I was golfing recently with a guy we got paired up with who had something in common with Jim Furyk.

They both have unconventional...ok, flat out ugly swings.

The kind of swing no golf instructor would ever teach. All elbows, rerouted club, nothing you’d see in an instructional video.

Jim Furyk, of course, is a little different.

He’s won 17 PGA Tour events, including a U.S. Open, a FedEx Cup, and made millions doing it. He’s also one of the most consistent ball-strikers of his era.

In other words, Furyk is an anomaly. A unicorn.

He succeeded in spite of that swing . Not because it’s something others should copy.

Our guy?

And right there, on the tee box, I heard the exact same sentence I’ve heard thousands of times in sales.

“That works for me.”

Tiger Woods’ swing “worked” for him pretty nicely. (Another golf story, I know.)

By 2002, Tiger had already won 8 major championships and completely dominated golf. If anyone on the planet had the right to say, “It works for me,” it was him.

Then he did something no amateur, and very few professionals, are willing to do.

He decided he could be better.

So at the peak of his career, Tiger scrapped his swing and hired Hank Haney to rebuild it from the ground up.

Not tweak it.
Not polish it.
Rebuild it.

That process was uncomfortable. It cost him tournaments in the short term. It drew criticism. And it looked, at times, like a step backward.

The result?

Tiger went on to win 5 more major championships, including the 2008 U.S. Open on one leg, and extended his dominance for years.

The point isn’t that Tiger’s old swing was “bad.”

The point is this:

“It works for me” wasn’t good enough for someone committed to excellence.

He didn’t optimize for comfort.
He optimized for standards.

I’ve seen a version of this play out for decades in sales organizations.

I’ll be brought in to train a team, and before the session even starts, the manager pulls me aside and says something like:

“Just a heads-up… Bob probably won’t buy into this.”

Bob is the 24-year veteran.
Bob “does things his own way.”
Bob skips steps.
Bob ignores the company’s sales process.
Bob rolls his eyes at training.

And Bob “manages to hit his numbers.”

So Bob is tolerated.

Managers say, “Oh, that’s just Bob.”

What’s unfortunate is this:

If a strong leader had insisted—years earlier—that Bob follow the same professional standards the company invested in for everyone else, Bob likely wouldn’t have just gotten by.

He could have excelled.

Instead, Bob became the internal Jim Furyk story people point to as justification for ignoring fundamentals.

“He’s different.”
“It works for him.”
“Well, Bob does it.”

But Bob isn’t Tiger Woods.

Bob isn’t an outlier who mastered the fundamentals and then earned the right to deviate.

Bob is someone who found a way to survive without fully developing. And then stopped growing.

And here’s the quiet cost:

When Bob is allowed to ignore standards, everyone else learns that standards are optional.

Three stories.
Three approaches.
Three very different outcomes.

The golf guy at my course: “It works for me.”
(It doesn’t. He just doesn’t know what good looks like.)

Tiger Woods: “It works. But I can be better. Let me rebuild.”

Bob the sales vet: “It works for me.”
Just well enough that I never have to grow.

Here’s the question you need to ask yourself:

Which one are you?

A couple of weeks ago I banned 26 words and phrases from professional sales.

And predictably, I got comments like:

“I use those phrases and they work for me.”

Let’s test that.

What does “works” actually mean?

Does it mean:

When someone says “It works for me,” what they usually mean is:

“It works well enough that I don’t have to change.”

And that’s the problem.

Because “well enough” isn’t a standard.

It’s an excuse.

Jim Furyk succeeded with an ugly swing.

But here’s what people miss:

He succeeded in spite of his mechanics, not because of them.

He had compensating factors:

Most people don’t have those compensating factors.

Same with sales.

If you’re saying “Sorry to bother you” and still closing deals, you’re not closing deals because of that phrase.

You’re closing despite it.

Maybe you have:

Which reminds me of a story.

In the late 19th century, the legendary actress Helena Modjeska was attending a high-society dinner party.

The guests knew her reputation for emotional power and asked her to perform a dramatic recitation in her native Polish.

Now here’s the parallel.

