5/29/10

Practice Is Just As Valuable As The Sale--Or Is It More? - Part 2

A couple days ago, I posted an article about practice being as important, or even more important than making the sale. I didn't intend to write a supplemental piece about this, but today changed my mind.

Today I realized so clearly how valuable practice can be, and is and how much better practice is than the sale. Today, I arrived. I arrived at the place that every sales person either wants or needs to be, or they should at the very least consider strongly. I arrived at full confidence in what I am doing.

Oh, I've arrived there before in other fields of endeavor, but today I arrived as an Internet Marketer and Consultant. Now, to put that into perspective, in September of 2007, I was completely unknowledgeable about websites, how to build them, what they were about, how they worked. In October of 2007, I built my first website using an online builder. It was terrible. But I kept doing it and they got better. The second website was in January of 2008. What's interesting about that is that I decided in that short time to go into business in that field. I know, that is insane. Knowing so little about something and taking that plunge.

But here's the deal. I got better and tried lots of things and learned and learned and read, attended seminars and learned. Even in March of 2008, neither my partner nor I even knew what a blog was. Scary. Now we build blogs like crazy. Weird. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization is another strange thing. What does that mean? Now we do this without even thinking of it that way. And, so much more.

Our focus was on one thing: providing valuable service to our clients. That is what we have done and the rest has come in regular doses to the point that today I decided that I have arrived at the level of full confidence in what I do in this field. I can even talk with people with far more experience than I and even occasionally teach them something. It is a great place to be.

And, get this--I can't write one line (even a short one) of HTML code, or JAVA or any other coffee brand. It matters not because I don't need to. Because the Internet was a complicated thing in my head, I needed to demystify it for myself so that I could understand how to make use of it. That very demystification is what we use to help our clients understand it as well. We're not web guys, but sales guys who use web tools to help businesses grow their business. If we don't know something, it's easy enough to find out.

Now, I can go talk to anyone I want and feel confident that it will not only make sense, but also appeal to their better instincts. This is tough to do without confidence and this confidence has only come from the practice. It is far more valuable than the sale. That confidence creates and stimulates enterprise. It builds companies. The sale is a side benefit.

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