The Delphic Golfer

"Originality does not consist of saying what has never been said before;
it consists of saying what you have to say that you know to be the truth."

Harvey Penwick's
Little Red Book of Golf

We have in Sales Training & Development a marvellous parallel in the world of Golf.
There are some renowned Golf Trainer/Coaches:

• Butch Harman with Tiger Woods and currently Phil Mickelson,
  
• David Leadbetter with Nick Faldo, Ernie Els and Nick Price.
  

There are some famous Coaching Specialists like:

• Dave Pelz author of both The Putting Bible and The Short Game Bible
  
• Doctor Bob Rotella Sport Psychologist and Author of Putting out of your Mind.
  

The Grandfathers of Golf Coaching are:

• Harvey Penick author of The
  little Red Book of Golf
  
• In addition, the legendary Ben Hogan, both Champion Golfer and developer of "Modern Golf".
  

  	Type	Strength
  Butch Harman	Shot-Maker	Imagination and Physical
  David Leadbetter	Swing Mechanic/Generalist	Thought/Analyst
  Dave Pelz	Specialist/Scientist	Thought/Analyst
  Doctor Bob Rotella	Sports Psychologist	Imagination/Mental
  Harvey Penick	Generalist	Thought/Imagination
  Ben Hogan	Swing Mechanic	Physical/Analyst

  
   

I exclude from the list 'Golfing My Way' authors from Past Champions such as Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Seve Ballesteros as their 'formula' is to practice 10 hours a day for 10 years as they did. Each developed a unique style, which was suited to their individual physique and unsuitable for a general audience.

Well, so what? You ask how does this transfer to Sales?

	Type	Strength
Miller-Heiman	Sales Process	Structure/Analyst
Neil Rackham's SPIN®	Sales Behaviour	Behaviour Analyst
Cognitive Psychology	Psychology	fMRI Scanning
Salesforce.com	Automation	Planning/Analyst
Xerox PSS	Generalist	Structured Step by Step
Brian MacIver	Generalist	Structure/Behaviour/fMRI

 

So who are the Champions of Selling My Way? Brian Tracy and the whole 'Better Yourself' movement, NLP in general and all books by 'Sales' Millionaires. Not included is the current crop of fad selling books, as they are either 'My Way' or rehashed classics. No pseudo-science MBTI, personality tests or surveys.

Imagine learning Golf based on 'personality' or a 'survey' of 1,000 golfers, an absurd idea!

No doubt, many of your personal favourites are not there, that is because they offer little, or even nothing, beyond the basic list.

So to all journeymen Professional Golf Coaches (at least they need a certification) and to all 'licensed' Sales Trainers, remember to ask them

• What research is this Training based on?
  

• What evidence can you offer to prove that:
  
  • I can learn how to do this?
    
  • I can transfer what I learn to my Job?
    
  • Moreover, that I will sell more because of this training?
    

On the golf course, it is easy, the scores go down and your handicap improves, in Sales it is always an anecdote!

Final word if you want to improve your golf then use one of these certified Teaching Pros http://davidleadbetter.com/2006/11/david-leadbetter-certified-instructors.html and if you want to improve your Selling to Top Performer Contact brian.maciver@gmail.com