Cruising

The mistake many salespeople make is that during the good times in their industry when sales are easier and incomes higher there is the perception that the good times will roll on forever. Many unprofessional salespeople fall for this same old trap. They have the unrealistic view that success is something which should be displayed. They feel the need to prove to others in their industry, friends and family that where they live, what they drive, how they dress are the only measures of their success. Time and time again it has been seen that the tendency towards conspicuous consumption by salespeople will come to destroy them and they will leave a profession which could have provided all they desired and more. Past performance is no guarantee of future performance. To be really successful it needs to be for the long term and by understanding the important question of just what success means to you and those close to you. The pursuit of meaningfull  success will only come from appreciating that is different for different people and is as individual as you are. It is perhaps too easy to follow the idea of success from what we see in the media or hear from others without taking the time to make our own decisions.

The Meaning

Needless to say after watching the interview I mentioned my curiosity was aroused and I went to a dictionary to discover for myself what it said was the meaning of success. The two results I found were; a favorable outcome and good fortune. Investigating further I found more detailed explanations, such as this small selection; easy street, accomplishment, benefit, big hit, do well, fulfillment, hit, performance, triumph. In reviewing these few words it is easy to see they are the result of activity, this in itself may be admirable but it still requires some effort on the part of the individual. In the end it is what you do and how you handle success is the real test and unless the salesperson has clear goals and objectives, success for success’s sake will only leave you with the feeling of wondering what is it all about. Long term careers in the selling profession consist of more than short term feelings of success, what really matters is how you set your goals and plans for a satisfying way of life that is selling.

Perhaps success is the act of getting there and not the actual destination.

It’s About Choice

Making choices and solving problems is a fact of life and is common to everyone. Success can be a result of being in the right place at the right time, but it was probably the person’s decision to take the opportunity that was the key to their success. That decision came from their attitude and the need to make a change. Any change will take us out of our comfort zone and this is the main factor that holds us back in an environment we have stopped enjoying. When an opportunity is there for the taking we are often not fully prepared for the change ahead. Unless you have your goals and objectives in place in your work and personal life, favorable circumstances will go unrecognized. We have all met the person who seemed to be in the “right place at the right time” and would’ve, should’ve and could’ve, but didn’t and a life changing opening passed them by.

The Market Needs You

No matter what your thoughts are about selling it needs to be remembered that we all at some stage have persuaded others of an idea or our point of view. Zig Ziglar the famous sales trainer described the selling profession as professional persuasion. You see we are all at some level salespeople but the major difference is that the professional salesperson continues learning the craft, and is rewarded financially for their efforts. To a large extent work in our society is based on an hourly rate and no matter how hard you work the rate remains the same. Your only chance to improve your income is to hope and trust that you will be noticed and rewarded with a few extra dollars per hour. This form of remuneration has its limits and you can never feel you are in control of your destiny. The greatest rewards from selling are in those areas where your remuneration is commission based on the level of your sales. Being paid in this way puts you in the perfect situation. There is no limit to how much you can earn. The choice is yours as a career in sales is available to everyone provided it is not just seen as a job of last resort. The selling profession offers a fantastic opportunity for all if you are prepared to take the step. Remember nothing happens until someone sells something.

No matter what we do we are all operating to some extent on auto pilot which gets us through each day. To make any real and meaningful change in what we do, needs to be seen as a continuing, ongoing process. It is only from adopting this practice as a habit, will you cope with the events and changes that will always be occurring in your market.

Changing Habits

To succeed and have a lasting career in the selling profession the need for personal and professional development is vital. Having the will to improve and change those habits that may be holding you back, is the only way to success.

To some extent our habits are driven by our attitude and self-talk, which quite often is designed to protect us, by making us repeat what we have done in the past. In this way there is a feeling of safety, even if it is not getting us the results we desire.

Habits are hard to break but to succeed they need to be broken. By really thinking about what you do and how you do them, it is possible to identify those habits that need to be changed. It is important to identify your winning habits, as it is from these you can build and strengthen what you do to get better results.

Conversely it is the losing habits that need your major attention, as they do not only affect your livelihood but affect your confidence, enthusiasm and a feeling of being in control.

