Guest Post by Marc Roth, Director of Learning and Development with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate.

As I watched my little girl recently turn six years old, it fascinated me to see not only how much she has learned, but how quickly she is learning.  Before my very eyes, my flesh and blood is the true epitome of a living, breathing sponge that soaks up everything including the kitchen sink. If I sound a little envious, it’s because I am.

I get tremendous pleasure in learning something new.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to happen as often as I would like. As I work to enhance the sales skill level of our owners, brokers, and agents, it truly boggles my mind when opportunities are overlooked.

The Push for Immediate Gratification

One challenge we often face, is the desire to receive immediate gratification from attempting something we recently learned. Many agents will conclude that because nothing within their business improved, that the tool, technique, resource or training was useless and not worth a second or third look.

However, many times learning requires repetition.  A mix of positive as well as constructive feedback is essential for true learning to occur. Experience and intuition are great to have, but once the learning stops so does our ability for bigger and better results.

I am from the old school thinking that believes you can not force someone to learn something new. While there may be truth to that, we should all strive to learn more, do more, be more.

The Trend

Having had many experiences working with and observing some of the very best sales agents in the business, I have noticed a trend. It is clear that the majority of high achievers are willing to roll the dice by trying something new or different. They get comfortable being uncomfortable. I have watched prospects and clients throw objections from all angles at the elite only to be flabbergasted at how skilled the agent was at minimizing and in many cases, overcoming the objection.

When you think about what you might want to learn but just haven’t, ask yourself why? Is it fear of failure, embarrassment, lack of desire, or your own ego getting in the way? Maybe it is time to place it all on the shelf and take a chance that learning something new just might give you the edge you need.

Times are challenging enough without standing in our own way. So, let’s be honest. When was the last time you tried something new?