Sales Conferences

I just returned from a Sales Conference at a local hotel and as usual I'm left energized, motivated and pumped up to go out and sell. However, the challenge for me has always been how to keep that energy going for any length of time. I'm great that day spewing out new ideas that resonated with me and I'm excited to try right away. Yet, with every day that passes, life creeps in and I get distracted and I fall back into my comfort zone doing what I always did.

I shouldn't feel bad, I suspect that this is very normal and that most people experience the same drop off of enthusiasm as every day passes. So, how can we keep it going? What I've found to work, knowing that this is a problem for me, is to tell someone right away what I have learned. I find that by teaching others I actually retain the information longer and I also begin to make it mine with subtle changes.

I also make sure to take notes at the sessions and then upon return to my office I review my notes immediately and highlight the top 3 to 5 items I don't want to forget. I rewrite them and post them on my wall so I see them everyday. I then start planning how I can learn more where needed and who I can execute my highlighted items with right away.

This has worked for me and perhaps you have some other or better ways to share. Please let me know as I am always willing to learn.

I found the following information on learning retention rates/stats which might be beneficial to know to help you understand how we learn as humans:

Graham O'Connell , 30 January 2007 @ 17:07 PM Please don't treat the following - which is my favourite version - as statistically valid but more as a signal for what works and in roughly what proportions.

10% of what we read
20% of what we hear
30% of what we see
50% of what we hear and see
60% of what we say (repeating what we have heard and seen)
70% of what we do (practicing what we have heard and seen)
90% of what we hear, say, see and do

There is a new book out 'The Transfer of Learning: Participants' Perspectives of Adult Education and Training' by Sarah Leberman, Lex McDonald, and Stephanie Doyle. I have not read it yet but may be worth considering - not for stats but for how to make learning stick and get put into practice, which is a little more involved than recall, or memory, alone.
Graham O'Connell