Being average in sales is not difficult. The truth is, 80 to 95% of the salespeople in any organization are somewhere between average and bad. If you want to be great and make the big money, while having the biggest positive impact on clients’ lives, and your own, here’s what you need to do.
- Have a morning routine that prepares you for your day.
- Have an evening routine that helps you wind down and get a good night’s sleep.
- You have to see yourself as self-employed.
- You’ve got to push yourself harder than anyone else can possibly push you.
- You have to follow up with people 9 to 13 times, or more.
- You have to practice, role-play, and rehearse sales situations.
- You have to go above and beyond and do more than people expect and more than you get paid for.
- You have to smile no matter what happens on the sales call.
- You have to keep your cool, keep your emotions in check.
- You have to know your numbers and make sure they get done on a daily basis.
- You have to know why you’re out there to begin with.
- You have to get up early and stay up late.
- You have to answer your phone and e-mail on nights and weekends.
- You have to work nights and weekends, at least for the first five years of your career.
- You also have to work nights and weekends when you want or need to significantly increase sales at any time in your career.
- You have to make the call your afraid to make.
- You have to outwork everyone else.
- You have to keep learning, adapting, and improving your sales techniques.
- You have to keep current in your industry.
- You have to know more about the competition than they know about themselves.
- You have to follow a proven sales process.
- You have to let rejection roll off your back.
- You have to be able to delay gratification and work really hard before you see any results.
- You have to remove the word ‘CAN’T’ from your vocabulary.
- You have to monitor your self-talk and keep it positive.
- You have to believe in yourself when no one else does, including you.
- You have to believe in and be passionate about your product or service and the results it provides.
- You have to bend over backward and do whatever you can do to make the client happy and right.
- You must take responsibility for and invest in your personal and professional development.
- You have to realize that you will get rewarded in public for what you do in private.
- You have to always act with integrity and character.
- You have to get back up when you can’t.
- You have to face your fears and step out of your comfort zone every day.
- You have to be completely accountable for doing what you said you would do when you said you would do it.
- You have to be completely accountable when you fail.
- You have to be generous with the credit when you win.
- You have to over appreciate people.
- You have to keep the faith in your darkest hour.
- You have to be completely unreasonable in what you expect of yourself.
- You have to do one more of everything… one more call, one more rep, read one more page. Get in the habit of doing more.
- You have to reach more people.
- You have to be willing to be rejected A LOT, fail A LOT, and you have to be willing to make mistakes and learn from them.
- You have to rise and charge into your day when you’d rather hit the snooze button.
- You have to deliver more, better, and faster.
- You have to pay attention to the details.
- You have to work hard, have a great attitude, communicate well with others, and get along well with others.
- You have to care about your clients more than anything else.
- You have to be a pleasure to do business with and to be around.
- You have to do the right thing.
If you want to be great, you have to do the things that no one else is doing. You have to put more time, effort, energy, passion, and pride into what you’re doing. You must persist and persevere and keep moving forward no matter what happens.
Average is easy, being the GOAT, or one of them, takes blood, sweat, and tears. It isn’t sunshine and rainbows, it’s hard, painful work, and sacrifice is involved. You get out what you put in.
99.9% of the time the great ones aren’t the most intelligent, or the most talented, they are the hardest workers that refuse to give up. Extraordinary people are ordinary people who are simply more determined to win than everyone else. And when everyone else stops, they keep going.
You were not born to live an ordinary life. You were born to be extraordinary.
John Chapin is a motivational sales speaker, coach, and trainer. For his free eBook: 30 Ideas to Double Sales and monthly article, or to have him speak at your next event, go to: www.completeselling.com John has over 33 years of sales experience as a number one sales rep and is the author of the 2010 sales book of the year: Sales Encyclopedia (Axiom Book Awards). You can reprint provided you keep contact information in place. E-mail: johnchapin@completeselling.com.