The Choice is Yours

The more entrenched your habits are the harder they are to change, but change they will if you understand what needs changing and set out to act with a positive approach. Too often, you can have all the best intentions to make changes, but those old excuses will hold you back in the comfort of your old habits.

The opportunity to change and improve is available to us all, and if you decide it’s all too hard or you can’t shake the old habits remember the tools, techniques and information are out there waiting to help you to make the change. Refusing to learn new skills and improve existing ones will keep you where you have been for years, and deny you the opportunity to succeed in your life and enjoy the profession of selling.

Decide today to take action; life rewards those who act, without action you will only wonder how far you could have gone.

“Habits begin as harmless thoughts – like flimsy cobwebs – then, with practice, become unbreakable cables to shackle or strengthen our lives”. Dr. Denis Waitley

Now is the Time

Many salespeople who want to be successful fail to plan because they are waiting for this, that or the other to happen first. Without planning the realisation of your goals will fail. Your plan is the blueprint for your success and without being well organised you will not reach your full potential or the rewards you desire. Start your planning by looking back over this year so far and break it down into the things that went well, moderately well and those things you know you need to improve. This will enable you to set your priorities and target the things you need to do better and take the steps to make the changes.

Selling Opportunity

All your planning needs to have the single objective of creating a selling opportunity.  There are three things to remember about planning; 1. Have a plan, 2. Keep to the plan, 3. Keep reviewing the plan. You’re planning needs to take into account not only your selling activity but also your time outside working hours. The profession of selling can very easily become all consuming and burnout is a real possibility so it is vital your programme provides the balance for a healthy lifestyle. Knowing where to start can sometimes be difficult but you need to recognise that to be successful you may need to seek help and assistance in formulating how you can put your plans together. Once you have your blueprint for the year make sure your activity and results are measured against the plan as no plan is successful unless corrections are made along the way. A plan prepared and locked away is no plan at all.

Keep Ahead

To be the leader in your market you should continually be looking at ways to improve your selling activity, as this will keep you ahead of your competition, and achieving sales. Planning is the most important part of everything you do in selling, yet it is the area that is neglected by salespeople. It takes time and effort to develop a workable plan and apply a program for your future career. For longevity in selling, the commitment needs to be made to make the effort, take the time to develop your business, and to not rely on hope and luck to earn you a stable, consistent income.  How you approach your career in selling will be the difference between your successes or failure. Effective, careful, well thoughtout planning in everything you do will lead to a long term, immensely satisfying life in selling.

“In life you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you believe, plan and expect”. Bill Bartman.

This is a question most of us get asked from time to time in many situations on meeting people for the first time. Whenever I am asked my answer is “I’m a Salesman”, the next question is always, “what do you sell?”. It is interesting that on most occasions salespeople would not answer the question this way as it has come about that selling is something people don’t do any more. In many industries those involved in selling goods or services are called anything except a salesperson. Today they are called consultants, area managers, sales executives, negotiator, and even sales strategists to disguise the fact that they are a salesperson. Imagine the question, what you do for a living being answered, “I am a used car salesman”. If the reply to the question was “I am a salesman”, then, what do you sell, “I sell used cars”, the reply is professional and conveys the correct impression that selling has a vital role in today’s business environment.

Selling is a Life Time Career

It was once said “nothing happens until someone sells something”. If you think about it, all our lives revolve around the profession of selling. The world’s economy rises or falls on the level of trade and trade is people selling goods and services to others. A recent survey by Gallop Research said that up to 10 percent of the working population of the top industrialised countries are employed in sales. This equals roughly one million people in Australia. On all levels successful sales professionals regard their work as a career and strive to maintain their edge in the market and to always be ahead of their competition. Like all professionals they maintain their constant performance through discipline, training and continued learning to improve their ability to operate and perform at their best. They know they are totally responsible for their own success.

