Tag: Motivation

You’ve got to ask yourself one question…

“Do I feel lucky?” -Dirty Harry

Luck, it seems, is relied upon to carry many sales careers. A few of my favorite quotes regarding luck are:

“I’m a big believer in luck. I find that the harder I work the more I have.”

Thomas Jefferson

“Luck: where preparation meets hard work.”

Anonymous

Patrick Cohn, a sports psychologist and president of Peak Performance Sports, specializes in creating a championship mind-set in teams and individual athletes. Cohn suggests that there are four mental and emotional characteristics common to champion athletes. Erik Brady (no relation) cited work by Cohn in an article for USA Today in 2006. I believe the same characteristics are present among top performing sales professionals. In my experience one additional mental characteristic stands out that I’ve added below.

1. Composure

Composure is the ability to stay focused under pressure. The months ending soon and your one deal away from blowing past your goal and the customer throws you an unexpected curveball. Do you fold? Do you stutter? Do you forget your closing lines? Nope, not you. You’ve built the muscle of composure.

Composure is shown ultimately by not allowing one failure carry over to the next moment.

2. Competitiveness

Sales is very muck like a competitive sport. I’ve seen many sales bullpens made up of ex-jocks or professional women who want to maintain their glory days of competitive softball. Hiring managers often look for individuals who’ve played sports in the past and for one simple reason; they have a competitive spirit. If you look at a stacked ranking report and you’re listed any other than numero uno… you should feel that fire within your belly. Do you want to win-over your customers? How about beating out the competitors product?

Competitiveness is shown by the will to win.

3. Confidence

Ever shook someones hand and they didn’t give you a firm grip, or worse their hand felt like a wet noodle? What impression did that person leave with you? Not good right? That’s the same impression that a sales person lacking confidence leaves after an appointment. Customers want to feel confident in their decision to go with you and if you’re not showing it, then it’s not going to go well for you. Confidence begets more confidence in sales. Build on your smaller wins until those small wins add up to a bigger payoff. Realize that confidence can make or break record sales months.

Confidence is outwardly shown by your inner belief.

4. Determination

Be that little sales engine that could! My grandma would call this stick-to-it-iveness. She’s determined to never be wrong. Determination is the culmination of desire, focus, and grit. I’ve quit sales more times that I would like to admit, but it was my determination to overcome the challenge that propelled me through the moment. If sales were easy then everyone would and could be doing it, however it’s not for the faint of heart. Those who bowed out weren’t determined.

Determination is shown by continuously accepting the challenge and facing the task, and then the next…the next..the next.

5. Vision

Close your eyes, picture in your mind where you want to be in 5 days, 5 months…5 years. The ability to bring the future into the present- that’s vision. Does it excite you? That’s a goal. Does it scare you? That’s a challenge (see #4). If what you see doesn’t motivate you then I would argue that it’s someone else’s vision that you’re picturing in your minds eye. Vision is important because it’s the bigger picture..it’s the forest made up of the tree’s. Vision is the ultimate prize that makes the day-to-day worth it. Without it, it feels like your just treading water to say afloat.

Vision is shown by those who can go from one opportunity to the next, win or lose, and know that all experiences can move you towards your goal.

Whether luck being the result of hard work and preparation, I contend that success in sales can be attributed to the core qualities of composure, competitiveness, confidence, determination and vision. There you have it. The intangible qualities of high achievers.

How do you finish your race?

“Effort is a commitment to seeing a task through to the end, not just until you get tired of it”

Howard Cate

At ten minutes to seven on a dark, cool evening in Mexico City in 1968, John Stephen Arkwari of Tanzania painfully hobbled into the Olympic stadium- the last to finish the marathon.

The winner had already been crowned, and the victory ceremony was long finished. So the stadium was almost empty as Arkwari, alone, his leg bloody and bandaged, struggled to circle the track to the finish line. The respected documentary filmmaker, Bud Greenspan, watched from a distance. Then, intrigued, Bud walked over to Arkwari and asked why had continued the grueling struggle to the finish line.

