"Why Naturally Talented Salespeople Eventually Get Outperformed By Their Less Talented Peers"

For much of my career (and even a good portion of my life), I’ve tried to confirm to myself that I’m a “natural born” salesperson.

The concept of the natural born salesperson vs. the “learned” salesperson has been a debate that has probably raged on since the inception of the sales profession.

In other words, are salespeople born or made?

Deep down, even if an individual doesn’t believe you have to be a natural born salesperson to be successful, many of them still want to believe that they are a natural born salesperson—just in case the theory is true that great salespeople are born and not made.

If you’ve ever studied much success psychology, you’ll quickly find out that beliefs play a critical role in your level of achievement in any field or endeavor.

Because of that, many salespeople—whether they believe in the “born” salesperson or the “made” salesperson—will still try to develop the belief that they are, in fact, naturally talented at sales.

Even if you believe in nurture over nature, why not have that belief? It couldn’t hurt, right?

Wrong.

Having the belief that you are a naturally talented salesperson seems like an empowering belief to have. It seems like a belief that could unlock your potential as a salesperson.

What may surprise many sellers to know is that having the belief that you are naturally talented at sales will actually prevent you from being a top performer over the long haul.

How can this be?

In the groundbreaking book Mindset, by Carol Dweck, she asserts there are essentially two fundamental mindsets a person can have:

1. “The fixed mindset.” This is the belief that qualities, traits, skills, and talents are fixed, and nothing much can be done to change them. The way this may manifest itself in the sales world would be something like “You either have sales ability, or you don’t. Some things just can’t be taught.”
2. “The growth mindset.” This is the belief that qualities, traits, skills, and talents can be developed, grown, and mastered. Including the ability to sell. The way this belief manifests itself in the sales world is the belief in the “made” salesperson rather than the “born” one.

The problem with the fixed mindset in the sales world is that even if you believe you are extremely talented at sales, now every interaction and experience you have becomes either validation, or invalidation of your belief that you are a naturally gifted salesperson.

It creates a high pressure urgency to prove your natural talent over and over. Both to yourself, and to others whom you want to impress.

This prevents you from taking on challenging situations that will force you to grow because if you fail, now that becomes proof that you don’t have natural sales ability.

You live in fear that your lack of natural talent will be exposed, so you only take on projects, tasks, and experiences that you know you will do well at.

In other words, you avoid learning experiences at all costs so that you never make mistakes. Mistakes tell the world that you don’t have an innate sales gift.

Furthermore, you will avoid highly valuable (but critical) feedback from coaches and managers. Instead of feedback being highly valuable information for you to improve your game, it becomes a shot at your identity.

If feedback becomes either good news or bad news about your precious inborn sales skills, "failure" becomes a monumentally painful situation.

On the other hand, there is the growing salesperson—the person who believes sales skills are not inherent ability, but a set of skills that can be learned and mastered over time.

Now every interaction and experience becomes fun. They become an opportunity to learn.

Instead of having massive pressure on the line to prove that you have innate sales talent, the tension completely dissipates because you see the sales call for what it is: an opportunity to learn and grow.

Now, you are much more likely to take on experiences that challenge and push you.

And constructive feedback becomes something you crave. It's an opportunity to become aware of an area you can now improve.

Over the course of years and decades, if you’ve been growing and challenging yourself while the “naturals” have stayed safely in their comfort zones to confirm their talent to themselves, you will leave them in the dust.

The point is: it doesn’t matter whether or not you were born with some level of innate talent. The key is to believe that whatever talent (or lack thereof) you have is only a starting point for lifelong development.

And to get to work on that.

It's not always the people that start the most talented that end the most talented.