“I will persist until I succeed.” - from The Scroll Marked III, The Greatest Salesman In the World by Og Mandino

This principle has become my personal mantra over the course of the last few years. I remember a former employer whose favorite phrase was “Persistence overcomes resistance”, and that phrase has stuck with me through some pretty challenging times.

It’s a fact: the last few years haven’t been easy on anyone. The reason I created Motivation 101 and started this blog was that I kept hearing people around me talking like they were ready to just give up and run for cover; I knew that was the wrong response, and I felt compelled to jump in and do something about it. So I recorded an audio program in a friend’s garage. He produced it, and I started making CDs in my home office and handing them out to anyone who was willing to listen.

The feedback was encouraging: most of the people I talked to were discouraged, but not quite ready to roll over just yet. We would talk about their challenges and how the principles of positive thinking and persistence were the only things getting them by. Some of them had lost jobs, homes, credit scores and personal dignity. It had all taken a toll on their self-image, but they hadn’t given up. They wanted to keep going, and we were able to offer each other mutual encouragement.

The one thing I learned from these folks is expressed nicely in the words of the Scroll Marked III: “Always will I take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult.”

No, one step at a time is not too difficult. When crossing a great desert, it’s best to focus on only one thing: your next step. So long as you can put one foot in front of the other, even if it’s a weak and wobbly step, you survive. It’s only when you give up and stop moving forward that you doom yourself.

Success comes down to one thing: how many times you’re willing to hear “No,” or “Sorry, not today,” or “You’re not what we’re looking for,” or “You’re just not good enough,” and still come back to ask again. My friends at Go For No! call it your No Quotient, and I agree when they say that your NQ is far more important than your IQ; after all, we all know a few broke geniuses, people with high IQs and low net worths. The reverse is true as well, and we do well to pay attention to that lesson.

We talk a lot about “raising your tolerance for rejection” and “failing your way to success”, but there’s more involved than just blindly, relentlessly pushing forward. Sometimes life gives you feedback you need to pay attention to. In addition to persisting, you should also be willing to adapt and learn as you go. The ability to grow as well as persist is an unstoppable combination.

Mandino compares persistence to the series of single, weak axe-blows that fell the mighty oak, the tiny rain drops that wash away the mountain. No single blow or rain drop could do the job on its own; only their repetitive persistence will get it done.

Are you willing to take the persistence challenge?  If so, remember that there’s only one rule in this game: “So long as there is breath in me, that long will I persist. For now I know one of the greatest principles of success; if I persist long enough I will win.”

After reading an insightful article about social media by my friend Jim Keenan, I started thinking about the way a lot of businesses and individuals are using social media.  Is it just me, or do the majority of users seem to think that social media sites are just free advertising space?  I see it every day, and I’m sure you do, too: the thinly veiled ads, the blatant pitches, the sales copy in “Free Report” clothing.  It’s got to the point where my Twitter stream is so clogged up by spammers, I’m having trouble staying one step ahead of them.  I wonder how the folks with 20,000+ followers do it!

So here’s the thing:  I want to challenge everyone involved in using social media in their business to remember the key word (and no, it’s not media…guess again).  This is supposed to be social. In other words, it should be about conversations.  Instead of worrying about how many Facebook friends or Twitter followers you have, you should be thinking about how many of them you’re interacting with.  This was brought to light recently at one of the companies I work with.

The company has two teams of of people in charge of using social media sites to connect with potential customers.  Team #1 took a “scorched earth” approach and started slamming their pre-packaged message out to as many people as they could and directing them back to the company’s website, relying on the site to make the sale.  Team #2 took a more deliberate approach of engaging prospects in conversations and walking them through the buying process.

Can you guess what the results were?  I probably don’t need to tell you that, after on week, Team #1 had contacted 500 prospects with zero conversions and Team #2 made far fewer contacts (about 60) with a 10% conversion, and the results are still trickling in from Team #2’s activity as they follow-up on their initial contacts.

I know we all want to chant the mantra that “sales is a numbers game”, and to some extent that’s true; it’s just that we’re usually focusing on the wrong numbers.  Instead of obsessing about how many cold calls you can make in a week, why not focus instead on how many new conversations you can start with prospects in a week.

A friend of mine said it best when he said, “You can’t sit at your desk and answer calls and make a lot of money until you’ve knocked on at least a thousand doors.  And if you’ve knocked on a thousand doors but nobody ever answered, those doors don’t count.”  In other words, it makes no difference how many calls you make a day unless at least some of those calls turn into meaningful conversations with your prospects.  It also means that, no matter how many people follow you on Twitter, if you never say anything meaningful to them, they don’t count either.

