"They need to take it one game at a time,” the commentator said.

I yelled back to the TV during the football game, “What, instead of playing Thursday's, Sunday's, and Monday’s games at the same time?”

With the NFL season underway, college football rolling, and Major League Baseball coming down to the final weeks of the season, this is a wonderful time of year to be a sports fan.

It also means we get to hear announcers dust off the same sports clichés we've heard approximately 14 million times, like that one.

Another I heard:

"They need to put some points on the board."

Brilliant insight when you're losing, Captain Obvious.

But there are two sports clichés I absolutely love. Because they describe mastery better than most of the books I've read on the subject.

"The game has slowed down for him."

And...

"She's letting the game come to her."

You might have heard these, too. There is actually a lot going on behind those words if you analyze them. (And they do relate to the subject line and title of this piece.)

Derek Jeter once explained why the enormous pressure of postseason baseball didn't overwhelm him the way one might expect.

"I prided myself on being prepared," he said. Ok, that itself is not too profound… but…

Because of that preparation, even in the biggest moments, "it was just the same game and the game slowed down."

Think about that. The pitcher wasn't throwing slower. The ball wasn't moving slower.

There were still 50,000 screaming people in Yankee stadium. The consequences of screwing up hadn't disappeared.

What had changed was Jeter, himself.

Former NFL cornerback Brandon Boykin described the same phenomenon when talking about the difference between his rookie and second seasons.

As a rookie, he said, the game was really fast. Then it slowed down the next year.

Why?

He understood route concepts better. He could anticipate what was coming.

And then he said something that perfectly describes what happens when someone reaches a higher level of mastery:

"I was able to just play the game and not have to think as much."

Boom. That's it. THAT’s the sales connection.

And there is science behind it.

Researchers studying expertise have found that experienced performers get much better at recognizing patterns, filtering out irrelevant information, and anticipating what's likely to happen next.

Instead of processing more things, they're better at recognizing what matters.

Here's how I've come to think about it: the beginner sees everything. And it often scares the hell out of him. The master sees what matters.

The exact same thing happens in sales.

Think about when you were a brand new salesperson in the middle of some of your first calls. Hate to bring back the trauma for some, but it probably included some of the following…

What should I say next?

What question should I ask?

They’re probably going to resist.

What if I don’t know how to answer?

Am I talking too much?

Which, now that I think about it, might explain much of my golf game.

I've stood over more golf balls than I care to admit with a coaching staff of about eight voices in my head, all shouting different swing instructions.

Keep your left arm straight. Slow takeaway. Turn. Don't sway. Head down. Finish the swing.

And then… (Expletive!) 

Apparently, conducting an emergency committee meeting in your head during your backswing is not the secret to golf mastery.

But I experience the opposite of this all the time in sales training.

Someone will give me a situation.

"Art, the prospect said this. What would you say?"

And I'll respond conversationally, word for word, with what I would say.

And I've had participants tell me,

"Wow. You make that sound so easy."

It is. Now.

What they didn't see were all the years when it wasn't. The calls that went sideways. The mistakes I made and had to sit with. Hours listening to my own recordings, cringing. Writing and rewriting the same explanation forty different ways until one of them finally sounded like a human being instead of a script. Teaching it to other people, which forces you to actually understand why it works instead of just knowing that it does. Coaching it. Hearing thousands of variations of the same situation from thousands of different reps. Seeing what worked. Seeing what bombed badly. And doing it again the next day.

That's why something that might require conscious effort for someone else can come out of my mouth naturally.

I've seen some version of it before.

That's what happens to the veteran quarterback. He doesn't see 11 unrelated defenders running around. He recognizes a formation, coverage, tendency, or a pattern.

The experienced salesperson develops that same kind of pattern recognition.

They don't hear, "We're happy with who we're using," and immediately panic and start searching their brain for OBJECTION RESPONSE #17.

They hear it. Recognize it.

Maybe they hear something in the tone. Maybe something the prospect said five minutes earlier makes the statement interesting. Maybe they're just curious about it instead of trying to overcome it.

So they respond naturally. The game has slowed down.

But iIt doesn't slow down because you just WANT it to or magically manifest it.  It slows down because you've put in the work.

You've learned. Practiced. Used it. Screwed it up. Studied what happened. Corrected it. Done it again.

And eventually you begin recognizing situations instead of experiencing every one of them as if you're seeing it for the first time.

That's mastery.

And that's also when you can begin doing something else we hear about constantly in sports:

Letting the game come to you.

