Not to be cliché, but in reality most of life and business success is so simple that it borders on cliché. While the saying that “90% of success is just showing up” is true, there’s a lot behind that 90%. First, most people won’t do the hard work necessary to show up where and when they need to. Second, it isn’t just showing up that matters, it’s how you show up.
What it means to Show Up
Showing up means your number shows up on caller-ID, it means you physically show up on the doorstep, it means showing up at the places where your prospects and clients hang out and in the publications they read. It also means showing up in mailboxes, both physical and e-mail, showing up when and where customers need you, and going above and beyond and showing up in pleasant, unexpected ways. Showing up is keeping communication open, giving clients gifts, and doing what you can to build solid relationships that the competition can’t crack.
Showing up isn’t hanging out on Facebook for three hours or waiting for someone to call you. It’s proactive marketing where you make it happen, where you control the number of people and prospects you interact with. In other words, showing up means doing the hard work that the majority of people avoid. This includes cold calling and doing anything else you need to do in order to have the number of prospects you need to exceed your business goals and have a huge network of people who know who you are, like you, and are excited about doing business with you.
How to Show Up
1) Show up prepared
Showing up prepared means being dressed the part, being sold on your product, and being able to speak enthusiastically and intelligently about your product. Being prepared means you qualify the prospect, find out what is most important to her, and focus completely on doing what’s best for her.
Being prepared means being ready when your opportunity arises whether it’s at a networking event, or you run into someone in an elevator or on the street. Being prepared means you’re able to adjust and adapt to people and situations, you’re able to zig when you need to zig and zag when you need to zag. You need to be prepared when the opportunities present themselves and then you need to be able to make the most of them. Love or hate Tom Brady, here’s a guy who was ready when Drew Bledsoe went down, and the rest, as they say, is history.
2) Don’t worry about showing up perfect
While you want to show up prepared, realize that there’s a fine line between prepared and perfect. To err is human and you can never be perfect. Perfect is an excuse that the crowd uses to give into their fear and never take action. Don’t worry about what’s going to happen or having the perfect thing to say, just show up and let life take its course.
3) Work hard consistently and persistently
As Calvin Coolidge said regarding success, “Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” You have to hang in there and be persistent, though not in an obnoxious, overbearing way. Regarding hard work, have you ever noticed that when you’re working hard, you get all the breaks? You don’t get that random phone call with the “look-what-I-found” order when you’re sitting there hoping the phone’s going to ring or playing Words with Friends. No, you get it when you’re calling people, chasing people down, pushing yourself and making it happen, that’s when the breaks happen.
The successful keep showing up. They don’t call once and give up, they don’t fold like a lawn chair when they get an objection or something goes wrong during the day. The successful don’t wait for the opportunities, they make them. If their ship doesn’t come in, they swim out to it.
Ultimately, the reason why that 90% is so important is because the people who are willing to show up when and where they need to are simply willing to do what the unsuccessful won’t. They make the calls and do the hard work. They have the attitude, persistence and drive to overcome any and all obstacles. They’re not making excuses, whining, or doing paperwork during prime calling hours. They “get” that if your purpose, your WHY, is strong enough, you’ll figure out the HOW, you’ll get it done, you simply will find a way. They also know that, no matter how dark, dim, and hopeless it may seem, the hard work will eventually pay off but you’ve got to have the self-discipline to stick to it and keep showing up until it pays.
Right now there’s a call you need to make, it’s the one you’ve been putting off for weeks, maybe even months, that call you’ve been afraid to make. Make it. From a personal standpoint, there’s that person you’ve wanted to ask out, that trip you’ve wanted to make, that new adventure that you’ve been talking about for five years, but that you’re afraid to take. Take it. For all of the above, schedule it and then show up. And while you want to be prepared, and you want to be ready, for most people that’s just an excuse to give into the fear and not do it. Don’t worry about what to say, or what to do, you’ll be 90% of the way there if you just show up.
John Chapin is a professional sales and motivational speaker and trainer. For his free newsletter, or if you would like him to speak at your next event, go to: www.completeselling.com John has over 26 years of sales experience as a number one sales rep and is the author of the 2010 sales book of the year: Sales Encyclopedia. For permission to reprint, e-mail: johnchapin@completeselling.com.
