Selling In Tough Times Needs Better Choices

Congratulations to Australian teenager Jessica Watson, for sailing solo around the world….what an amazing accomplishment.

I loved it when she disagreed with the Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd who had called her a ‘hero’, and she didn’t agree with the hero status and that she had simply applied her skills and determination to achieving a dream (that’s my interpretation of what she said).

This week I’m practicing the affirmation “I have more than enough inner strength to help me through the tough times.” 

A mate of mine Mark Horton wrote a great book called “Power To Choose – Challenge To Change.  In the book Mark writes “Life is not a matter of being dealt a good hand but, more so, the ability to play a poor hand well.”  Mark was dealt a pretty poor hand when he was diagnosed with both diabetes and multiple sclerosis, and yet his ability to continually deal with the hand he had been dealt is and will continue to be a source of inspiration to me.

When the customers aren’t calling, the referrals aren’t coming, or the repeat business is dropping off, we have the power to choose proactivity and the challenge to change whatever it is we are or aren’t doing that will help us achieve our goals.

Have you ever played the Blame Game?

It’s easy to play the blame game, and easier still to get distracted by our ‘coping activity’ (you know what I mean….all those other things we get sucked into doing other than the goal producing activity we know we need to do more of).

To what extent do you believe that you have more than enough inner strength to help you through the tough times?

It’s a great question to ask, because if our answer is no, then it just says we’ve got some work to do on our skills, knowledge, attributes or motivation….and when we constantly work on our competence, our confidence grows with it.

Are you spending a minimum of 60 minutes each week on your own development?

I heard this fantastic quote recently when in Wellington New Zealand.  It was from the actor Tony Barry…. “If you don’t go looking for personal growth, it will come looking for you.”

Wow!

Book time in your diary right now…..make it a 60 minute meeting with yourself….make it as best you can a not negotiable meeting, one that you will commit to having.  At the meeting with yourself  use the following as an agenda (this is the agenda I recommend for my SalesCoachCentral.com members – if you’re not a member yet, now’s a great time to join):

Personal Growth Weekly Meeting Agenda

1. Note your sales, marketing and personal growth weekly wins
2. Note your sales, marketing and personal growth setbacks over the week
3. Note what you will do to have more wins and less setbacks next week
4. Note what you need to learn
5. Read your SalesCoachCentral.com SalesCoachTips newsletter
6. Note your action plan based on the SalesCoachTip
7. Read, watch, listen to an eClass from SalesCoachCentral.com
8. Note what you will Start, Stop, Continue to do to achieve your sales targets
9. Confirm your find, win, keep clients strategies for next week
    (Who will you contact, what about, why, and when?) – are your proactive sales
     and marketing activities in your diary?
10. Share your findings/learning with a trusted friend(s), colleague(s) or manager

This will be one of the  most important meetings you’ll have every week, and it will certainly help you to develop the inner strength to handle the tough times and make the good times even better.
Let me know how you go.