Sales Training Tips From A Golf Pro

On Gavin Ingham's site, he chats with a Head PGA Golf Professional, NLP Sports & Master Practitioner, Qualified Hypnotherapist and Professional Speaker by the name of Tony Westwood. Tony uses golf as a metaphor for sports, business and life, helping individuals and teams to play closer to their true potential. By helping them to LEARN through PLAY, creating AWARENESS, UNDERSTANDING and improving COMMUNICATION with themselves and others. 

Gavin Ingham: What are your qualifications and credentials?

Tony Westwood: I qualified as a PGA Golf Professional in 1988 having turned professional in 1985. In the last ten years I have added NLP Sports & Master Practitioner, qualified as a Hypnotherapist and studied extensively in the field of Personal Development. The journey has been and is amazing and I believe we can achieve so much more both individually and collectively.

Have you worked with anyone famous and what was your best result?

I played nine holes of golf with Sir Clive Woodward after writing him a letter and telling him about my approach and while he was working at Southampton FC. He loved the concept and his golf improved during the time we spent together. I am currently working with a lady who has reduced her handicap by ten shots after just two classes and at least six junior golfers I worked with when I was the County Coach for Leicestershire are now professional golfers themselves. On a regular basis when working individually with clients they tell me how my golf coaching has made an impact in other areas of their life either personally or professionally.

How similar are dealing with performance issues with golfers and say salespeople?

For me very similar. The golfer and the salesperson need to PLAN and be fully PREPARED for what they want to achieve. The golfer has to LISTEN and OBSERVE what is happening to the ball much like the salesperson has to observe their client listening intently. Focusing on every step of the round or the sale, enjoying what they are doing, MOTIVATED and COMMITTED. The golfer or salesperson needs to show and be their best self. I recently worked with the coach of the Portuguese Sevens rugby squad before they headed off to Dubai and South Africa for tournaments and I asked him to ask his team to show and do their best and at the end of every game to be able to say they could have done no better, regardless of the result.

A salesperson getting thrown an objection or being openly rejected is like falling a few shots behind and then driving into a bunker! They know that they need to relax and focus on the next swing but they just can’t. They’re tense. What tips would you give them to help them focus?

Every shot or sale is an opportunity to LEARN, whether the result is what you wanted or not. Either way understand what happened, what was said and as an objection or rejection and look at what could be done or said differently next time. Focus on matching the clients physiology as they are talking and really listening and breathing. If you BELIEVE in what you are saying and doing, you can do more and maybe the client saying no means they are are just not ready to say YES yet.


When you’re coaching you will come across players with mental ceilings (e.g. “I am not a scratch player”). Salespeople have very similar ones such as, “I cannot sell X amount of services.” What advice would you give to people to help them to blast through their glass ceilings and achieve better results than ever before?

My focus with everyone is that if you can do it once, you can do it again, once you have ingredients and the recipe you can create it whenever you want. Sometimes it is just a case of challenging the golfers or salespersons BELIEFS and getting them to reworking them so they serve them positively rather than limiting them. Breaking a round of golf into manageable “chunks” works very well and the same works in sales. The secret is find out what works and keep doing it. If it is not working do something else and keep doing something else until you find out what does. With EXPERIENCE, making mistakes and LEARNING from them a great round of golf or a great sale can always be made.

Any other tips for being a general top performer?

BE YOU! Be comfortable and professional in everything you do. Successful people in any line of work do the things that other people do not like to do even though they do not like doing them themselves. Persistence is key. If you are not getting the results you want find someone who is and copy and learn from them and make it yours. Perfect practice makes perfect, rehearse what you want to happen and be flexible in your approach. Just like a golfer has to have a vast array of shots to deal with any occurrence on the golf course as a salesperson if you have listened well you can prepare for those objections in advance.