It astonishes me just how much purported sales gurus can needlessly complicate the selling process.

Read their suggestions and youll get lost in checklists and bullet points and feel youre stuck in a swamp of cerebration.

They make most salespeople reel with confusion, because NO SALESPERSON CAN KEEP ALL OF THESE SILLY POINTS IN MIND WHEN HES DEALING WITH PROSPECTS IN THE HERE-AND-NOW.

Selling is not just mental. It isnt simply a Left-Brain, linear process.

Its emotional, and that engages the Right-Brain.

And ultimately, its behavioral, and this is beyond left and right hemispheres. It is in a zone that Zen types call, No-Brain.

Lets say youre in a batting cage hitting balls that are being hurled at you at 90 miles per hour, and there are about three seconds between pitches.

If you foul off a ball or two, you can make some quick adjustments in your stance or grip, but thats about it.

WHOOSH! The next pitch is hurling toward you, and no throwing machine is perfect so you have to stay on your toes; otherwise you might get beaned.

In the real world of selling, participants arent cautiously calculating what to do next, each and every moment of a conversation. If they were, theyd seem artificial, stiff, and strategic to prospects, and that would arouse mistrust.

Moreover, it would make selling too stressful and uncomfortable for all involved.

Like pro athletes, sellers can have a playbook, a game plan, and that sort of thing, but they have to leave room for adjustments, for improvisation.

They have to appreciate that all of the chalk-talk lectures and videos that came before are somewhat helpful, but those tools arent going to win ball games.