As I got to know each of the salespeople, it didn’t take long to understand what was really going on.

What Leads To Ultimate Success?

It’s not what you know, and it’s not what you can or could do that will lead to success.  What leads to your ultimate success, in any area of your life and business, is what you do – it’s activity that leads to results.

In fact, it’s not just what you do it’s how you do it….and even more importantly, the reasons why you’re doing it.

Having been an adult educator for thirty years now, I can say without reservation that teaching people how to sell is relatively easy.  Actually, teaching people how to do anything is pretty easy…..it’s getting them to do it, to put it into practice that’s what can be relatively difficult.

That’s why in this post I’m asking you the question ‘What Motivates You?’

I want to explore with you why some people with similar sets of competency (their skills, knowledge and attributes) can achieve at quite different levels of success.

The obvious answer to why some people, despite having similar sets of competency to others achieve so much more, is to look at their motivation.

This then requires us to consider what causes some people to be more motivated than others to apply their competency?

If a person knows they can do something, whatever it is, and has a strong enough reason or purpose to want to do it, then it is more likely that they will take action.

This is true for ourselves as well as for our clients.

So let me ask you again, what motivates you?

People Pick Up On Your Truth!

What I am absolutely convinced of is this.  Potential and existing clients pick up on our truth.  When they meet with us, the thoughts we think, the words we say, the questions we ask, and the actions we take send loud and clear messages to our potential and existing clients about what we truly believe.

For this reason, it becomes clearly obvious that every business owner, sales and service person needs to be fully engaged and motivated at every point of our potential and existing clients’ journey, motivated with a bigger intention to genuinely help our potential and existing clients discover, clarify and experience ways to fulfill their wants and needs, solve their problems and create environments for them to realize their opportunities.

If you truly want to engage at deeper levels of trust with your potential and existing clients and have them more quickly understand your value and why they should choose to do business with you, then look first to yourself and ask these all important questions…..

• How motivated are you when you contact potential and existing clients?
• How motivated are you when you are asking questions of your potential and existing clients?
• How motivated are you when you are talking about your recommendations of products, service, strategies and solutions for your potential and existing clients?
• How motivated are you to ask for referrals?
• How motivated are you when you’re potential or existing clients raise obstacles or objections to what you’re saying?

It really is all about action – action with intention – action with motivation.

So let me conclude again by asking you ……

What motivates you?

Let me know your thoughts.

The juggling Act Of Future Sales And Current Activity

This is one of the constant juggling acts for most of us. How do we celebrate and cherish what’s got us to where we are today and at the same time be planning for and taking action on what we need to do to achieve what we want in the future?

Sales Targets Are An End Point

In sales, our sales targets are an end point, and while we need to have a good understanding of what those targets are (one eye on the future), what’s more important is to focus on and plan for the activity that will help us achieve the target.

I know for some people, the more you focus on the sales target, the more unlikely it will be achieved.

Why?

Because the pressure some people feel around achieving the target distracts them from focusing on getting things done to achieve it.  It can cause what I refer to as Sales Target Paralysis – the more people focus on the sales target, their fear of not being able to achieve it paralyses them into inaction – despite knowing they need to achieve the target, they don’t get cracking on the activities that will help them do just that.

It’s paradoxical.

What to do about Sales Target Paralysis

If that sounds like you, here’s a tip that might help. Focus on what you will have and what you will feel when you achieve the target. Write these down. What will you have, buy or be able to do? How will you feel? How will it affect those around you?

Focus on this (one eye on the future) and then focus on what you will do to achieve it…..and start doing that!

If you’d like to learn more and experience some serious transformation in your sales skills and success, join me at one of my public workshops that are part of  the Sales Mastery Mentor Program being conducted around Australia and New Zealand in 2010/11.  Take a look at the program

http://www.salesmasterymentor.com

Let me know how you go. ..

value our relationships in selling

My affirmation of intention this week is one that we ought never need reminding of, and yet as it came up in my diary it immediately put a smile on my face.  The affirmation is “I value my relationships.”

It doesn’t really matter whether you want to focus this affirmation of intention on work relationships, family or friends, because a truth that we all know is that our very humanity is about the depth of relationships we have.  That’s not to say the number of relationships – but the depth of relationships.

Let’s focus for the moment however on work, and let me ask you this question….

How much and in what way do you value your work relationships?

For those of us in sales, this is an extremely important question to consider.

I believe the people we meet and form relationships with, pick up on our truth.  I believe they get a sense of who we are and a sense of our intention.  They pick this up through a range of ways; our body language, tone of voice, words we choose, questions we ask and actions we take.

If you’ve seen me present at a conference or workshop you’ll know part of my favourite quote from Aristotle (which I often quote in my writing here as well because of its relevance to so much of our lives).  And part of the quote is that “our actions and our behaviours are our morals shown in conduct.”  In other words, people pick up on our morals, our beliefs, our truth.

Yep – fairly heavy as a topic, but important because we can’t escape it.

For that reason, coming back to my original statement that the value we place on our relationships ought not be something we need to be reminded of, paradoxically maybe it is good to remind ourselves how important our relationships are.

Here’s my challenge for you (as it is for me as I consider this affirmation of intention).  Answer these questions…..

1. Why do you value your relationships?

2. How do you value your relationships?

3. What might you do with a damaged relationship today to start to mend whatever caused it to fracture?

4. What might you do today to strengthen a relationship even more than you already have?

I know whenever I revisit these questions, magic tends to happen in ways that are often unexpected, but very welcomed.

Let me know how you go.

You may be familiar with my definition of selling as being a process of building trust relationships with the aim to create reciprocal value on a continual basis.  The central component of this defenition is trust.

My affirmation of intention for this week is that I am someone people can depend on….that means I am someone who they can place their trust and confidence in.

But what about when you let people down?  What does that say about you?

Recently I was shocked to learn that I had inadvertently emailed out to a portion of my SalesCoachCentral.com membership and all of these members’ email addresses appeared in the “To:” section of the email.

Back to Intention

Here’s the thing…..yes I stuffed up, and let some people down….but certainly not intentionally.

I immediately sent out an apology (this time correctly “blind copying” the email addresses), and the responses I received to reinforce their belief in my intention and my integrity was overwhelming.

Why tell you this?

One of the people who wrote back to me following my apology reminded me that it is in what we do after an event of unintentional mistake that demonstrates a person’s character.

As Aristotle has been quoted as saying “We are the sum of our actions….(and) our actions and our behaviours are our morals shown in conduct”.

In sales and relationships in general, there will potentially be mistakes made…..and it is what we do to mend the relationship that will speak louder about the degree too which people will continue to trust us than the mistake itself.

Let me know what you think.

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.