The Lion King – Watching a Movie Again Improves Sales Effectiveness

Our son, now 9, watched The Lion King about 250 times between the ages of 2 and 4, and saw the broadway show an additional 4 times between the ages of 3 and 6.

Then he got away from The Lion King, watching other shows and movies that captured his attention instead.

This past weekend, for the first time in 5 years, he watched The Lion King again – six times – and fell in love with it all over again.  Only now, the scenes and dialogue that captured his attention are completely different than those he focused on years ago.  Could it be that his favorite new scenes and dialogue weren’t in the original movie?

Sales and sales management development is an ongoing process – multiple sessions over a period of 8-12 months – followed by periodic “refreshers”.  The reason for the refresher is that your salespeople hear strategies, tactics, words and phrases that weren’t in the original training.  The first time through, the salespeople were the 2-year-olds, capturing what they could from sales training, based on their context, reference points, and experiences, which were limited and varied.  Later, when being refreshed, their context, reference points and experiences have changed – for the better – because of the original training.  Now they recognize concepts that went over their head, that their old beliefs wouldn’t accept, and that they couldn’t imagine themselves actually doing months ago.  Now they’re experiencing selling scenarios that had never previously occurred and they need strategies and tactics for these new levels they are approaching on their sales calls and meetings.

You can watch a movie you haven’t seen for a while and appreciate the things you missed before.  Your sales force will experience the exact same benefits from rereading the book, having refresher training, and focusing on the areas they didn’t apply and execute the first time around.