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SOME WILL, SOME WON'T. SO WHAT? SOMEONE'S WAITING.
As a salesperson, it is your task to "make things happen". It is your responsibility to drive your company forward with more sales and fresh ideas to make it a better and more profitable place to work.
How do you handle price objections?
Are you limited by opportunities, or by your own attitude?
Is sales training worth investing in?
More importantly…is sales training effective?
This is probably one of the most common questions asked by any sales leader. And if you work in the sales realm, you probably are aware that each year, companies are investing billions of dollars on sales training.
Think about a goal you want to accomplish. Is it easy to achieve? Do you see yourself reaching the finish line and hitting your goal? Good. It’s because you’re one step closer to finally getting there. Bigger, greater goals are, most of the time, too daunting. There will always be that seed of self-doubt within you. Negative thoughts would start swarming in your head as you start asking yourself with questions like, Can I really do it? Do I have what it takes? Are my goals even doable? Guess what? You will never find out unless you decide to try. Always remember, your goals will remain an intangible product of the imagination and will not be willed into solid reality unless you don’t chart a plan in accomplishing them. You have the potential to achieve anything you wish and to become anything you want to be. But to fulfill this potential, you need to develop your mental strength. As you decide to leave your old life and pursue the life of your dreams, it is inevitable that you will experience hardship, self-doubt, lack of confidence, insecurity. You might even feel overwhelmed from time to time. If this happens, that means you are treading the right path. Do you find your goals daunting? Don’t fear. You should TRY taking the first step, anyway. Venture out and go beyond your comfort zone. You wouldn’t know what you are capable of unless you try and take a chance. In the sales realm, you’ll never get your client’s business if you don’t ask. Take your shot! So if you have a dream or a goal, I strongly encourage you to try. And if you fail, that’s okay. At least you tried. And besides, failures bring memorable lifelong lessons which will serve as your stepping stones, so that you can try again. Wayne Gretzky said this best with, “You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.”
Are you productive? Or are you just busy? Think of a relatively normal day at your work. You get in, potentially have a meeting (though it might not be the most productive meeting). You get yourself a cup of coffee because you can’t function without it. You may do some work. Then you hear someone from your team talking about something they had watched on TV or Netflix. You join in with your say on it. You probably check your emails, then involuntarily stuff because you become involuntarily got so drawn to listening to your workmate complain. Look, the list of this usual activities (and yes, distractions, too) is endless. If you think about it, we always have those little pockets of time ---- that if we are just being honest with ourselves ----- we waste. Time is the most expensive commodity in the world, simply because we can’t get it back. But then, we give it away so easily. Can you imagine what it would be like if we just give away our money like we give away our time. So the question is, are you really productive? Or are you just busy? Too many people believe that being busy is equivalent to being productive. Is it really? No. They are definitely not the same. Let’s a draw a line between the two. Busy people complain they have no time, but productive people dedicate time to more important things. Being busy is usually doing frantic work and multitasking on shallow tasks, jumping from one thing to another, whereas being productive is dedicating time and effort on doing tasks which are purposeful Make the decision today to stop wasting time and start adding more productive time pockets into your day. Would you agree if I say that it is time management that we need? Rather, it is a combination of focus and attention management. Remember, it is not always about the number of hours you put in. It is what you put into the hours that count. When I was still a professional sportsman, I would often put in 6 hours a day practicing. But it wasn’t purposeful. And therefore, whatever I did in practice wasn’t effective. I was just wasting time. Being productive is equivalent to block time. So, what block time? It is the time you dedicate in doing deep, focused and purposeful work until the task’s completion. As Henry David Thoreau said, “It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?” It is better to focus in doing one task which is meaningful and has a greater impact on your results, instead of knocking out several tasks halfheartedly. Not everything matters equally. And success isn’t a game won by whoever does the most. Yet that’s how most of us think and do each day. Peter Drucker said it best with, “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” Time is very important, as you might have probably realized. So do the best that you can, not only in your job, but in life as a whole. Think about this: what can you stop doing that will save pockets of wasted time for you each day? Schedule things in priority of what matters the most and what will get you the results that you need. Manage your focus and attention by switching off everything that distracts you, and fully focus on that one thing. So, let me go back to my question at the start of this blog: Are you productive? Or are you busy?
