Failure or success

Salescoach Colleen Stanley's Top 9 principles for success or failure in sales :

1. Ask for Help
Average producers are not good at asking for help. This may stem from lack of confidence in not wanting to be transparent about a weakness in their selling process. Lack of asking for help may also come from not being committed to doing what it takes to succeed. If you ask for advice, people expect you to execute on the advice. Top producers, on the other hand, are confident and have no problem admitting they are not perfect. They are also committed to do what it takes to become excellent in their profession. Top producers seek out advisors and mentors. I have also noticed they are the best students during a sales training course. They bring case studies for review or call for extra coaching. Top producers understand that no one gets great by themselves.

2. Sales Activity
When I first entered the sales training profession, I had a sales coach. The first question asked during our weekly coaching sessions was "Tell me about your sales activity plan" At first, I found this question puzzling. I was in the sale guru business. Wasn't he supposed to ask me about my ability to find "pain" on a call or uncover corporate decision making process? This wise coach understood that the sales training business is no different than any other business. If my sales activity plan didn't lead me to prospects, it didn't matter how good my selling or training skills were....no one would ever know! Top revenue producers understand that a consistent sales activity plan is the key to finding new clients and driving revenue.

3. Eliminate Excuses
Poor producers spend most of their time discussing excuses that prevent them from making their sales goal; i.e. increased competition, problems with operations issues at the company, or the current market. Top producers invest most of their time discussing how to achieve results, how to beat increased competition, ways to improve/work around operations issues, and how to sell regardless of economic issues. Top producers live by the mantra, “We are judged only by results, not by excuses.

4. Lose Your Mediocre Friends
Remember your mom saying " Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you what you are like." This quote is absolutely true in sales. Tell me who you 'hang' with and I will tell you what you are like. Mediocre performers like to 'hang' with other mediocre performers. The bar for success is low and membership criteria is easy! Expect and accept less. The weekly agenda for meetings is always predictable and preset: Bring one new excuse for discussion.

5. Get Rid of Arrogance
A top producer that has achieved the top of the hill status can quickly move to the bottom of the hill because of arrogance. Arrogant individuals stop learning because, after all, they are the best in the business. What can they possibly learn after 20 years in the profession? The real issue is that young, hungry, competitors haven't caught the disease of arrogance. The competition continues to learn, change and grow. The result is a new king or queen of the hill looking down at a stunned, retired past king or queen.

6. Get Focused
A poor producer can work very hard. Lack of sales isn't from lack of effort; it's that the effort is focused on the wrong prospect, activity and partnerships. Top producers have clearly identified their ideal client and have built a strategy around meeting, influencing, and creating value for that specific client. They are very clear on who they will sell and what they will sell. Top producers walk away from prospects that don't fit their ideal profile; leaving them more time to walk towards best fit clients. They leave the price shopping prospects to their competitors who get to invest all their time in writing proposals that go nowhere.

7. Manage Your Time
Top producers are good at calendaring. They set aside very specific times each week for business development (prospecting calls, client retention calls, calls updating referral partners, etc.). Top producers have discipline and don't allow outside distractions to deter them from their most important appointment - the appointment with themselves and working their plan.

8. Invest in Yourself
Top producers don't wait for someone else to make them good (I.e. I will only attend a sales training course if the company is picking up the tab). I am reminded of a client, Jill, who came to me seven years ago. She was an administrative assistant desiring to enter the sales profession. Her current employer would not offer her a sales position because they just didn't think an administrative assistant could sell. Jill believed she had the ability to be very good in sales and invested her own time and money in sales training. She eventually applied for a sales position at another firm and became the number one salesperson at the new firm. (By the way, Jill also practiced all of the success principles listed above.) Jill did not wait to get good based on someone else's beliefs or dollars.

9. Get GoingAre you getting ready to get ready?
Listen up: Perfection is highly overrated. While you are waiting to get all the research done on a prospect, perfecting your technique, or redoing your PowerPoint one last time, the salesperson that is showing up is getting the deal. Strive for perfection, but don't wait on perfection.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

2008 has given us many opportunities, great successes, inspiring challenges, and new perspective.

