Golf Psychology is Sales Psychology

I believe subconsciously a lot of us are aiming for what we are trying to avoid.

I see it all the time in coaching. Clients tell me how frustrated they are after implementing new strategies only to get the same results or sometimes worse results.

So frustrating!

Recently, I attended a golf outing, and I had the opportunity to observe this principal in action.

One of my foursomes was a very consistent golfer.  He had invested in great clubs and lessons and he practiced regularly!

It showed.

Every time he drove the ball it was a perfect arc, straight down the fairway, in the direction of the hole.

Except, when there was water.

Whenever there was water, that was where his ball went. Repeatedly. And, every time a ball would go into the water, the level of his play would drop.

By the end of the round, he was no longer able to enjoy what was going well, the beautiful day and the glorious golf course. He was ruminating on how he looked to the other golfers, making a plan to trade in his driver and cooking up a confrontation with his golf instructor.

He was re-calculating the formula of achieving what for him was golf success. More lessons, more practice, new clubs. It was exhausting listening to him.

He was missing more than the green.

He was unconsciously aiming for the distraction and not enjoying the benefits of all his hard work.

I see the same “psychology” in sales professionals. They have what it takes to be successful. They have the knowledge, and experience and they demonstrate some really sharp skills.

But, subconsciously, fear, lack of confidence, and false beliefs become the deep water that distracts them and inevitably the sure thing deal in the pipeline sinks to the bottom of the drink.

Just the risk of hitting the water hijacks the power of our focus enough that we create the conditions that we will hit it.

How do we stop doing this when we are not even aware that we are doing it?

It’s simple.

When we see balls drowning, that’s a clue that what we are actually dealing with under the surface is some fear, lack of confidence and limiting beliefs.  We need to take responsibility for getting to the root of our wrong focus and bolster our faulty focus.

Even if we can’t see it because duh, we can’t yet!

Our “focus on\” (the goal) works great.

Our “focus off” (the distraction), sucks.

That’s the power of mindset and strengthening our mind is a magic maker.

In Coaching, we use a technique to work on “not thinking about it” called “scorning it”.

That simply means we learn to completely disregard distractions. Scorn it. Learn to acknowledge and then utterly tune out distractions and tune in to the power of knowledge, skills and taking the right action.

It’s a mindset we all need. Golfers, Sales Pros, and everybody else that doesn’t want to suffer the frustrating loss of missing the target or worse losing our balls in the water.

Cathleen Mancino is a Peak Performance Sales and Leadership Coach specializing in helping clients make impactful presentations that get clients motivated to make decisions! For more information or to schedule a private session with Cathleen, visit www.theslingshotmethod.com or schedule an introduction by clicking here https://calendly.com/mybestslingshot/15min