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What Makes Tiger Tick?
What Golf Superstar Tiger Woods Can Teach
Sales Professionals About Winning
Bill Cole, MS, MA
Is Tiger Woods the greatest golfer who ever lived?
Jack Nicklaus might think so. Nicklaus, a living legend himself,
has said as much about Tiger, "He's playing a game I'm not
familiar with."
Tiger won the US Open as he was watched by over 9 million
homes. He's now won seven of the past eleven majors in golf.
One thing's for sure. Tiger Woods' mental game is absolutely
the very best on the pro golf tour. Here's what sales professionals
can learn from a mental master like Tiger.
1. Tiger Sets Very High Personal Standards And Holds Himself
Accountable.
Many tour pros set goals of trying to win a certain number
of events per year. Some set a goal of winning a particular
event. Tiger sets a goal of trying to win every event he enters.
He truly believes he has a chance to win each time he steps
out to play. When he falls short of a personal goal or objective,
Tiger blames no one or anything other than himself. He takes
full responsibility for his successes or failures.
As a sales professional you can set exciting, engaging goals
that create interest and logical, step-by-step objectives
that take you there. Take personal responsibility for everything
in your selling. You can make the commitment to practice a
sales skill or presentation until you get it, and the commitment
that you will strive to succeed in every sales transaction.
2. Tiger's Major Mental Tool Is His Unrelenting Mental
Discipline.
Tiger knows how to focus his mind on command. He does this
in practice and that here-and-now skill carries over to competition.
He intuitively sees how demanding continually sharp focus
relates directly to performance. He maintains personal rituals
before playing and practicing, and before each shot he takes.
He uses these routines as triggers to explode his energies
and focus onto what he is about to do.
Sales professionals can use rituals before telephoning and
presentations. You can pride yourself on getting over errors
quickly and getting your mind back on task. You can notice
when your mind begins to wander and bring it back to the present.
3. Tiger Builds His Confidence By Endless And Intense Practice.
Tiger knows that practice does not make perfect. Practice
makes permanent. Only perfect practice makes perfect. Tiger
uses the "over-kill method" when practicing. He repeats perfect
swings until he burns them into his mind and body. Then, even
under the most intense tournament pressure, those swings hold
up. That's how confidence is built, one practice swing at
a time.
As a sales professional you can realize the critical connection
between what you are doing in practice, with sales performance
in front of a client. The two are directly linked. You won't
allow sloppy practice, lackadaisical mental discipline or
random, aimless training. You realize that you practice the
way you perform.
4. Tiger Does NOT Keep His Eye On The Goal.
Instead, He Focuses On The Process. It is a myth that, in
a competition, great athletes focus on the goal of winning.
To be sure, winning is a goal, but it is a given. No focus
need go onto that goal. What excellent performers focus on
is process. Tiger is superb at keeping his mind in the here
and now. As he does that, with his well-honed practice habits
underneath everything, he allows the golf process to unfold
in the moment.
Sales professionals need to be incredibly outcome-oriented.
But forget about thinking about winning and focus on the things
you can do that will take you closer to that goal. Do enough
of those things with excellence and you will win more often.
Manage your mental game like Tiger Woods and soon you'll be
reaching more of your selling potential.
To learn more about how sales coaching can help you become
a better, more confident sales professional, visit Bill Cole,
MS, MA, the Mental Game Coach™ at www.mentalgamecoach.com/Services/SalesCoaching.html.
Copyright © Bill Cole, MS, MA 2005, 2008 All rights reserved.
This article covers only one small part of the mental game.
A complete mental training program includes motivation and
goal-setting, pre-event mental preparation, post-event review
and analysis, mental strengthening, self-regulation training,
breath control training, mental rehearsal, concentration training,
pressure-proofing, communication training, confidence-building,
breaking through mental barriers, slump prevention, mental
toughness training, flow training, relaxation training, psych-out
proofing and media training.
For a comprehensive overview of your mental abilities
you need an assessment instrument that identifies your complete
mental strengths and weaknesses. For a free, easy-to-take
66-item sales skills assessment tool you can score right on
the spot, visit https://www.mentalgamecoach.com/Assessments/SalesSkills.html.
This assessment gives you a quick snapshot of your strengths
and weaknesses in your mental game. You can use this as a
guide in creating your own mental training program, or as
the basis for a program you undertake with Bill Cole, MS,
MA to improve your mental game. This assessment would be an
excellent first step to help you get the big picture about
your mental game of selling.
Bill Cole, MS, MA, a leading authority on peak performance, mental toughness
and coaching, is founder and President of the International Mental Game Coaching
Association, https://www.mentalgamecoaching.com.
Bill is also founder and CEO of William B. Cole Consultants, a consulting firm that helps
organizations and professionals achieve more success in business, life and sports.
He is a multiple Hall of Fame honoree, an award-winning scholar-athlete, published
book author and articles author, and has coached at the highest levels of major-league
pro sports, big-time college athletics and corporate America. For a free, extensive
article archive, or for questions and comments visit him at www.MentalGameCoach.com.
Article Source: MentalGameCoach.com
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