Keep It SIMPLE

Why .....do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

Why .....do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke.

Why ...do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.

Why ......do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.

Why . .....do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.

Why the sun lightens our hair, But darkens our skin ?

Why women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed?

Why don't you ever see the headline 'Psychic Wins Lottery'?

Why is 'abbreviated' such a long word?

Why is it that doctors call what they do 'practice'?

Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?

Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?

Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?

Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?

Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?

Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?

You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?!

Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?

Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?

If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal? Why? Good question.

Make up your mind that nothing is more important than how I feel now, because now is everything. Now is the whole enchilada. Now is the power of me. Now, now, now, now, now… You might as well start somewhere, and it might as well be now. Why not start improving your life now, now, now?

How many people do you know who have tried selling at some point in their lives? Out of all of those people, how many failed?

The answer to the first question is easy, probably quite a few. At some point or other in their lives many people have had a go at selling even if only as a student or in their first job. You may not know the answer to the second one… it’s probably most of them!

Probably most of them.

Oh, for sure, they’ll tell you that they did well. They’ll tell you that they sold bucket loads! They’ll tell you that they were a top sales performer. They’ll even talk knowledgeably about how to sell. It’s amazing what a good game people who only sold for a few weeks and never had any sales training can talk! They’ll talk about open questions and wants and needs like they know what they’re talking about but… seriously… most of them failed!

Not all, but most!

Top salespeople lead an enviable life. They earn great money. They win promotions. They have job security. They have respect, opportunity and friends. They have freedom, career choices and financial independence. They have fun, challenge and variety.

So if you had all of that, why would you leave? Mostly only if you weren’t getting those things at all! I met a friend of a friend in the pub the other night and he looked scathingly at me when I said that I was a sales training expert and told me that he left sales for “more security” and opportunity. He earns in a month what I earn in a day. I recently heard that his company is looking to “cut back” in his department. Nuff said!

But why this tirade? And why today?

Simple. This week I worked with a really great team of salespeople. They were enthusiastic, interested, open and up for it. They embraced the fact that selling is simple and they wanted to master those simple skills. Sales is so simple in fact that nearly anyone could be very successful in sales. So simple that everyone in the room could achieve sales success if they chose to go for it…

So if selling is so simple why can’t everyone do it?

Because selling is about attitude. Selling is an attitude. Selling is an attitude that leaves behind a trail of techniques. Now don’t get me wrong here… sales skills are very important, very important indeed. Anyone who has been through a sales training programme with me or who has attended one of my sales seminars will know just how important I believe sales skills are…

But they’re not the key factor in this equation. They’re only a part of the equation. And on the other side of that equation is attitude. Without the right attitude you won’t be able to access your skills. Frankly, without the right attitude, you’re in trouble. If you can get and maintain the right attitude then you will make a success of yourself in sales and selling. Period. If you can’t, you won’t. It’s goodnight sweetheart!

I would far rather hire someone with all of the right attitudes and potential and train them on the skills side than I would wrestle with someone with all of the skills and experiences who cannot be bothered any more! The former salesperson I can train because they want to learn, the latter I have to re motivate and reeducate.

Possible but much harder…

You’ve probably worked with or recruited a salesperson who had all of the right attitudes but was light on skills. They probably did pretty well. It usually gets put down to “beginner’s luck” but it’s not “beginner’s luck”, its “beginner’s attitude”.

And it’s at this point that many people not in sales might be tempted to conclude that sales and selling is easy. Something for thickos, something that anyone can do.

Just so wrong!

The hardest thing in the world is getting, keeping, maintaining and improving the right attitude. In sales you never know when you might run into someone who is going to be your best ever client. You never know if the next sales call is going to win you a multi-million account. You never know which meetings are going to convert and which aren’t…

And this makes it hard because you have to be on top sales form for every call. Top sales form for every presentation. Top sales form for every meeting. Top sales form for every negotiation. Top sales form for every conversation. Top sales form for every communication. Top sales form. Top sales form. Top sales form.

Not for you the mindless “going through the motions” that some non-salespeople can get away with for periods of time. You have to be switched on, tuned in, fully focused, up for it, raring to go, playing from a 10, on the ball…

Salespeople often say to me that cold calling (for example) is repetitive and boring…

Wrong attitude! You have to be on top sales form for every call. It might be your 47th call of the week or the day but it is your client or prospect’s first experience of you. You have to be on top form, you have no safety net! To make matters worse, salespeople get faced with problems and challenges every day. Difficulties, challenges, issues, rejection and objection are a part and parcel of our daily lives and we need to smile through them and stay on top sales form.

So if selling is so simple, why can’t everyone do it?

Because selling is about taking personal responsibility for your own attitude, your own behaviours and your own results. Selling is about smiling when you don’t feel like smiling. Listening when you don’t feel like listening, Caring when you don’t want to care. Standing up when you feel like lying down. Pushing on when you feel like giving up. Firing on all cylinders when you feel like throttling down. Taking responsibility when you want to pass the buck.

Selling provides virtually unrivalled opportunities for anyone who is prepared to commit themselves. Your degree won’t help you. Your qualifications and exams won’t help you. Your CV won’t help you. The only person who can help you is you. And that’s too much of a leveler for most people.

Handbrake off, safety net removed, crash helmet discarded.

Most people want to blame someone else. It’s all about what they didn’t get, who didn’t help them, who let them down, whose fault it is, why they weren’t on top form, why they deserve another chance, why they should have done better…

If you want to maximise your sales performance and be a top sales performer you need to let all of this go now and focus on delivering the right attitude at the right time, no excuses.

Today, we too rarely practice good manners... When we neglect to require our children to say “thank you’ when someone gives them a gift or does something for them, we are raising ungrateful children who are highly unlikely to be happy. Without gratitude, happiness is a rare thing. With gratitude, the odds go up dramatically that happiness will be the result.

A classic example of the validity of gratitude in action is the story of Roy Rogers. After he starred in his first movie, he began receiving huge stacks of fan mail that he wanted to answer. However, his salary of $150 a week did not even cover the required postage. He talked to the head of Republic Pictures in the hope that the studio would handle some of his fan mail. He was summarily turned down and told he was foolish to think about answering fan mail because nobody else did. It took too much time and money.

Roy Rogers, one of the genuinely good guys of life, couldn´t buy that. It was his conviction that if someone thought enough about him to write a letter, he should have enough respect for the person to answer it. Fortunately, the movie that caused him his “problem’ also made him so popular that he could go on a personal appearance tour. He traveled many miles and performed countless one-night stands to raise the money to pay the salaries of the four people it took to answer his fan mail.

As a result of answering fan mail, he built a fan base that was faithful to him and remained faithful to him many, many years later. Yup, the good guys and the good gals really do win. So, develop some manners, respect others, and be grateful for what you have.

We must all wage an intense, lifelong battle against the constant downward pull. If we relax, the bugs and weeds of negativity will move into the garden and take away everything of value.

Humility is a virtue; timidity is a disease.

If you spend five minutes complaining, you have just wasted five minutes. If you continue complaining, it won´t be long before they haul you out to a financial desert and there let you choke on the dust of your own regret.

You cannot take the mild approach to the weeds in your mental garden. You have got to hate weeds enough to kill them. Weeds are not something you handle; weeds are something you devastate.