One of the best qualities of the successful sales professional is that when they play, they play hard, and they play to win.

I remember being introduced to a potential customer many years ago, as we were exchanging personal information it came up that we both played golf, the person who had facilitated the meeting said, "Bill is a real student of the game."

Bill and I did meet on golf course a few times, and I came to find that he really was a student of the game. Bill not only constantly tried to improve his golf game, his swing, and keep up with equipment changes; he also studied and appreciated the history of the game. I was and still am just a little better than the average hacker (as an active sales representative, you don't want your manager to see your handicap to low, they will wonder how you spend your time).

Bill had a partner in his business, and it was a somewhat successful business, however they were in a niche that was at that time growing very rapidly, their business was also growing but not at an astounding rate. I remember thinking that if Bill devoted as much energy to his business as he did to his golf game, he would be very successful.

This same analogy applies to sales people. A few years back I was running a monthly sales meeting for our group. One of our new sales reps had come to the sales force from another department, he had no formal sales training, and however someone in our organization saw some promise for him.

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