Selling – Professional Persuasion

It’s too easy to give into perceptions that the selling profession is any way less than any other. Selling is a rewarding profession because you are meeting new people all the time and using your competence and experience to help them buy goods and services that satisfy their needs and wants. Most involved in selling are not tied to a desk, clocking in each day nine to five, they have the freedom that many occupations do not. I was recently at a gathering of small business people and it was unanimous among them they did not see themselves as salespeople. I asked had anyone persuaded anybody to do anything and the answers were a confident yes from the group. I then went on to quote Zig Ziglar who said that selling was “professional persuasion”. Anyone in selling who is successful sees themselves as a business and plans accordingly and anyone in business is a salesperson as they would not survive without selling their goods or service. To any salesperson reading this I would challenge you when the next time you are asked what you do for a living to confidently answer you are a salesman / saleswoman. I will guarantee the next question will be “what do you sell”.

PS. I will be interested to hear how you went.

Thick Skinned.

It has been said to be a good salesperson you have to be “thick skinned” to survive, but selling requires much more than this. Attitude plays the most important part in a salesperson’s life. The salespersons attitude to their self improvement will be the difference between success and failure. It is only with the correct approach to self improvement that will you succeed in a full lifetime career in the business of sales. Control of your feelings, emotions, self talk and how you handle changes in your environment and circumstance will be the measure of your success. Highly successful salespeople have a positive approach and understand that through the continued development of skills and knowledge they will become consistently good performers throughout their career.

Change Equals Opportunity.

Business is changing all the time and sales professionals must also change with it and have a clear vision of where they want to go and how they plan to get there. No matter where you are in selling look at yourself as a business. From this stand point you can structure your plans and goals to include the time for learning the techniques of selling and thereby prosper as a good business should. I would suggest that now, more than any other time in the history of selling, there are more learning tools available for the sales professional to improve all aspects of their life and business.

It’s All About Choice.

As with everything in life and business the choices we make today can have a long term effect on our futures. It is important therefore to make the correct decisions about the things you decide on to further your career in the profession of selling. It is not enough to just attend a training session, buy a book or CD and expect things to change. Planned, well thought out activity will deliver results and unless a conscious effort is made to make changes in how you go about your work as a salesperson you will get more of the same.

As Washington Irving said “Great minds have purpose, others have wishes”.

The positive response to the comment, “The market has died” is to say “what again?” You see we are in an economy that by its very nature will go through cycles and what one day seems to be all good, onward and upward, can the next be in decline. The informed professional salesperson understands these dynamics and has allowed for them in their plans so they are expected. Their prospecting and systems are in place and this approach will provide for them the confidence to be prepared for the events that will always be happening outside their control. In saying, what again, is to understand the events have happened in the past and nothing is new, there is no point for waiting for things to get back to normal, there is no normal?

You have to expect that the economy and the world in which we live is always changing and it is how you handle this environment will be the measure of your success. There is no point in having the attitude that things will get back to normal and that you will return to your “comfort zone” for the rest of your working life in sales. If you are waiting for things to get back to normal your wait will be in vain, you can’t live in a bubble insulated from world events. If in your market and the economy in general you have not kept up to date with what is happening you will not be in position to understand the causes and effects of why things are the way they are, knowledge is everything.

Just think for a moment about your competitors and how are they taking the changing market, are they responding or reacting. Based on the eighty twenty rule you could expect that eighty percent of them are in survival mode and have taken their eyes of the ball. In this type of economic environment opportunities will arise, the positive salesperson with an attitude that problems are normal will present themselves as the sales professional and win the business. They know that negativity is contagious and make the conscious decision to separate themselves from the pity parties and all those that seem to enjoy the spreading of bad or negative news.

The survival of any sales team or endeavour will only be successful if it can achieve this goal of separation and take away all the, sky falling in, negative opinions and views that seem to get more attention than they deserve.

In researching my book I learned that the Chinese character for change is the same as opportunity. Therefore Change = Opportunity should be in your mind at all times.

The strength of your career in selling will come from your planned investment of time and money in developing your attitude, knowledge, programs, systems and methods to protect you from any adverse events that will and are going to happen, problems are normal. Be prepared for change it has a habit of happening without warning.

It is through adapting and coping with change that we evolve, grow and achieve the feeling of accomplishment.

The sky is NOT falling in!