Have you gotten the most out of the past year?

There's a new opportunity ahead of us: the year 2009!

With the financial crisis, this may be a challenging year in business for some - but sooner or later you will find the competitive edge to stand out from the crowd. Challenges have their upsides too....one of them being that others are experiencing the same threshold and once you've gotten over the hurdle, you may have a head start to the rest.

Now is the time to plan your goals, milestones, accomplishments, and successes for the coming year.

What went well? What could have been done better?
Did you notice other people's successes? Is there anything from their actions that you can incorporate into your daily/weekly/monhtly schedule?
What do you want to learn/experience/achieve next year?
Is everything in place to live your dream?

Many questions... some of which are tough to answer, as none of us have a crystal ball to see the future. Yet we can fulfill our own prophecy, by putting real and practical actions next to our goals.

I wish you Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and may all your dreams come true in 2009 !

Stephan

Mount Everest

Last night, I woke up early because of my jetlag.
Around 3.15 am it occurred to me (the weirdest thoughts come up at night) that getting started in sales has some similarities with climbing the Mount Everest.

A couple of months ago, my good friend Marco Hoogerland (an amazing mental coach for top athletes, including top-notch football players, world and european champions and olympic athletes) hosted an evening event with Robert de Vries.

Robert de Vries is a Dutch climber, and one of few men that has endured the severities of reaching the top of Mount Everest, the highest mountain on earth.
Robert presented his movie to the in-crowd, accompanied by stories and many questions of the dazzled audience. What an unbelievable performance - I was stunned by his humbling and riveting story.

It also occurred to me that you have to be somewhat crazy/selfish to reach the absolute top.
Many things have to be left behind (sometimes even relationships with loved ones) to achieve the goals at hand. I am not saying anyone should.

I am just saying that my observation of the journey and end-line to these unbelievable achievements seem to have some commonly shared factors:

Dedication, focus, taking risk, preparation, training, endurance, persistance, triomph, glory, and hardship. It doesn't come for free...

It seemed to me that getting started in full-commissioned sales is somewhat like climbing (albeit more comfortable perhaps).

Sales isn't easy...
You can see the top, but have no idea (yet) how to get there.

Considering the following:
- No gear when starting (job knowlegde, product knowledge, industry knowlegde)
- Some are already trained when they start, some aren't.
Trained (experienced) people may have an advantage to reach the top sooner, but it may also hinder them in a way, because they might think they know it all and get reckless/careless while climbing is dangerous.
- You earn your climbing gear (product/job/industry knowledge) along the way, as you proceed through the basecamps.
- Some will fall or go back
- Some get stuck in snow storms and have to wait a while and watch weather conditions before they can proceed to the next camp.
- It is hard work, no matter how experienced you are - you will still have to walk the walk.
- You need your co-climbers, so be a good colleague
- It's great at the top, but anything below doesn't satisfy your dreams, so you may have to endure dissatisfaction, or disappointment when things aren't going as smooth as you had hoped for.
- Getting to the top may not be fun, but there's no easy way there. You have to pass through all basecamps
- Sherpa's (mgmt? finance? administrative colleagues?) can do a lot of the work, but you will still have to climb yourself.
- If your goal is to reach the top, you can't stop when others are not making it.


So:
- Prepare (create prospect lists, organize your approach, create a plan, work the plan)
- Train (read, learn, ask, look around, copy, whatever makes you improve)
- Focus on your goal (top of the ranks)
- Be lead by the leader (pick your example)
- Persist (be relentless)

Dream about the impossible becoming possible by putting the first step in the right direction

Don't let yourself down

Be tough when it gets tough

Take the hardships like a man: it comes with the journey

Celebrate the basecamps, so you can enjoy the journey too

Learn from the winners, not the whiners.





If this doesn't make sense to you: it was late ;-)

Enjoy