When you attack any goal there are always two options, right? Success or failure. I would like to challenge that statement. Champions… winners… they always produce an outcome that ends in success! It may not always be the outcome that they expected, it’s an outcome none the less, therefore they SUCCEEDED in producing an outcome. If you have watched the Denver Broncos football team lately (2011 NFL Denver Broncos Team), these guys are a prime example of a successful outcome. It isn’t always pretty, in fact, most of the time it is downright ugly, but they keep winning games. Whether you credit the Broncos Defense, their kicker or their Quarterback with why they are winning games, these guys are succeeding in winning games. The reason they are winning, I believe, is because of their core belief system – 1. they believe they should win; and 2. regardless of the first downs, the plays down the field or penalties, these guys succeed in producing an outcome – and they always look at it as positive, and because of it – they keep winning games – as a team.
So let me challenge you (yes, YOU) Mr. (or Mrs.) Salesperson, change the way you think to improve yourself and ALWAYS create a positive result – THERE IS NO MORE FAILURE! You will always succeed in producing an outcome. Let’s say that your goal for any given month is to produce (sell) 40 units. You end up finishing at 20 units. Most salespeople will call this failure, then you get down on yourself, you start all the negative self talk, and you begin the downward spiral. “Why am I unable to just hit my goal?” “Why is this such a pain in the butt?” We’ve all done it to ourselves; I have to myself and I am sure that you have to yourself… right? Why couldn’t I just hit my goal of 40 units? “I failed… I only sold 20 units… I AM A FAILURE.” Sound familiar?
Here is the twist… YOU STILL SUCCEEDED IN PRODUCING (or SELLING) 20 UNITS! Start right now talking to yourself as a winner, and you will continue improving your results. Start asking better questions – such as, “What did I do to sell each of those 20 units? What was the process? What made the prospect say, ‘YES?'” There are all kinds of things that could have produced these positive results, it could be the process (that you actually followed), your confidence level or how you contacted the prospect on your initial approach. If you repeat these steps from those 20 sales then you should be able to reproduce the result for 25, 30 or 40 units! Keep in mind… SUCCESS LEAVES CLUES and if you are struggling to look at yourself to get the result, get someone else to look from the outside; look for an honest opinion.
Once you have found a process and a recipe for success then the biggest key YOUR PINNACLE POINT is to practice, drill, rehearse and repeat. TRAINING is a huge part of success. It’s why the military gets up at 5:30 every morning to run drills and train, it is why multi-million dollar sports players show up to run basic drills usually six days a week – they practice and train on the basics to continually produce the result that they want. They practice until. They practice until, when faced with adversity THE TRAINING KICKS IN!
So until next time – practice and train to produce the result that you want and remember that the ONLY result you want is a successful outcome!