The young man from Tanzania answered softly, “My country did not send me nine thousand miles to start the race. They sent me nine thousand miles to finish the race.”

The Olympic Legend Who Finished in Last Place

What commitment to effort have you made to finishing your month, quarter, year, your race? Be it placing first or last, make it legendary!

New Year-New You from Tony Robbins

One of my favorite videos to watch from time to time. A great message with important reminders about the habits & rituals that we create daily that lead to success.

We often overlook the importance of daily habits in managing ourselves and our lives. But, it’s often the small changes we make to our daily routines that enable the BIG changes in our lives and careers.

For more insights or to get my 5-Steps to identifying your daily success habits, comment below with “HABITS” and I’ll send to you for download.

Some Do. Some Don’t.

Some do.

Some don’t.

Some will,

Some won’t.

Some do now,

Some do later.

Some never do

And say: “See you later”

Some get it,

Some don’t.

Some grasp it,

Some won’t.

Some live,

Some die.

Some ask:

“Why?”

Why it is? Who knows.

It’s just how it goes.

Some laugh,

Some cry.

Some are honest,

Some lie.

Some win,

Some tie.

Some say: “Just try.”

Be curious.

Move on.

Some pro,

Some con.

Some fake it.

Some make it.

Work with it,

Not against it.

Some slip,

Some rise.

Some see

With clear eyes.

You can’t

Change it,

Rearrange it.

It’s the set up,

Just face it.

But you can

Change yourself.

To attract some-

Living Wealth.

Your goal

Your control.

Some believe,

Some achieve.

Some reach,

Some hold.

Some are shy,

Some are bold.

Some grow,

Some won’t.

Some do.

Some don’t.

Are you selling behind a boring company mission?

Does your company have a mission/vision statement?

How's this for inspiration?

Does your company have a customer service credo?

Does your company have stated values?

These are the principles that your company has set in place to act as guideposts for employees and customers. Every good company has them and most I’ve found are just boring. Same points you see everywhere..”to be a leader in our industry”…”provide exceptional customer service”..blah blah blah. I’m not suggesting it’s not important and I agree that you have to start somewhere, but I see very little originality.

So my question is this.. What’s YOUR Personal Mission Statement?

Customers are faced with many products and services that are all vying to be numero uno. Set yourself apart, be original, go out on a limb and tell your customer what they can expect from you..personally. One of the most challenging and thought-provoking exercises that I completed early in my sales career was my personal mission statement. I later adapted this into a customer promise that I share with many potential clients. I challenge you to complete one for yourself. Set yourself apart from the pack.

This will take time. Here is a great tool to help you along and to help generate ideas: Personal Mission Statement Builder

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Find your Pony to Blow Past your Goals!

I was asked to present a few points to our sales team recently. Here is what I shared below. Hope you find some tips you can apply and use to immediately drive results.

Find your Pony to Blow Past your Goals!

Pretty Awesome Pony!
Pretty Awesome Pony!

Two little twin girls, named Pessimist & Optimist where having a birthday soon. Pessimist told her mom and dad that she wanted a new bicycle. Not just any would do!  A red bicycle with pink tassels and a sweet banana seat was what was in demand.

Little Ms. Optimist told her parents “whatever you get me I’m sure I’ll love!”

The birthday arrived and every friend was in attendance. Little Ms. Pessimist was given her new bike; however it wasn’t as she demanded. This new bike wasn’t red but in fact was orange; the tassels were not pink but were green. “This is the worst birthday ever!” she lamented.

Cute little Ms. Optimist was presented with a large box manure. Her eyes filled with excitement as she began to grab this manure by the handful throwing it in the air. Handful after handful digging in anticipation, she finally looked up at mom and dad and exclaimed:

“With this much manure there has got to be a pony in here somewhere!”

You may feel like your digging through your own manure right now; customers not calling back, manufacturing issues, competing priorities, stress, etc. There can be a Pony in most situations. You just have to keep digging.

How can you find excitement in the day to day?

