Would you rather be talented or be resilient?
It’s an interesting question. The athletes and actors we see on TV seem to have a lot of talent, and many of them do. But having the resolve to continue under any circumstance can be much more valuable in the business world and can be applied to sales as well as all areas of life.
In other words, your athletic ability or natural born talent for sales won’t do anything to help you overcome obstacles in other areas. Developing your ability to persevere gives you one more advantage over challenges when meeting with your customers. Because of its importance in overcoming obstacles, this article also discusses perseverance as a part of resilience.
Talent has advantages, but is overrated:
- Talent can make the journey easier. If you have talent for a particular area, such as music or sales, you’ll have an easier time making progress. The journey is smoother and faster.
- Talent is insufficient. Talent doesn’t eliminate the need for practice. Talent without practice is no more valuable than not having the talent in the first place. The athletes you see on TV have both talent and years of intense practice. Salespeople who don’t develop their knowledge and skills will never achieve the level of success they desire.
- Talent isn’t a choice. You can’t choose to have a particular talent. You either have it or you don’t. Ideally, your interests and talents are in alignment.
- Talent is only necessary at the highest levels. Can you be the world’s greatest pianist or golfer without talent? No. But you can make a good living playing the piano or working as a salesperson without much talent provided you work hard enough and long enough.
There’s nothing wrong with being talented. The more talent, the better. But talent isn’t enough to ensure success. It only determines the extreme upper limits of your success. It also makes progress easier and faster.
See how resilience can be enough to ensure success in all areas of life:
- Resilience is enough to achieve 99% of your goals. Forget about talent. If you have the ability to persist and maintain a positive attitude and stay motivated during a time of adversity, you can be successful when handling difficult customers.
- Anyone can have resilience. Resilience is the result of a certain way of thinking and viewing the world. You can choose your beliefs and your thoughts. Therefore, you can have resilience. Start today. Make yourself do something that you don’t want to do, like clean out your desk or purge your unneeded emails or call a client with whom you don’t have the best relationship. Be tough and get it done.
- Resilience begets resilience. Developing resilience is like building your biceps. Your ability to demonstrate resolve grows with practice. Make yourself do something each day that’s unappealing, like following up with the prospect who is not responding to your emails or calls.
- Resilience is calming. That might seem counterintuitive, but it’s true. When you have determination, you don’t have any choices to make. You simply keep moving forward. Constant self-questioning is stressful and exhausting. When you only have a single choice, life is simpler. Having too many choices creates anxiety. If you want to continue working in sales, keep on doing what you are doing. Remind yourself of previous successes and deals closed and it will give you calm and strength to continue.
Resilience is among the most important attributes to possess as salesperson. Resilience can overcome a lack of talent in most difficult business situations. Unless you need to be in the top 0.25% of something, talent is irrelevant. Yes, it only makes the journey a little easier, but talent alone will not make you a sales superstar.
Resilience versus talent, which is better? The amount of resilience you achieve is more relevant than the amount of talent you possess. Talent is nice to have. It’s like having a sports car instead of a new economy sedan. Both will take you to the same place.
But all the talent in the business world is useless if it isn’t applied diligently. The ability to persist during any sales challenge is the key to long-term success. Take control of your beliefs on success in sales and your perspective on life. Believe that persistence is more important than talent. Hopefully, you have some of both. But, if you can only have one in your sales career, resilience is definitely more useful.
Here are 3 things that you need to do today:
- Pick one thing that you’ve been putting off, and do it now, while it’s fresh on your mind.
- Tomorrow, do one more thing that you’d rather not do.
- Start a habit of doing unwanted tasks quickly and as soon as you can.