For more on Attitude follow the link to read the extract on chapter four in my book “4 Qualities of the Successful Sales Professional”.

http://sales-selling.com/the-book/book-extracts

For a profession that thrives on entrepreneurial initiative and the individual’s skills and ability to sell, this, and any other award in any field of selling, only further demonstrates the failure of those responsible for drafting such documents to understand what is involved in the selling process.

Just by looking at the table of contents, part one deals with Dispute Resolution and part two covers Termination, (two negatives) far from a positive start!

To me and others in the selling profession opening with two negatives seems to indicate the bias of the award and the attitude of those involved in the drafting.

Although there is a requirement in all business to have agreements set in writing so all parties understand their roles, duties, responsibilities and what is expected, the nature of selling largely depends on the individual being able to achieve sales to the financial benefit of the salesperson and the business.

Any attempt to control the agreements between the parties to the extent that this award does only seems to me to be an attempt to bring salespeople down to a common denominator with all other people in the workforce.

Selling is a profession for the person who wants to get ahead based on their ability to sell and to have no upper limit on how much they can earn.

It is this aspect of the profession, and not just being paid an hourly rate, that makes being a salesperson an attractive way to make a living and have an enjoyable lifestyle.

On the positive side for those employing sales staff this award would be an ideal barometer to gauge the attitude of a future sales employee.

With well structured questions it could be determined if the applicant had the attitude needed to succeed or one that when performance was not satisfactory, rather than look to improve, they would be talking to the “Shop Steward” to protect their job.

The nature of the selling profession is one that it is a great leveller and only those with the correct attitude and an understanding of the need for continual self improvement and development will be a success.

It is fact of life we seem to be living in a Nanny state where the protection of the few in the workplace is inflicted on the majority with no thought that in the process some with the ability to be successful may never know their full potential.

The responsibility to avoid this happening will fall to those who employ salespeople to ensure no talent goes unrecognised.

Those involved in training and developing salespeople need to keep their standards high to avoid just suppling workers, because those involved in selling are vital to the growth of  business and the economy overall.

In business nothing happens until someone sells something!

All the technology and social networking media available currently should only be seen as a tool for your business and although vital for today’s sales activity it will not replace the personal selling required in presenting your proposal and closing the sale.

It is vital the professional sales person be up to date and learn how technology can assist and be of benefit to the sales effort.

Control of any sales opportunity comes from the quality of your presentation and the first impression made.

Understanding this important fact in the selling process emphasises the need for the sales person to develop their personal approach to the process and to undertake a continual review of how they feel they are viewed by their clients and customers.

In “4 Qualities of the Sales Professional” you will be able to conduct a self audit on this important area of your business and learn how to take the steps to address what needs to be done.

A positive attitude is essential to all salespeople and is the key to enjoying a good life.

Our self talk is ours alone and acts as our auto pilot guiding us through daily activity equipping us to handle situations and events as they arise.

Sales and selling is a people business and having the right attitude will go a long way to establishing rapport with clients and the view they have of you as a salesperson.

Attitude can be changed and a positive attitude needs to become a habit.

Quality 2. Personal and Professional Development.

Professionalism through personal development shows.

All salespeople need to create a good impression in every thing they do and have the respect of every one they come into contact with.

Control of any sales opportunity comes from the quality of the presentation and the first impression made.

Self improvement in this important aspect of selling is available and can become a way of life.

Quality 3. Planning.

You can possibly succeed until you start to plan.

As a sales person all planning needs to have the single objective of creating a selling opportunity.

Knowing how and where to start and to be able to plan for business and personal life is vital to have continuing long term success in sales and selling.

All business is hard won, things just don’t happen and learning the techniques and skills of planning will ensure success.

Quality 4. Sales Skills.

The development of sales skills will improve your ability to not only achieve more sales but increase confidence in all selling situations.

Material to develop sales skills is extensive and the opportunity to learn all there is to know is available in many forms.

The development of sales skills and the understanding of the sales process will be vital for a long term career in selling.

Your sales knowledge and sales skills are your main survival tools in the profession of selling.

For more information on the 4 Qualities of the successful Sales Professional, take a look at my book: “4 Qualities of the Successful Sales Professional”