  • Take stock in what you DO have. It’s easy to take things for granted when you live in the sales trenches daily.
  • Challenge yourself to expand into new areas. Writing is a new area for me that has challenged me beyond belief, but has proven to be extremely rewarding. What areas can you expand into in your professional life?
  • Think short term to build momentum for the long term. I read a great quote earlier this month by Tom Peter that said “Excellence is not an aspiration; Excellence is the next 5 minutes.” Go do big things.. 5 minutes at a time!

Be objective about your business!

In the minutia of day to day it’s easy to let your emotions hang and carry from activity to activity. One bump in the road and you start saying “I told you so” to yourself. Driving your business solely on emotions can lead to cynicism when things don’t go your way. Cynicism is the kiss of death in sales.

Remember this: Killing objectivity in your business is not murder, its suicide!

Know your numbers and the ones you can impact: How many leads do you need? How many conversations do you need to blow past your goals? What is your closing %? Etc.

Take note of the numbers that you CAN impact not the ones that you can’t. If you can’t control the number of leads that marketing provides, measure how many referrals you collect. You can’t control the leads that answer the phone, but measure the number that do and how you convert. Find your Pony in the numbers!

Twitter-ize your sales process

I’ve had a love affair with Twitter as of late. Twitter has challenged me to write short valuable messages. Twitter allows only 140 characters. Trust me; it’s a challenge to get your point across in 140 characters.

I’m sure there are areas in your sales process that are unnecessarily long, drawn out, time intensive. Find ways to cut it down and become more efficient in your sales activities. Don’t take 1 hour to do a 30-minute task. Compress the time it takes to hit your goals. You may just find that you blow past them…

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Sales Bit on W.I.N.’ing

W.I.N’ing

 

How often do you spend time in tasks not related to sales or selling activities. Organizing your desk, reading reports, fooling yourself into thinking that you are doing pertinent pre-call planning etc… Yes, I hear ya…you can’t work with a messy desk. Get over it!

The bottom line is that its easy to get caught up in non-essential tasks that end up to be just busy work. Winners in sales have a “What’s Important Now” mindset, or W.I.N.

When you feel that you’re not focused just ask yourself “What’s Important Now”

There are people who: Watch things happen, Make things happen, or Wonder what happened..

Which one are you?

 


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Sales Bit on Confidence

Sales Bit on Confidence

 

In my experience coaching sales reps, building confidence is a topic that comes up time and time again. Sales can be tough and with the amount of rejection sales professionals hear confidence often dips. The ability to maintain confidence will make or break any sales professional. You develop confidence in yourself by taking risk and pushing through. Build confidence in your product by becoming a product or service knowledge expert. Talk to past customers and ask them about their experiences. Build a list of testimonials to cement the confidence you build in your product. Surround yourself with confident people.

By developing a process of maintaining and building your level of confidence you will have a much greater influence on your customers and the people surrounding you. People like and gravitate towards a confident decisive person.

Success breeds confidence, but which comes first? That is the trick. We’ve all heard the “fake it till you make it” cliche. Sometimes confidence can be faked, but more often than not you can see right through it in selling situations. Focus on building lasting confidence.

Here are some tips to conveying confidence :

  • Maintain Eye Contact
  • Facial Expression and reaction- Acknowledgement
  • Tone of voice and pace- be strong, upbeat, don’t talk too fast
  • Be a product knowledge expert
  • No wimp words- Ask well thought out questions

Look for situations around you to practice building confidence in your presentation and conversations. The reel tape that you play in your head should revolve around successful scenarios not potential failures. Often times sales professionals lose the sale in their heads long before they arrive at the customer.  Starting off I’ve found  that it’s helpful to focus on being process oriented rather than goal oriented. For example, in building rapport use a simple process that has worked for me:

F.O.R.M.

F. amily (the customer, where they are from, etc)

O. ccupation (how long in position, etc)

R. ecreation (similar hobbies, do for fun)

M. e (transition to you or your message)

To build good rapport you must have good FORM. It’s easy to remember..

Confidence will come with practice, but don’t let any lack of confidence prevent you from starting. Jump right in and begin your process to confidence.

 

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