Houston Rockets guard Reed Sheppard talked about this while adjusting from college basketball to the NBA.

His approach was to keep learning and "let the game come to me."

And then he explained what makes that possible:

"Trust yourself and trust the work that you put in."

That's not passive, and definitely not winging it.

It's the opposite. You've prepared enough that you don't need to force the action.

And great salespeople do the same thing. They don't need to force their next question into the conversation.

The prospect says something interesting, so they go there. There's a pause. They don't freak out and immediately fill the silence.

They hear uncertainty in something that sounded definitive. They recognize the shape of an objection they've encountered 50 different ways. They can abandon the question they planned to ask because the answer they just heard opened a much more interesting path.

They don't have to force the conversation through their sales process. They've mastered the process enough to be present in the conversation.

And that brings me to something I'm increasingly concerned about with AI in sales.

Every day there's another announcement about some AI tool that will research your prospect, write your opening, create your discovery questions, tell you what to say to an objection, write your email, summarize your call, write the follow-up, update the CRM, tell you what to do next, and probably make you lunch while it's at it.

Some of that is fantastic. I use AI every day. But here's the question I believe every sales professional should be asking:

If AI is always playing the game for you, when does the game ever slow down for YOU?

There's a huge difference between using AI to do your thinking and using AI to help you become a better thinker and performer. That's exactly what we're building right now.

The AI-assisted Smart Calling coach we're developing is designed not simply to spit out sales content for you, but to help you become a better sales professional. It will help you prepare and practice, think through situations, understand WHY something works, recognize patterns, role-play difficult conversations, get coaching, and ultimately become better at what you say and do in those moments that matter.

The goal is getting the game to slow down for YOU, not handing AI the job of playing it.

We're deep into development now, and it will be available before the end of this year. I'll share much more as we get closer.

You certainly don't need to wait for that to start slowing the game down. And the great news is that it does not take years to do it. It does require you taking action.

Pick one part of your sales game that still feels too fast. Maybe it's your opening, your questioning, a particular objection that still causes you to tense up, getting to the real reason someone might buy, handling price, or asking for commitment.

Whatever it is, don't just hope you'll get better at it by doing more calls. Study it. Practice it. Use it. Review it. Correct it. Repeat.

Role-play the situation before you're in it for real. After a call, don't just move on to the next one. Think about the moments that didn't feel right. What did they say? What did you say? What could you have asked? What might you do differently next time?

Listen to your recordings. Study people who are better than you. Practice your language out loud so you're not hearing yourself say it for the first time when money is on the line.

And yes, use AI. But don't always ask it, "What should I say?" Ask it why. Challenge the answer. Give it what you said and ask it to critique you. Have it play the prospect while you practice. Ask it to give you five variations of a situation so you learn to recognize the pattern instead of memorizing one response.

Use AI as a sparring partner, not a substitute.

Then keep doing the work. Because mastery isn't something you decide to have. It's earned through learning, repetition, discipline, feedback, correction, and doing it again.

Eventually, a prospect says something that once would have sent your brain scrambling. This time you hear it. You recognize it. You're curious about it. You respond naturally. You're not searching for a technique or scrambling for a line. You're simply there, completely engaged in the conversation.

The game has slowed down. And now you can let it come to you.

In addition to the AI coach we're working on for later this year, right now I have a resource that can provide the daily training, preparation, and accountability that can help you get closer to that level of mastery.

It's the Smart Calling Prospecting and Sales App for B2B Professionals, and many of you are already becoming better because of it.

Inside, you get ongoing sales training and ideas you can immediately apply, along with Smart Calling training and help preparing for the real conversations you're having. It's designed to keep you learning, thinking, preparing, and putting in the reps instead of simply consuming another sales tip and moving on.

Because ultimately, there isn't a hack for mastery. You learn, practice, perform, review, adjust, and do it again.

And little by little, the game slows down.

You can check out the Smart Calling Prospecting and Sales App here:

Studio.com/art

A couple of weeks I announced I’m liquidating my inventory of a couple of books that we’ve sold over 40,000 copies of.

These two books contain 800+ pages of sales and prospecting ideas, examples, questions, word-for-word language, and techniques that are as relevant today as the day they were written.

But my business model has evolved, plus I’m done with paying to print, store, and ship books. (My flagship, Smart Calling, is published by Wiley, not me.)

We are closing this down at month end. So, if you want some, get them now. http://BookSale.Art

Go make it your best week ever!