Selling obviously involves risk. You’re not guaranteed a certain amount of closed sales, except maybe zero, assuming you do nothing. There are, however, healthy risks and unwise ones.
If you have a skill or two that needs some work, the actual sale isn’t the place to practice. If you goof, then, boom, sale lost. Practice avails the sales professional with risk-free opportunities to develop skills, skills that may not be applied in every moment of actual selling.
During the sale, you have to be focused on closing the sale, taking each step in that direction. You can’t incline your attention to skill development as well. Practice is the time to focus on skills, building them and taking them to the next level.
This is true whether the skill is one you need to learn or a skill you’ve more or less mastered.
– Nathan