I have spent the last week working with AWESOME sales professionals – many newer to the career of sales. Many sales manager believe that new people can be ‘trained’ the right way and not have to unlearn bad habits. Yet even the newbies can have’ills’ that will potentially keep them from success.
Not a newbie? If you’ve been in sales a while (or a LONG while) you may have even more sales ‘ills’. So, what are some of the ills? From observation and sales manager stories, most of them fall into two categories:
- Not doing something that would lead to success.
- Doing the wrong things that keep them average or below.
Really? Is it that simple? Well, it can be.
These categories can be cured by two other “-ill” words:
- Skills
- Will
Skills
You do not have to be a ‘born’ sales professional! The skills needed to be successful can all be learned and developed! What’s important it identifying the skills that are necessary in YOUR type of sales and then building them.
It’s been found that most any skill can be developed in 50 days with practice – Vince Lombardi clarifies the need for practice with this quote:
Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.
Making the time and effort to identify WHAT is needed gives a higher dividend.
Will
The ‘will’ is your energy and motivation to act. Without action, you will never reach YOUR personal best. how to strengthen your will?
- Set goals. The power of clear goals is that it provides the target for your actions. You can proactively work toward something if you know where you are going.
- Identify your rewards. What’s in it for you? What if you take the actions – even if you don’t want to – what will you gain? Only you can determine that – and if you think money is the reward – think further. Think of the what the money DOES for you or GETS for you – that is the real reward and motivator. More and more research is finding that the ‘intrinsic’ rewards are more motivating than the ‘extrinsic’ rewards of ‘stuff’ and materials. Think about what the ‘stuff’ intrinsically does for you?
In the upcoming weeks I will post additional information about the intrinsic rewards and what it takes to build skills – for now use this time to idnetify WHAT skills you need to build and the goals you want/need to achieve.
Curing Sales ‘ill’s is possible – but no “Pill’ will give you an instant cure.
Make today matter!