I was recently reading the above book The Mamba Mentality as Kobe Bryant was and always will be someone I admired greatly. So what is the Mamba Mentality? Kobe states in his book that the mamba mentality was about more than just basketball. “Mamba mentality is all about focusing on the process and trusting in the hard work when it matters most,” “It’s the ultimate mantra for the competitive spirit. It started just as a hashtag that came to me one day, and it’s grown into something athletes — and even non-athletes — embrace as a mindset.” He says in the book "The mindset isn't about seeking a result - it's more about the process of getting to that result." On handling pressure he states "I never felt outside pressure. I knew what I wanted to accomplish, and I knew how much work it took to achieve those goals. I then put in the work and trusted in it." For me that last piece is so important... he trusted in the hard work! Sometimes in sales you won't always get the immediate results, however, trusting that by putting in the hard work and dare I say 'the right work' the payoff will eventually come is a true secret to sales success. Too often I see sales people let themselves down by negative thinking. The Mamba Mentality for me is putting in the hard work, having a bulletproof mind and more importantly trusting the hard work is the process for getting to your result/goal. You've probably heard about trusting the process, well how about for the next month you trust in hard work? Go after it with The Mamba Mentality!!
In the phenomenal documentary 'The Last Dance' film makers cover the legacy of Michael Jordan and the 90's Chicago Bulls team. It's an incredible insight into demanding and delivering excellence consistently at the highest levels. In the final episode (no spoiler here don't worry) the narrator describes that most people live in fear because they project the past into the future. Thinking about past things or worrying about the future outcomes however he goes on to state that Jordan was a mystic because he would never be anywhere else except in the moment. His gift wasn't that he could jump higher, run faster, or throw a basketball better, his gift was that he was completely present and that was the separator. Being in the moment is how he managed to deal so well with the pressures that only a global icon could understand. Now when it comes to average salespeople, focus, concentration and being in the moment is a huge missing factor of their sales game that I see more and more often. Here's some tell tale signs: Thinking about the bad run your on Focused on what others are achieving Struggle to stay focused in between calls Thinking about the sale when you're on the call Worried about not making target Thinking about missing your bonus Blaming outer things Bitching about advantages others are getting Worrying about what your boss will say Thinking about food Thinking about things outside of work Thinking the grass must be greener elsewhere Thinking about problems at home Thinking about previous mistakes you made on the calls previous Loosing concentration between calls These are just some of the signs your focus is not in the moment when you're selling. Can you imagine if Jordan whilst playing started to think about how bad he was playing or that he must make this shot because it's for the game or everyone expects excellence so I must deliver this etc. etc. etc.? If he started thinking about all the outer things he would never be able to produce results game in game out every time he stepped on the court. You must start being present in the moment every time you step onto your sales floor or meeting a prospect face to face. Whatever the situation...it's game time! You must be present, in the moment ready to simply execute your work to the best of your ability. What can I do to be present? We cover many different mental strategies in our sales training programs but here are two quick tips to centre yourself and be present when selling... Tip 1 Take 5 deep breathes focusing on your stomach going out as you breathe in and your stomach dropping in as you breathe all the way out to the end. This breathing technique also known as breathing like a baby relaxes you and centres your concentration ready to sell. Breathing in concentration and breathing out all distractions. Tip 2 You can use an NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) technique called chunking to gain more focus. Let me explain, if I ask you to give me your all for a whole day most people would struggle to do so because the amount of time I'm asking for is too much to comprehend. However, if I ask you to give me your very best for the next 30 minutes it's easier for you to except and for the mind to agree and say yes we can do this. So, chunk your own commitment to focus/concentrating down to an agreed timeframe with yourself that you can achieve. Once you achieve it you can commit to another timeframe and as you build this you can build the time commitment you give yourself. Being in the moment when selling is essential to achieving higher levels of sales excellence and sales performance. Imagine a sports professional who struggles to be in the moment. Imagine a surgeon who struggles to be in the moment. Imagine a driver who struggles to be in the moment. Now imagine a sales professional who struggles to be in the moment. The difference being that some of the above examples could mean life or death whereas in sales it simply means a poor performance. This explains why it's so much easier to lose concentration and focus in sales and so much harder to achieve consistently....because it isn't life or death. But imagine if you could start thinking differently and start working on being in the moment. How much more could you achieve? What could you be capable of? Make the decision today to increase your powers of focus and concentration in your sales game. Be professional at every aspect of your sales game. Be in the moment and let's see where it can take you. As Michael Jordan famously said, "Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen." Start today. Go out there and make it happen. Be the best sales professional you can be and be in the moment!
The AAA Technique
Price Objections
Lessons Learned from Professional Sports
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