willing to discover what you don't know.

My friends, that's ego and ego is expensive.

• Ego costs you opportunities you never knew existed

• Ego costs you conversations you never had

• Ego costs you skills you never developed

• Ego costs you relationships you never built

• Ego costs you revenue

If you're not honest with yourself, how can you expect to learn and grow?

Become A Business Athlete

I encourage you to start thinking differently about yourself.

You're not merely a salesperson, you're a business athlete.

Business athletes train, prepare, study, practice, accept coaching, embrace discomfort, review their performance, don't make excuses, and understand that discipline creates freedom.

Business athletes don't wait for motivation, or for their manager to chase them.

Business athletes don't wait for the pipeline to dry up.

Business athletes don't wait until they're losing, they take ownership.

You can make excuses, or you can make progress, but you can’t make both.

Your Mirror Moment

If I followed you around for the next 30 days, would I see a professional athlete or a leave me alone salesperson?

• Would I see you practicing?

• Would I see you prospecting?

• Would I see you preparing?

• Would I see you asking for feedback?

• Would I see you studying your customers?

• Would I see you challenging your assumptions?

• Would I see you reading?

• Would I see you learning?

• Would I see you intentionally improving?

Or would I hear...

• I've been doing this forever

• That's not how we do it

• My customers don't respond to that

• I already know that

• Leave me alone

Your calendar doesn't lie, and neither does your pipeline.

Your habits don't lie, your results don't lie, and neither does your attitude toward coaching.

A Huge Call To Action

Here's what I want you to do, starting right now.

For the next 30 days, I want you to become intentional about your development.

Create your own 30-Day Business Athlete Challenge.

1. Practice every day, every week.

Schedule actual practice time on your calendar.

Practice discovery, prospecting, difficult conversations, asking better questions, telling your meaningful value story.

2. Ask for one piece of honest feedback

Find someone you trust. This could be your manager, a peer, a mentor, or a coach.

Ask... What's one thing I could do better in my sales approach?

Then shut up. Don't defend yourself, don't explain, and don't justify.

Intentionally listen and get curious. Write it down, then work on it.

3. Review your performance

At the end of every week, ask...

• What worked?

• What didn't?

• What did I learn?

• Where did I get comfortable?

• Where did I avoid discomfort?

• What will I do differently next week?

4. Create one new disciplined habit

• Maybe it's 30 minutes of prospecting every morning

• Maybe it's reviewing one call every Friday

• Maybe it's asking one additional business-value question in every client conversation

• Maybe it's reading for 20 minutes every day

Start small, make it consistent, and remember... Consistency fuels growth.

5. Stop saying leave me alone

Not literally, but internally.

• Stop telling yourself that you've already learned enough

• Stop believing that tenure equals mastery

• Stop confusing confidence with competence

• Stop protecting your ego

• Stop settling

• Stop making excuses

• Stop waiting for someone else to make you better

Take ownership of your development.

Final Thoughts

Professional athletes wake up knowing they have something to improve.

The leave me alone salespeople wake up believing they have something to protect.

One is focused on tomorrow, while the other is defending yesterday.

One is curious, while the other is certain.

One seeks coaching, while the other resists it.

One practices, while the other relies on experience.

One embraces discomfort, while the other avoids it.

One is becoming better, while the other is becoming comfortable.

So, here's the questions I want sitting with you long after you finish reading this... Which one are you? Which one does your calendar, your behavior, your preparation, your attitude, and your results say you are?

Your career isn't built on what you say you believe, it's built on what you consistently do.

Here's the opportunistic part, you can change.

• You can start practicing

• You can start learning

• You can start listening

• You can start asking

• You can start preparing

• You can start prospecting

• You can start accepting coaching

• You can start becoming uncomfortable

• You can start growing

You don't need another year of experience, you need another year of intentional development.

Don't be the salesperson who says... I've been doing this too long to change.

Become the professional who says... I've been doing this long enough to know I can still get better.

Folks, this is all about mindset, standards, challenging yourself to get to the next level... Now, go earn it.

Originally published on Larry Levine's LinkedIn.