Quote of the Week

Many people want to believe that success has some secret ingredient in the recipe. Of course success means different things to different people, but I think it's easier for some people to assume success takes some special effort rather than realize the truth. According to Jim Rohn:

"Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well." - Jim Rohn

Jim Rohn is America's foremost business philosopher for a reason, like a modern day Will Rogers, Jim knows how to take any concept and make it easier to understand... and easy to swallow.

If success really is just doing ordinary things really well, that means anyone can have success right? Absolutely! Here's the recipe:

Set high goals, write them down, look at them every day, plan your day the night before, manage your time wisely and guard your mind. Is there more? Yep - but this really is a good recipe.

TK

Do You Owe the System?

A few years back I had a member of my sales team make this general statement... Selling is system and either you owe the system or the system owes you." I've repeated this phrase many times since and I have never had anyone stop me and say, "What?" I mean they always get it...

Brian Tracy covers this concept in "The Law of Applied Effort." According to Brian "All great success is preceded by a long period of hard, hard work in a single direction toward a clearly defined purpose."

Again Brian hits this concept with "The Law of Overcompensation." According to Brian "If you always do more than you are paid for, you will always be paid more than you are getting now."

Proof that selling is really a system and that if you put in the right efforts you'll get the right results - eventually. The system will owe you...

TK

Quote of the Week

"Success is goals, and all else is commentary."
Lloyd Conant, Co-Founder of Nightingale-Conant

That's a pretty direct statement from the mouth of Mr. Conant who partnered up with Earl Nightingale and created a personal development company that has lasted for over 40 years. In fact, the two of them pretty much created the personal development industry.

He's was right - goal setting is the premiere way of keeping your dreams and desires at the top of your mind. Reviewing your goals on a daily basis keeps those dreams and desires alive and insures that they are not forgotten - even for a day - and that's huge!

You see, every day circumstances present themselves that will move you closer to your goals, but you must be ready to act upon those opportunities. Your action is more likely to be realized if you've read your goals within the last 12 to 24 hours. You'll be looking for them...

Want to go one step further? Rewrite your goals every day. The effort of reading and reviewing coupled with the action of writing will solidify your goals in your mind. After only a few weeks you'll be able to quote your goals word for word. Once you can do that - you own the goals.

Goals are everything... but I'm still glad there is room for commentary - that's what we do!

TK

Taking Responsibility for Your Own Training

Having trained sales professionals for 15 years I've seen every scenario when it comes to taking responsibility for training.

Who schedules it and who pays for it can vary from company to company and industry to industry. Some companies are built on training and others don't have the belief, the budget or both. Some companies don't want to train their salespeople only to have them leave at some future date - so they settle for untrained salespeople who stay forever and produce mediocre results. Not good.

If you're a sales manager - train your people and inspect what you expect them to do. They'll stay longer and produce... more often than they will leave with your precious training secrets. Seriously.

Now to all of you sales people here comes the point of this post - take responsibility for your own training! Your sales manager can't possibly know everything it takes to motivate you and make you successful. Even if they did, what if they didn't provide it?

Ken Blanchard put it this way "Ultimately, it's in your own best interest to accept responsibility for getting what you need to succeed in the workplace." If you take that approach to your training (which is a component of your overall success strategy), then you'll always have what you need to be at the top of your field. If not - it's your fault.

I love that. Put the ball in my hands - if I score then I had a hand in it. If I don't then I had a hand in it.

Blanchard wrote a book entitled "Self Leadership and The One Minute Manager" and I pulled the quote from that book. The subtitle is more compelling than the title and is something we should all hope to find in our sales and business careers... here it is:

Discover the Magic of No Excuses...

TK

Quote of the Week

One of my favorite personal development books is "The Magic of Thinking Big" by David J. Schwartz, PhD.

I can't recall how I came by this book, but I have given it to countless employees and friends as a tool for success. It's a classic and I recommend you go get it! I've pulled the quote of the week from Chapter 8 entitled "Make Your Attitudes Your Allies" and here it is:

"Obviously, there is something more than facilities and competence that makes for accomplishment. I have come to believe that this linkage factor, this catalyst, if you will, can be defined in a single word - attitude. When our attitude is right, our abilities reach a maximum of effectiveness and good results inevitably follow."

Erwin H. Schell

Dr. Schwartz cites this quote by Professor Schell which illuminates the fact that practically all individuals, save the mentally disabled, have enough intelligence and competence to be incredibly successful. What most individuals lack however is a positive outlook on their life and the circumstances they encounter on a daily basis.

Change your attitude and everything will change for you.

TK

The Power of Marketing on the Sales Process

Does anyone in sales understand marketing? Does anyone in small business have the budget to do marketing? Good questions... The fact is marketing is something many people never figure out or never fully embrace because they don't understand the power of marketing on the sales process.

How powerful is marketing?

Marketing eliminates the painful part of selling. What's the most painful part of selling... prospecting! Show me a salesperson who loves to prospect, and I'll show you someone who is most likely into other sadistic practices when they're not at work. Seriously.

Prospecting is a necessary part of the sales process, in fact, it begins the entire process. Unfortunately, most salespeople don't want to engage in prospecting so they simply don't do it, or they subvert the prospecting procedures put in place by their company whenever possible. Sadly, some individuals simply take less money in a position and industry that doesn't require them to prospect.

For many sales professionals their companies market for them. In fact, their companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year on marketing. IBM, Xerox, Cadillac, Lexus, Century 21, Countrywide, State Farm and hundreds of others... So what if you don't sell Z-Series Servers for IBM? What then?

Market yourself. The fact is if you're a professional salesperson - you are the owner of your own personal services company. Don't want to take the time or spend the money to market? You better hit the streets and start cold-calling all day long on potential clients... scary.

SHOW ME HOW TO MARKET!

Sorry, that's not my area of expertise, but from my own personal selling experience, I have felt the difference between speaking with someone who wasn't expecting my call and someone who came looking for me and my product. What a difference in my composure, my confidence and my results. I do have some resources for you that you can check out, try these:

Google - Type in MARKETING RESOURCES
I know this is an easy way out from my end, but seriously, hit the web and find ANYTHING you can on the topic of marketing and start implementing marketing ideas into your personal business plan.

Jeff Nelson - Jeff can be found at jeff@soarinsales.com and is an authority on marketing. The best part about Jeff is that he understands selling. He sold first and jumped into marketing second. Most people who get into marketing never have sold anything other than their own marketing ideas. Jeff has in the field experience.

Jeff does special work with the mortgage industry. So if you're a loan officer or know of someone in that industry who needs marketing help check him out at http://www.loan-officer-marketing.com/.

Remember - Marketing eliminates the painful part of selling... and eliminating pain is always a good thing.

TK

Quote of the Week

"According to your faith, be it unto you." - Matthew 9:29

Whatever you must do to get yourself moving in the direction of total belief in your position, your product and most importantly... yourself do it immediately. How good can you be? Can you be the best? Yep...

"In the depth of your mind you visualize the best and employ the powers of faith and energy, you will get the best." - Norman Vincent Peale

It's February - 11 laps left in the race for success in 2007... what gear are you shifting into inside your mind? Is your best coming the next time you pop the clutch?



TK