Well, I admit it.  In spite of all my rants about taking responsibility for your own motivation and doing the activity that leads to success, I still have days when I’d rather just give up and curl up on the couch.  Even though I tell everyone how important it is to control your own thoughts and choose an optimistic outlook,  I sometimes allow the negativity to creep in and seize my brain.  And there are days when all I want to do is whine about how I wish things were different.  Days like today.

So what does the guy whose constant theme  is motivation and optimism do on a day like this?  Well, here’s the plan.  First, I’m going to take some of my own advice and spend some time in quiet contemplation, visualizing a successful outcome for the day.  Then, when my head is a little straighter, I’m going to leave the office and go make a call on a local real estate agency to share the message of “Motivation 101” with them.  I’m also going to make a couple of phone calls to follow up on some great contacts I’ve made over the past several days. 

Then, I’m going to come back and let you know how it turned out.  I’m going to do all this bcause I know one thing: the only antidote to having a crappy day is to get up and do something about it.  Change your thoughts, and you change your life.

I’m curious: what do you do to break the momentum of a bad day?  What do you do to help you keep going when you really feel like giving up?  Please share your suggestions and advice in the comments section and, until next time, make it a better day!

Jerry

With the beginning of a new month on the horizon, I want to chat for a bit about information overload and its effect on the unwary salesperson. I’m sure you would agree that it’s very easy to get bogged down with too much information: from the daily news to talk radio to the endless stream of e-mail alerts, RSS feeds and Tweets, we receive far more information in a day than we can hope to process. This often leads to that old disease, the paralysis of analysis.

When we ask our minds to process too much information, we have a tendency to lose sight of the fact that information alone is useless. We have to put that information to use, and in a positive direction, before we receive any value from it. For example, consider all the data you’ve seen recently with regard to the economy. From the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the related plummet in real estate prices, to the oft-repeated declaration of “the worst depression since the Depression”, we are bombarded by data that has worked many people into a state of panic. This panic has caused many salespeople to fall into negative thinking patterns (“No one is buying in this economy!”) which prevents them from engaging in the very activities that could bring a swift end to all the bad news. Enough is enough, already!

Consider a different way to look at, process and do something with all that information that comes in the form of “bad news” about the economy. What if, instead of buying into the panic, the salespeople of the world looked at the situation as their cue to step up their efforts and invigorate the economy? What would happen then?

I’ll tell you what would happen: we would get the blood (in other words, the money) flowing again. That is the power that you, the world’s sales force, holds in your mortal hands. We all know that salespeople (and small business owners, entrepreneurs, solo-professionals, etc.) are the backbone to any thriving economy; at the same time, we can also exacerbate a stagnant economy. The only difference is in our attitudes. If we buy into the dismal outlook regarding the future, are we really going to feel motivated to get out and make our daily number of connections with prospects? If, on the other hand, we choose to let all that information motivate us to take responsibility for getting things moving again, we really can make a difference.

I’d like for you to try a little exercise with me: from now on, whenever you sell something I’d like for you to visualize the process by which that product or service arrives at the customer’s door. Think of all the folks who receive a paycheck along the way; try to imagine what they, in turn, buy with the proceeds of that check and all the subsequent paychecks that activity generates. Keep it up until you can see a crowd of at least a thousand people in your mind’s eye, all smiling and waving their checks over their heads. Now, I’d like for you to accept that you are responsible for making sure they continue to get those checks! That certainly changes the way you look at your sales day, doesn’t it?

It really is amazing how shifting your perspective can influence your activities and, therefore, your results. So get out there and get things moving! As we start to see the first signs of improvement, fan the flames! Let’s all work to create the momentum we need to bring the world’s economy back to its feet and take it to even greater heights. This is your call to action. If you’re in, spend the rest of the week doing your best to help people buy. Who knows: the paycheck you save might be yours.

Question: What have you done this week to move yourself closer to your goals? Do you have a clearly defined, written plan to get you where you want to be? If not, what are you waiting for?!

We’ve all heard that what gets written down gets done, yet the majority of us don’t do it. It really amazes me how many salespeople I talk to who have no idea what they need to accomplish on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis to help them achieve their goals; in fact, I still encounter many people who have no idea what their goals are! I only have one question: if you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you’ve arrived? More importantly, how will you even know if you’re on the right course to get there?

