2. What is the most important sale you have to make?
What is the one thing that keeps you from making sales, keeps you worrying about business, and keeps you feeling insecure?
I am going to identify it but first, let me assure you, everyone is affected by it. Regardless of how long you have been in sales or how many setbacks you have to face.
Here is the hardest thing you have to do. You have to see in your mind not the way things are, but the way things can become.
This is easy to do when things are going along smooth. When customers are buying, progress is being made and things are looking pretty good. When you are in the "success frame of mind" it is easy to see all the possibilities. However, when you are up against tough times is when you are tested. That is when you really find out how difficult it is to see things the way you want them to become. Especially when you look around and you are in a seemingly impossible situation.
The law of nature insists that you grow. When you are growing and improving you are naturally positive and excited about what you are doing. However, when you run into an obstacle and you go backwards, just the opposite takes place. All of a sudden you see yourself filled with apprehension and failure.
Let's see how good of a sales person you really are. Lets see if you can make a sale to yourself. Let's see if you can design and present a program to yourself that will get you excited about sales in spite of everyone preaching gloom and doom.
Here is a common mistake most people make when they lay out a program for themselves, which you may be guilty of as well. You have been focusing on the FEATURES when you set your goals. The FEATURES are boring. The FEATURES will never get you excited. You have to give yourself a BENEFIT presentation!
In case you are not clear on the difference between a FEATURE and a BENEFIT, a feature is a fact about the product or service, a benefit is what it does.
For example the feature of a Ford Truck is that it has a V10 450 horse power engine. The benefit is that it will pull a 10,000 pound trailer up a steep hill with ease. The BENEFIT is SEEING yourself driving the truck and pulling your RV or boat up the hill without any trouble.
Personal goal setting is important. What is even more important are the BENEFITS you will personally receive once your objectives are reached.
Here's what I mean. Owning your home free and clear is not a goal, but a benefit of reaching your sales and commission objective.
The extra money you want to put in your retirement account is not a goal; it is the benefit of reaching your sales objective.
Paying off your credit cards is not a goal, but a benefit of reaching your sales objective.
You talk to your customers about the benefits of your products and services - why not make the same case for selling yourself on your own personal success? Why do you want to be successful?
Lack of goal setting is rarely a problem. You either set them yourself, or your company sets them for you. Goals in themselves rarely have enough power to motivate you.
What will motivate you are the personal BENEFITS you get from accomplishing your goal. Your goal as a sales person is simple: Exceed your sales plan. If you have identified the BENEFITS you really want badly enough to take action you will be motivated. If you have not clearly identified your benefits you will not be motivated.
Exceeding your sales plan is a FEATURE not a BENEFIT. What are benefits you receive when you exceed your sales objective?
Once the benefits are listed, you will have your "reason why." You will find the personal motivation that gets you out the door early. The motivation to overcome call reluctance. The motivation to make the extra call. The motivation to ask for the additional business.
Your single goal is to exceed your sales plan. Stop now. Take out a piece of paper. Make a list of the BENEFITS you will enjoy by exceeding your sales plan. List all the BENEFITS you will receive once you exceed this goal. Better yet, get some pictures that represent the benefits and picture yourself as already having achieved them.
Growth is the purpose of life. If you are not growing you are simply taking up space. To make progress you have to grow until you become larger than your current situation.
This attitude of GROWTH in a sales person is imperative. You MUST have it. You MUST want more. You MUST be aggressive with your actions and demand a lot from yourself. You must be able to "see" things the way they can become, not the way they are.
This is the key of a motivated sales person. A believer. A person who knows what they want. A person who is willing to pay the price. A person who has a "reason why."
Comments:
You must have plan going forward in life. No different than having a plan for your customers. They also want to know what their BENEFIT is to deal YOU. Knowing your BENEFITS every morning when you are walking out the door for work, will motivate you to close that sale. Yes, with positive attitude and knowing my BENEFITS will get me that BIG Boat that I have always wanted
Jim Harris
What an awesome way to focus the plan on achievement! To keep our eyes on the benefits we will receive! If we get that mental image it will be very motivating. I see myself lying on the beach in the Virgin Islands as a size 6.
