The #1 Reason Sales Reps Fail | COACHES PODCAST FT. JON GILGE

Salespeople are athletes — if your favorite team practices all week for one game, reps can't expect to win without deliberate, repeated practice.

Jon's unlikely path — an English degree, street sales, backpacking, then selling windows in Milwaukee — taught him that presentation and driving action beat a 'status' job.

Locus of control is the key mindset: there is always enough within your control in any appointment to create a positive experience and a good outcome.

A powerful self-check after a lost sale is 'Could someone else have done it?' — if yes, own it and isolate the variables you can attack next time.

Hire for coachable competencies and character, not just experience — too many bad habits can be harder to undo than a lack of skill is to train.

Credibility is everything: reps have to believe what you teach will actually help them, and data — like where in the call the price was presented — builds that trust.

The coaches who changed him for the better were hard on him but clearly cared; people remember the demanding coach who believed in them.