Specific written goals are vital to your success. You know that. If you haven’t written out your goals for this year, stop reading and go do it now. Don’t come back until you’re done, because what I’m going to suggest next will require you to have your written goals in front of you. This is a powerful tool that will help you achieve any goal you set, and it is actually very easy to do. Unfortunately, anything that’s easy to do is also easy not to to do, so I want you to make a commitment, here and now, to try this method out for the next seven days. If it doesn’t work for you, you can stop; but you have to try it for at least seven consecutive days before passing judgment. Ready?

Looking at your list of goals, I want you to think of the six most important things you could do tomorrow to move you closer to their accomplishment. Limit your list to only six things, the six most critical. Now, prioritize the list in order of highest impact; in other words, the most impactful thing you could do becomes number one and so on. Now comes the hard part.

Tomorrow morning, start your day with task number one from your list. Don’t do anything else until you have completely finished task number one and can cross it off the list. Next, move on to task number two, again not moving on until it is completely finished and can be crossed off. Do the same for the rest of the tasks on the list. If you get to the end of the day and haven’t completed all the tasks, those left unfinished move to the top of tomorrow’s list. Do this for seven days, and you’ll be amazed at what you’ve accomplished.

How do I know this works? When I first read about this technique in James Arthur Ray’s new book Harmonic Wealth I decided to give it a try. You wouldn’t believe the impact this habit has had on my effectiveness every day since! Knowing what you need to be doing now and what comes next is truly one of the most powerful methods I’ve ever used to get more done.

It’s like my friend Tibor Shanto of Renbor Sales Solutions said in his blog the other day: taking daily action is the key.  If you’re not in action every day, you’ll find your motivation beginning to wane.  You can have grand plans, but without action you’ll also have massive frustration when those plans don’t materialize.  

So, no excuses now! Get out your day planner and make your “Must Do” list for tomorrow; repeat this practice every day for the next seven, then let me know what you think. I look forward to reading all your comments.

Are you as tired as I am of all the bad news being offered up by the national media? If so, please join me in a special campaign this week. I’m officially designating it National News Free Week.

This is the critical second step in staying motivated to accomplish your goals: the ability to stay focused and avoid distraction!  So I’m issuing a challenge to as many people as I can reach to turn off the news for one solid week. That’s right: no TV, radio or internet news for seven full days.

“But Jerry!” you ask, “How will I know what’s going on in the world?”

Good question, and the answer may shock you. Listen closely: it doesn’t matter! Yes, you read that right…it just doesn’t matter what’s happening in the world around you. The only thing that truly matters is what’s happening in the world inside of you.

I wonder how many people realize that by obsessing about which corporations are filing for bankruptcy this week and what the Dow is doing this minute, they are actually giving up the only power they have: the power to direct their own thoughts and actions. They are allowing the circumstances of the world around them to dictate their actions. What an incredibly dangerous way to live!

And yet, that’s how the vast majority of people structure their lives. They decide how they’ll act and what they’ll think based on what they see and hear going on around them instead of listening to the voice inside of them that tells them what they should be doing.

What does this have to do with sales and motivation? Just this: if you have been sucked into all the drama, I can almost guarantee that it’s had a negative impact on your sales activity. It has de-motivated you. Honestly, how motivated do you feel to get up early and stay out late when the news is convincing you that no one has any money to spend anyways?

So this is a call to action! Starting at 12:01 am on the day you read this, turn off the news and don’t turn it back on until 11:59 pm seven days later (the really adventurous might want to make it all TV, but that’s up to you). In place of the news, read a good book or listen to an audio program or sales podcast that will motivate you to get into activity mode. If something really important happens in the world, I promise that you’ll hear about it.

This one act is going to help you take your power back. Instead of feeling like a victim of the economic crisis, you’ll begin to realize that you have the privilege, as a small business owner, entrepreneur or salesperson, of being a part of the solution to said crisis! You’ve heard that nothing happens until something gets sold, and that’s never been more true than it is now. We need to restore the confidence of the average consumer to resume consuming. If we don’t, who will?

Do I mean to say that you should be out selling things to people that they don’t need or can’t afford? Absolutely not! That kind of behavior has been one of the big causes of the current situation. At the same time, you need to be working hard to match up your products and services to your customers’ needs and help them to realize that it’s okay to buy!

Are you with me? If so, pass this challenge along to everyone in your network and let’s make this week the most productive one so far this year.

I look forward to hearing your feedback and, hopefully, your success stories as well. Leave a comment and until next time, happy sales to you!