Conversations with Jill Konrath, a sales thought-leader, author of best-selling books and avid Gamer -- Part I

As an author of several best-selling books such as SNAP Selling (#1 Amazon sales books) and Selling to Big Companies (Amazon Top25 sales book since 2006) , founder of the Sales SheBang and a premier thought-leader for building high-performing sales teams, Jill Konrath brings passion and well-articulated wisdom daily to deliver results to her vast and diverse group of clients.

This interview with Jill is the seventh in our series about learning, games, social media, crowd-sourcing and work performance.

RD> The first question for you, are you a gamer?
JK> I am a gamer. My favourite games right now are word games. I have addictive crossword puzzle syndrome and start every morning with the New York Times crossword. I especially like the Thursday, Friday and Saturday ones which are much harder than the ones earlier in the week. As I've done more writing, word games have helped me learn and write better. I also recognize that Games and Business go hand–in-hand and I love solving problems, so yes! I am gamer.

RD> How do you learn?
JK> First and foremost, I learn by reading. When I'm interested in a topic, I do an immersion in it and read everything that is out there. As I read, I look for emerging patterns and start determining what is effective and what is not.

I want to first learn from the Masters and get a comprehensive picture. Then I start experimenting with different approaches and strategies till I ultimately figure the puzzle out. That’s where “learning by doing” comes into play. When I first got into sales at Xerox, I followed the exact same learning path I just described.

RD> I find that our age-cohort, you and I acquire information and learn very differently from the under-40 generation. Do you agree? What are the differences and similarities you see among those getting into sales profession now versus when we got into our careers?
JK> I am not sure if age plays a role. I think we have adapted to new way of acquiring information (which is not age-dependent). We have become scanners online till something attracts our attention. However, the content summary has to first wet our appetite in small chunks before we pay attention. This is very different to what probably you and I did twenty years ago.

I think people learn differently. My daughter learns via reading and can assimilate and process information and learn by reading just like you and me. My son loves physical learning and being in aviation he learns via simulators.

However both are not afraid of failing and they like failing fast. Our age group probably is more afraid of failing and will spend endless hours to get to the right answer.

For example, the younger generation will crash few planes on the flight simulator and then learn quickly to make correct landings. If I played flight simulator, I would do everything I could to get it right the first time.

Younger people will experiment more and they will say “Oh! That’s ok – I blew that light on the runway and I will do it again and I will correct it.” Whereas I will sit there thinking ‘Gosh I don’t want to blow it. I don’t want to fail.” I did the same when I played PAKRA Games.

… To Be Continued

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