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. ..

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.

In a recent seminar that I conducted there was one member of the audience who was constantly interupting me and anyone else who was contributing. 

There was no ill intention in her action, it was just the way she was….she was one of those people who just had to have something to say and usually it was valid, positive and added to the discussion. 

An annoying habit

Now I’m used to the occasional strange behaviour in audience situations – it just comes with the turf in my line of business, however I could see that for the other audience members, this constant interupting was becoming annoying.

It was fortunate that we were about to discuss ‘buyer behaviour’ and effective communication strategies, as it allowed me to point out that some people seemed to have formed the habit of finishing other people’s statements for them.

This person who had been constantly interrupting, interrupted again and said “I do that all the time” and it cracked the rest of the audience up with laughter.

But it is interesting how we tend to communicate the way we like to communicate and sometimes forgetting that it may not be the way that others like to communicate.

Are you the kind of person that finishes other people’s sentences while they are mid stream in conversation because you have figured out what they want to say and just want to hurry them up?

Are you the kind of person who gets impatient with people who constantly talk ‘big picture’ or ‘blue sky’ where what you’d rather hear and talk about is facts and detail?

Listen for the insignificant

Everyone knows the importance of listening but sometimes we listen, but I know for myself it is a constant and conscious effort to keep focused what people are really saying.

The biggest shift for me in becoming a much better listener was to make a decision to become a better listener.

Now I know that sounds obvious, but the reality is, before you can become a better listener, you have to genuinely want it to be so.  Make the decision, and then follow it up with consciously listening to what people are saying…..and let them say it in their way (trying not to unintentionally force them to say it in a way that you would prefer them to say it).

Another tip is to listen for the insignificant.  What I mean by that is to really tune into the words that people use, and to listen even more intently (and make notes if possible) when they seem to go off on tangents – quite often, it is what people say that you think isn’t important to you that is very important to them.

And in sales, what’s important to our clients needs to be very important to us.

So this week, practice being a better listener – encourage people to have their say…..that’s what I will be working on.

It’s amazing what you can learn when you really listen, and it’s amazing the deeper levels of trust that can be developed when you’re listening with the right intention.

Let me know how you go.

Over the years I have always struggled with this concept that people seem to be so ready to accept – and that is that we all need to think outside the square.

Now in principle I understand what this means, however, when I think about this practically, I can’t see how it is ever possible.

I was conducting one of my sales programs the other day and one of the audience members said very cleverly “We don’t know what we don’t know!”

My question to you is how can we possible think outside of that which we know.

I am a fan of the work of Joel Barker who talks a lot about our mental boundaries of beliefs and thoughts…..our mental paradigms.  My take on his research is that it is not possible for us to think outside of our own mental boundaries (what we know, believe and understand).  And that instead of us being able to break through these boundaries of belief and thought, what we actually do is to expand them.

How do we do that?

Well that’s the focus of this week’s affirmation.  By being open to new ideas….especially those that may be an opposing view to your own, is one way to expand you boundaries of belief and understanding – your mental paradigm, or the ‘square within which you think’.

That is not to say that we need to accept every opposing view.  What I am suggesting is that when we hear (or experience in any way for that matter) something that we don’t agree with, it is a trigger for us to know that we are right at the edge of our mental paradigm.

This trigger ought to remind us to be open, explore the possibility, treat the opposing view as an hypothesis.  This exercise is one that will flex your boundaries of belief or thought.

In sales, our clients hear what they want to hear (as we all do).  It is built within each of us to protect and defend our current beliefs and the choices we have made, as well as the situation we are in.

For a client to agree to purchase something from us, they quite often will need to expand their paradigm, and they won’t do that by us just telling them they need to buy from us.

Once again, it is in the questions that we ask that help the clients expand their boundaries of belief and understanding.  It is in the questions that we ask that reveal the value that we can provide them.  It is in the questions that we ask that ignite the principle of discovery learning…..which is that people are more likely to take action on that which they discover for themselves, than if we just tell them.

I do value the opinions of others.  I respect their right to have opposing views to me. 
And when I see that I can provide them with more value than they are currently experiencing, but that their current boundaries of belief and thought and understanding is blocking them from seeing the possibility, I believe it is my moral obligation to communicate to them in ways that they shift and expand their mental boundaries into seeing the possibility and create an environment where they are comfortable and confident to make a wise buying decision.

So while I am practicing the art of expanding my own mental paradigms, I am also concentrating on helping others expand theirs.

What a privilege.

Let me know your thoughts.