Post written by guest blogger: Chip Quimby - Director of Operations, STM360 

This past June, I had the pleasure to attend a special three-day seminar hosted by one of the world's preeminent martial artists. The instructor was a remarkably talented individual and held not only a 9th degree black belt, but also Japan's Intangible Cultural Asset title in the Field of Okinawan Karate.

I share his qualifications with you not to impress, but to help you understand the irony of the seminar. Perhaps it might surprise you to learn that our training over those three days wasn't the advanced curriculum you might expect to see at a seminar held for seasoned practitioners, most with an average experience level of twenty years.

No, there wasn't any in-depth examination of quarter-second timing theory or any practice of variable-distancing combatives, but actually the complete opposite. This group of martial artists, lead by one of the most accomplished practitioner alive, focused instead on the basics. You know...punching, kicking, striking and blocking.

Why? Well the reason was simple. The teacher wanted to impress upon us, more than anything else over those three days, that no matter what our level of experience, be it beginner or advanced - if we wanted to be great martial artists, than we needed to always stay focused on the basics.

Days later I jumped a plane and returned home. Over the next few days, I continued to reflect on the seminar and the theme we focused on during training. I also spent time reflecting on the similarities that existed between the martial arts and sales, and how to be effective at both requires a constant focus on the basics.

The most successful sales people I know, just as in the martial arts, are great at the fundamentals - you know - the punches, kicks, strikes and blocks of selling. Effective sales professionals, just like martial artists, earn and then re-earn their "sales black belt" everyday by continually focusing on the basics. It's all too easy a thing to forget, but truly one of the secrets to their success. Here's what made my list:

• Know your customer
• Always be prospecting
• Prep for every customer interaction
• Properly execute every customer interaction
• Validate needs and buying process with the customer
• Qualify hard and often
• Always be closing
• Never take short cuts with the basics

Learning and applying any one of these skills is not difficult, yet to do all of them, all the time, requires commitment and discipline, just like the martial arts. It's easy to skip steps and blow things off, especially when you think you've been around the block once or twice.

Complex sales, by definition, involve multiple steps and multiple decision stakeholders. Although it's not rocket science, to perform this type of process well requires a high degree of discipline, good old-fashion hard work, and focus on the basics - very much like the martial arts.

In a recent review of sales rep job postings, it struck me that most companies are seeking candidates with X number of years of specific industry experience. Should industry experience be a major decision factor when hiring sales people? What is the correlation between industry experience and sales success?

I posed the following question to a group of experienced sales leader:

Is it easier to teach an industry / product expert to sell OR teach a sales expert an industry / product?

People jumped on this issue and focused their comments around hiring decisions. If given a choice, 95 out of 100 sales leaders would hire a proven sales expert with no industry experience over someone with less sales success but more industry experience. In fact, many of the responders had specific examples of why industry experience should not matter.

If the overwhelming majority of sales leaders feel this way, then why do so many companies seek sales reps with industry experience? I believe this is the case for several reasons:

• It's easy for recruiters to identify and source candidates

• Some companies do a good job of training sales people and become recruiting targets for companies that lack effective on-boarding programs

• Perception that sales people who come with industry experience are lower risk

The reality is most companies do not invest the time to determine what type of selling environment experience is most relevant for the position. For example, the selling environment might include complex sale cycles (multiple steps, multiple decision stakeholders), C-level decision-making, and decision criteria based upon ROI. Granted, potential candidates from your industry most likely have this experience but what other industries have a similar selling environment?

Identification of candidates with like selling environment success can greatly increase the pool of potential hires - and bring fresh perspective to the selling process. As most sales leaders would agree, it is easier to teach a skilled sales person an industry than teach an industry expert how to sell.