Tanzie Zizza
I’m amazed how easy it is to get hung up on the Features, when all of us really aim for the benefits. Once I defined BENEFITS to myself as Time / Money, then I was able to grab onto a quirky thought, which is achieve the Benefit of my set goal and then the goal is FREE with a little hard work. Our family of 4 had the best cruise on the Mexican Riviera for our 20th Wedding Anniversary, and it only cost $20,000.00! That’s right, 3 years hard work, and not a dime out of our daily expenses.
Mark Brackett
A very common figure of speech about goal setting is take it “one day at a time”. In sales this really does not work unless you have a plan done in advance. The work of today does not normally see the benefits for months, sometimes even years. I like your idea of the 90 day plan. Which I am going to try, I currently follow a monthly, weekly and daily plan. Nothing makes me feel more confident than leaving my house each morning knowing exactly where I am going and what my plan is for each stop.
Candy Swift
The only motivation I need to get me going in the morning is my responsibility to my family and wanting to be the best for them and myself. It is my desire to not let them down that pushes me to do everything I can to improve our lives together. That means doing my planning, focusing on exceeding my sales objectives and staying out there and exceeding our customers expectations when it is easy just to pack it in. Some of my best success stories have come after the end of a business day. I understand motivation is the single most challenging aspect of being in sales. Each of us needs to find that sense of purpose to be successful. If it is our family or some other motivating factor, we must have something that will give us a sense of purpose to succeed.
Donnie Little
I agree it does take time to become a successful sales person. Anyone can be a salesperson; it just depends on what your idea of what successful is. Some think its getting a couple new sales every couple months. To me being a successful salesperson means making new contacts every day while maintaining the current relationships. When you do that you will have much more than a couple of sales. Three years seems to be accurate as it takes time to learn what works and what doesn’t, you cant always follow the lead of others. What works for them may not work for you.
Brandon Sanchez
When one is MATURE, they will have achieved the status of SALES PROFESSIONAL. This status is not achieved on a watch or a calendar. However, it does take time to gain maturity. In order to achieve maturity (and professionalism) certain actions MUST be taken. First, effective planning, i.e., plan your work and work your plan. Second, profit from experience, both good and bad. One’s own experiences will serve as their best teacher. Third, set and achieve personal goals. Don’t set your goals so low that you are not challenged but don’t set them so high that they are impossible to reach. Reasonable goals are usually agreed upon by sales professionals and sales managers. For the free agent, their spouse can usually assist by presenting a WANT LIST at the beginning of each year.
Mike Dame
I feel like in order to be successful in anything you must take things one day and one step at the time. You must have patience, and determination to accomplish your goals. Working on the overall goal on a daily basis. Don’t rush, take on one task at the time, and stay focused. By doing this daily you can accomplish anything you set you mind to do.
Laura Rice
This definitely relates to the old adage “PLAN YOUR WORK, AND WORK YOUR PLAN!” Within the selling industry, you must allow for flexibility and schedules to change (i.e. broken appts, no shows, things of that nature), but you also must include a certain amount of rigidity within your schedule. If you don’t have a plan, and don’t have written goals set, how will you know if you ever reach them. How will you know if you ever succeed?
Scott Green
In repeat selling it generally takes 2-3 years for the salesperson to gain the customer’s trust and confidence. People are slow to let down their defenses, and rightfully so. But once you have gained this trust your life is a lot easier.
Also, having a mentor to guide a new salesperson dramatically speeds up the learning process – an experienced and successful salesperson to help navigate you through the learning minefield.
Crocker Smith
What are the benefits you would like to have? What are the things that will get you excited? Click on "comments" and let me know what you think?
"Your single goal is to exceed your sales plan. Stop now. Make a list of the BENEFITS you will enjoy by exceeding your sales plan. List all the BENEFITS you will receive once you exceed this goal."