HOW To SPEED UP Your Success In Sales
Let's examine who is at the top of the team.
Every time I go into a group of salespeople and meet the people who are doing beautifully, people who are breaking the bank, creating prosperity for themselves, I also realize that these are people who are internally beautiful.
They aren't people who are shysters or people who are shallow hucksters, or people who are con men and things like that. They are people who are genuine, and they are people who take genuine interest in their customers and clients.
These are the people who sell the fastest. The people who quit trying to guess about "whether I should really be in sales, whether this is an honorable profession, whether I'm doing the right thing for my client."
The sales leaders are people who realize they ARE serving their clients, "I'm paying attention to this client, I'm taking care of this client, I'm becoming a trusted friend, I'm becoming an advisor"---people who take that approach, who really care deeply about other people and learn to do it through practice. It doesn't come from some kind of genetic character aspect of a person, it comes from practice. Caring comes from practice. Caring for other people comes from practice. People who practice it get good at it, and then they also get good at sales.
People who struggle in sales often tell this lie to themselves and others: - "You hurt my self-esteem." People who think their self-esteem depends upon whether they are respected, whether they are treated nicely, whether they are treated fairly by other people, have a misconception of what self-esteem is. There is a clue to where self-esteem comes from in the word itself.
It's called SELF-esteem, it's not called manager-esteem, it's not called spouse-esteem (what my spouse says to me, what my spouse thinks about me), it's not called kids-esteem (what my kids think of me, how they treat me). It's called self-esteem.
It's what I think of myself based on my own behavior, my own responses to other people, my own creativity, my own service, my own success. My own achievement----that's where self-esteem comes from. It comes from my own achievement. It comes from doing something and achieving something. People are so mixed up about self-esteem and especially when they blame other people for it.
If I want my self-esteem to rise, the fastest way is to put my focus on achieving when I set out to achieve. That's what raises self esteem.
ANOTHER LIE: - "That's just the way I am." Now this lie is really interesting in sales, because it is the lie that has to do with permanent personality. In other words, I've got this permanent personality, it's the way I am and it's just the way I am. Did you close the sale? No. Did you ask for the business? No. Did you ask for the big total package you wanted? No. Why? "Well, you know I like to go slowly, that's just the way I am." Did you do this? "No." Why? "I'm shy. That's just the way I am."
People make up permanent characteristics for themselves and they say, that's just the way I am. But it's not really true. If they HAD TO be some other way for some emergency reason, it wouldn't take them any time to be another way.
If you were new at the company and the president said, "We're going to have a big company dinner and you're going to be a greeter. We're going to have a lot of our customers and clients come to the dinner and you're going to be at the door. I want you to welcome the people, we always have the new people in the company become greeters."
Now would you say to the president, "you know what, I'm a little shy, so when they come to the door I'm not going to be able to greet them. I'm not going to be able to look them in the eye, smile, and say welcome like you want me to because that's not my personality. Hey that's just the way I am. I'll probably have my back to them and be drinking from the punch bowl. I hope that's OK with you, there's nothing I can do about it because that's just the way I am."
The truth of the matter is how I am is really more dependent on my burning desire, my definite major purpose and my goals. Let's say I have a burning desire and a really big goal to succeed in this company, to have the president respect me and be proud of me and be impressed by me.
So, when he says, will you be the greeter, I say "sure I'll be the greeter," and even if my tendency in the past was not to be very open, smiling and welcoming, I will DO IT tonight at the company dinner. I'll be an actor in the name of my goals.
Who do I need to be to achieve my goal? That's the approach to really fast success. And that approach is really more authentic than people who say "I never keep my promises, I never achieve my goals, I never keep my commitments to myself or my family because I have to keep my personality instead----it's just the way I am."
