Robert Knakal, Founder, Chairman and CEO of BK Real Estate Advisors, is often asked what distinguishes successful salespeople. His answer surprises many: it is neither charisma, nor intelligence, nor even natural talent. The most successful sales professionals he has met have far more in common with Olympians than with the stereotype of the typical salesperson. Both groups understand a principle that most people never fully grasp: extraordinary results are almost always the product of extraordinarily ordinary habits.
When one considers the training of a top athlete, this pattern becomes immediately apparent. An ice hockey player practises the same shot hundreds of times. A golfer hits thousands of almost identical putts. A swimmer repeats the same movement over and over, making adjustments so subtle that no spectator would notice them. None of these repetitions are spectacular, and none make it into the 'highlight reels'. Yet, every championship is built upon them. The performance that the audience applauds is merely the visible outcome of countless hours spent on completely ordinary activities.
In sales, it is exactly the same. Every acquisition call is a repetition. Every meeting with an owner is a repetition. Every follow-up email is a repetition. Every market analysis is a repetition. Every difficult conversation is a repetition. Most people only see the successful deals in a top salesperson's career. They do not see the thousands of conversations, the countless hours of preparation, the years of learning curve, and the unyielding consistency that made these deals almost inevitable.
The hundredth blow that splits the stone is celebrated, while the 99 preceding ones are ignored. Yet, those first 99 blows were not failures, but part of a transformation. The miracle was not that the stone finally split. The miracle was that the person swinging the hammer had become capable of splitting it. Knakal often compares this to a savings account: almost everyone has one and understands the financial power of compounding. Yet, few apply this principle to their own lives.
- —Every training session is a deposit.
- —Every acquisition call is a deposit.
- —Every property viewing is a deposit.
- —Every book read is a deposit.
None of these individual deposits feel significant on the day they are made. Just as depositing 10 EUR into a savings account does not have a life-changing effect, a single training session will not immediately transform the body, nor will an acquisition call instantly revolutionise a career. Compounding is not designed to impress today. It was designed to reward consistency over time. Life works in exactly the same way. The 'spectacular' is merely the accumulated compound interest from thousands of ordinary deposits.
Knakal does not believe that peak performance comes from people who necessarily enjoy difficult things more than others. He believes that they have learned to love the process that difficult tasks demand. Top athletes do not wake up every morning thrilled to train. Elite salespeople do not wake up every morning hoping to hear 'no'. However, they understand that discipline always precedes performance. They know that the scoreboard merely reflects the result of the training. The championship is not won on game day. The sale is not won when the contract is signed. These moments are merely the public confirmation of private habits repeated over years.
Over the past 42 years, Robert Knakal has sold more than 2,417 buildings in New York City. Some people assume that these results stemmed from exceptional abilities. This was not the case. They came from ordinary behaviours repeated thousands and thousands of times: making one more call, reading one more zoning document, walking one more neighbourhood, meeting one more owner, showing up again the next day and doing it again, learning from one more mistake. Success was never achieved through a single extraordinary effort. It was built through the quiet discipline of making one more deposit each and every day.
Today's culture is obsessed with shortcuts. Everyone is looking for the 'hack', the secret, or the breakthrough that delivers extraordinary results overnight. Top athletes think differently. They do not look for breakthroughs. They look for better habits. They understand that one does not become extraordinary by occasionally doing extraordinary things. One becomes extraordinary by doing ordinary things consistently and exceptionally well. Athletes understand this instinctively. The best salespeople do too. Ultimately, elite salespeople do not play different games; they follow exactly the same formula. They continue to make their deposits. They trust the power of compounding. They keep striking the stone. And one day, what the world calls extraordinary achievement is simply the cumulative result of thousands of well-executed, ordinary days.