Some salespeople succeed not because their technique is sound, but because their presence, confidence, and delivery compensate for it.

That doesn’t mean the technique is good.

It means they’re strong enough to overcome it.

And most people aren’t.

So imagine what you could do with sound fundamentals.

Imagine if you stopped giving away status in the first 5 seconds.

Imagine if you opened with relevance instead of apology.

Imagine if you created curiosity instead of tolerance.

You might be good now.

But you could be great.

Here’s what I want you to do:

Test it.

Don’t take my word for it. Don’t take the word of whoever taught you to say “Is this a good time?”

Actually measure it.

Next 20 calls: Use your current approach. Track:

Following 20 calls: Use the 3-question framework from last week’s issue. No banned phrases. Track the same metrics.

Then compare.

Because the only way to know if your approach is actually optimal is to test the alternative.

Tiger didn’t guess.
He rebuilt and measured.

Bob never tested.
He just defended.

Which one are you willing to be?

“It works for me” is fine if you’re committed to mediocrity.

But if you’re reading this newsletter, you’re not.

You’re here because you want to be the Ultimate Sales Professional.

And professionals don’t defend their current approach just because it’s comfortable.

They optimize for excellence, not comfort.

So the next time you catch yourself saying “It works for me,” ask:

Because the gap between “it works” and “it’s optimal” is where greatness lives.

Tiger found that gap and closed it.

Bob never looked for it.

Our golf guy doesn’t even know it exists.

Which story will you tell?

As I’ve taught for years, we don’t “overcome objections” or fire off rebuttals if we want any chance of changing someone’s belief.

Because those tactics tell the other person, “You’re wrong.”
And the human brain doesn’t respond to that by opening up.

It responds by digging in.

Instead, we follow a simple professional process:

(I cover the entire process in detail in the free objections masterclass, “How to Easily Handle Sales Resistance and Objections… Without Using Goofy and Uncomfortable Rebuttals.”)

For the acknowledgement step, we use phrases such as:

Those don’t agree.
They simply soften the tension and keep the conversation moving.

One other acknowledgement phrase I heard recently while watching a political talk show was this:

One panelist made a point… and instead of jumping in to argue and correct them, another panelist calmly said:

“That’s one way to look at it.”

Brilliant.

Here’s why it works psychologically:

It signals respect without surrender.
It lowers defensiveness.
It tells the other person, “I’m not here to fight you… I’m here to understand you.”

And when people don’t feel attacked, they’re far more willing to explore something new.

So if you want prospects to actually consider a different perspective, stop trying to win the objection…

…and start guiding them to rethink it.

When I lived in Omaha, I used to shop at the massive Nebraska Furniture Mart.

(Yes… that Nebraska Furniture Mart. The Warren Buffett-owned one.)

They had great prices… and everyone knew the unwritten rule:

If you asked for a better deal, you’d almost always get another 10% off.

So what happened?

People got trained.

Nobody paid full price… unless they were too timid to ask.

In other words, the discount became the real price.
The “list price” was just the starting point.

And a lot of businesses operate the exact same way.

If your customers know you’ll drop the price the moment they ask… they’ll ask every time.

Not necessarily because they need it…

…but because they’ve learned it’s worth checking.

Get comfortable responding to the discount request with calm authority.

Remember: everyone wants the best deal.
And many people will ask for a better price even if they can afford full price.

They’re not always negotiating.
Sometimes they’re just running the “Let’s see what happens” script.

So you need a professional response that shuts it down without getting weird.

Practice saying:

“That actually is the best price.”
“That is the price.”
“If budget is the issue, let’s look at options that fit better.”
“If you want a lower price, we can adjust scope or quantity.”

Because when you hold your price with confidence…

you train people that your list price is the real price.

A fascinating guy, who truly is an expert in a variety of communication and sales areas is my friend, Michael Angelo Caruso.

Finally… again, I’m on a mission to help as many sales pros as I can, so please join me. Who do you know who would also benefit from the Smart Calling approach? Do them a favor and forward this email. They can subscribe at SmartCallingReport.com.

They’ll appreciate you like I do.

Go make it your best week ever!

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