Stop Hitting the Easy Button: Why the Hard Part Is Where Salespeople Actually Grow
In sales, we love shortcuts. New tools, new scripts, new “proven” tactics that promise more pipeline with less effort. It’s tempting to smash the Easy Button every chance we get. But as David Brock points out in his article “The Hard Part Is Where You Grow,” our obsession with avoiding difficulty is exactly what keeps us stuck—individually and as organizations.
If you feel like your sales results aren’t matching your potential, it may not be because you need another tool or hack. It might be because you’re dancing around the hard part instead of going straight through it.
The Addiction to the Easy Button in Sales
Sales teams are constantly sold the idea of effort-free improvement: more automation, more templates, more shortcuts. On the surface, these seem logical—who doesn’t want efficiency? But there’s a dangerous side effect: we start believing that anything that feels hard must be wrong.
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Here’s how the Easy Button mindset quietly shows up in day-to-day selling:
- Choosing email blasts over thoughtful, researched outreach.
- Relying on product pitches instead of doing real discovery.
- Avoiding difficult conversations with prospects who are stuck or resistant.
- Substituting dashboards and reports for genuine coaching and skill development.
On the surface, none of these look terrible. But stack them together, and you get a culture of avoidance—where sellers stay busy but don’t really get better.
The Hard Part Is Not a Bug — It’s the Feature
The most valuable parts of selling are almost always the hardest. That’s not a flaw in the system; that is the system. When something feels uncomfortable, uncertain, or mentally demanding, it’s usually a sign that you’re doing real work—the kind that builds mastery.
Think about the moments that separate top performers from the rest:
- Sticking with a complex sales cycle instead of abandoning it for an easier lead.
- Challenging a prospect’s assumptions instead of just nodding along.
- Admitting you don’t have all the answers and doing the work to learn.
- Having honest, sometimes painful deal reviews instead of blaming “bad leads.”
None of that feels easy in the moment. That’s exactly why so many people avoid it—and it’s also why those who lean into it grow faster. The hard part is where you refine your judgment, your emotional resilience, and your ability to navigate complexity. Those aren’t things you get from templates or automation. They come from doing the work you’d rather skip.
Avoidance Disguised as Productivity
The tricky thing about avoidance is that it rarely looks like laziness. It looks like being busy. You fill your calendar, answer emails, attend meetings, tweak your slides—and convince yourself that you’re working hard. But deep down, you know you’re orbiting around the real issues, not confronting them.
In sales organizations, this avoidance can become institutionalized:
- Leaders ask for more reports instead of having tough coaching conversations.
- Sellers chase low-value deals because they’re more comfortable than strategic opportunities.
- Teams double down on volume (“more calls, more emails”) instead of improving the quality of customer conversations.
The result? Everyone is working, but not everyone is improving. Performance plateaus, frustration rises, and the response is… you guessed it… to search for an easier answer.
How to Lean Into the Hard Part—On Purpose
Growth in sales isn’t accidental. It comes from intentionally choosing the harder, more valuable work over the fast and shallow work. Here are practical ways to shift from avoidance to growth:
1. Redefine “Hard” as a Signal, Not a Problem
When something feels mentally or emotionally difficult—prospecting into new accounts, asking deeper questions, pushing back constructively—that’s a signal you’re on the right track. Instead of backing off, pause and ask:
- What exactly feels uncomfortable right now?
- What skill, if I developed it, would make this easier next time?
This simple reflection turns discomfort into data. You stop taking the difficulty personally and start using it as a guide for growth.
2. Build Better Sales Conversations, Not Just More Activity
High-quality discovery and value-based selling are inherently demanding. They require curiosity, preparation, and courage. But they’re also where deals are won.
Instead of asking, “How do we send more outreach?” ask:
- How do we ask better questions?
- How do we help customers think differently about their problems?
- How do we make each meeting so valuable that the buyer wants the next one?
That shift—from quantity to quality—forces you into the hard part of selling. And that’s exactly where your win rates start to climb.
3. Make Coaching About the Real Work
Sales coaching often becomes another flavor of the Easy Button: reviewing numbers, asking for updates, skimming through the CRM. None of that changes behavior.
Real coaching means rolling up your sleeves and digging into:
- Specific deals that are truly strategic or truly stuck.
- Call recordings, meeting notes, and actual conversations.
- The beliefs and habits that lead sellers to avoid the tough parts of the process.
Is it more work? Yes. Does it feel more awkward at first? Definitely. But it’s also where your team actually grows—in judgment, in confidence, and in the ability to navigate complex buying dynamics.
4. Treat Growth as a Deliberate Practice
Top sellers don’t rely only on “experience.” They treat growth like a discipline. They deliberately seek out challenging opportunities: new verticals, bigger accounts, more strategic stakeholders. They ask for feedback. They review their own calls. They rehearse tough conversations instead of “winging it.”
All of this is harder than just doing what’s familiar. But it compounds. Every time you choose the harder path—the thoughtful follow-up instead of the generic one, the honest conversation instead of the polite avoidance—you build skills that will keep paying off in future deals.
Why Organizations Must Stop Protecting People From the Hard Part
At an organizational level, there’s a strong temptation to “smooth” everything for the sales team: perfectly scripted messaging, rigid processes, automated cadences, pre-baked decks. These can be useful tools—but if you overdo it, you unintentionally remove the very friction that forces people to think, adapt, and grow.
Healthy sales organizations don’t eliminate all difficulty; they channel it. They make sure the hard work is focused on:
- Understanding customers and their business context.
- Designing the right opportunities and strategies.
- Having direct, transparent internal and external conversations.
In other words, they avoid pointless friction—broken systems, confusing tools, unclear comp plans—but they preserve and even elevate the meaningful hard work that leads to excellence.
Conclusion: Your Next Level Is Hiding in the Hard Part
If you’re honest with yourself, you probably already know where your Easy Button is. Maybe it’s over-relying on email instead of calling. Maybe it’s avoiding senior stakeholders. Maybe it’s skimming through discovery instead of digging in. Whatever it is—that’s your growth edge.
The hard part isn’t a punishment. It’s an invitation. It’s the stretch zone where your skills, your thinking, and your results all expand. When you stop avoiding it and start seeking it out, you don’t just close more deals—you become the kind of salesperson and leader others want to follow.
So, where are you hitting the Easy Button today—and what would happen if, just for this week, you chose the hard part instead?
Inspired by themes from David Brock’s article, “The Hard Part Is Where You Grow,” on Membrain’s blog. You can explore the original piece here: The Hard Part Is Where You Grow.
