10 Steps to Become the Greatest Salesperson In the World – Part 3

“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.

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10 Steps to Become the Greatest Salesperson In the World – Part 2

“I will greet this day with love in my heart.” - from The Scroll Marked II, The Greatest Salesman In the World by Og Mandino

Love can be hard to pin down to a single definition. In the second principle for becoming the greatest salesperson the world has ever seen, qualities like gratitude, passion, enthusiasm and optimism are grouped under the subject of love; each of these facets of love is required to truly succeed as a salesperson.

Think of the mental outlook this principle encourages the would-be salesperson to embrace: if you truly greet the day with love in your heart, do you think that a little discouragement or rejection will stop you? That’s the power of optimism, the part of love that’s always looking to the future with hope and a smile.

Mandino nails it when he says that “only the unseen power of love can open the hearts of men”. You’ve likely seen this in action. Think of the last time you were dealing with a real skeptic, a nay-sayer who had absolutely no interest in hearing about what you had to offer. How would you set about winning such a person over to your way of thinking? Would you try to persuade with logic and reasoning? Try that and let me know how it works out. Trying to convince another person they’re wrong with logic is like pushing a wheelbarrow full of bricks up a hill: no fun at all.

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10 Steps to Become the Greatest Salesperson In The World – Part 1

“Today I begin a new life.” - from The Scroll Marked I, The Greatest Salesman In the World by Og Mandino

Today begins our consideration of the 10 principles outlined in Og Mandino’s masterpiece, “The Greatest Salesman In the World”. The quote above, extracted from the first scroll is the perfect start to this process (which is probably why Mandino put it first, right?): Today I begin a new life!

I love the power of that statement. It says that even if I go to sleep a failure tonight, I can choose a different path in the morning. Imagine that: every morning, on rising, you have the power to decide! You can decide how you’ll spend the day, whether in activities that will carry closer to your goals or in procrastination, worry and anxiety; it’s entirely up to you. The question is, what will you do with your power?

I love the next line: “Today I shed my old skin which hath, too long, suffered the bruises of failure and the wounds of mediocrity.” That, dear readers, is the power of choice. The fact that you can, at any moment, shed the skin of failure and mediocrity and choose to pursue greatness. Each of us has that ability. I know that can sound like a load of new-age, feel-good, touchy-feely crap to someone who’s feeling down-and-out; I wish there was a way for me to assure you that you can do incredible things if you just want to badly enough, but that’s a lesson you have to learn for yourself.

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What Dean Koontz Taught Me About Sales

One of my favorite things in life is a good book, and one of my favorite authors is Dean Koontz.

I first started reading Koontz novels about 4 years ago, and I’ve been hooked ever since.   For my money, he’s one of the best fiction writers alive today.  His books are incredibly entertaining ,and they always make me think about things I hadn’t considered or offer a new perspective on  life and death and being human.

What I never expected, though, was to write a blog post about the sales lessons I’ve learned from Mr. Koontz, but here it is.

#1 – It’s all about the story

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Stick to What You Love

I missed posting last night because I fell victim to one of the classic blunders.  The most famous, of course, is “Never get involved in a land war in Asia.”  The second, only slightly less well known, is “Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.”

The third, and the one I learned the hard way last night, is this: “Never trust your brother when he says something will ‘only take five minutes.’”

I should have known better, too.  After all, he’d already been working on the project for a good hour, banging on pipes and sawing things and tossing out the occasional curse.  I also should have known better because, even though he’s a year younger than me, I’ve been following him into harm’s way for 35 years.  It’s amazing how our memories fail us at such critical moments in our lives.

“Jerry,” he said.  ”Can you give me a hand?  I’m almost done with this and just need a hand pulling this line through.  It should only take five minutes.”  I ventured into the work zone, and was astonished by what I saw.  It looked like every tool in the garage was being used.  There were three different kinds of Makita devices, drills, grinders, lights, wrenches of various shapes and sizes…I think there was even a hammer, just in case.  It seemed a little excessive.  Worse, it seemed like plumbing.

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A Social Media Fable

Hi kids!  It’s Social Media Fable time, and you get to pick the moral:

Once upon a time, there was a Facebook fan named Jerry.  He was going about his days on Facebook, enjoying his interactions with his virtual friends, and life was good.

One day, he received an invitation form one of his Facebook friends, Mr. G, to become a fan of a bakery in a far-away town.  Since Jerry had never been to the bakery or tasted their confectionery delights, he hit the “ignore” button and thought no more of it.

A few days later though, Mr. G repeated his request to become a fan of the bakery.   Since he still hadn’t tried the bakery’s cupcakes, Jerry clicked the ‘ignore’ button again, and again thought nothing of it.  ”Just an oversight on Mr. G’s part, that’s all,” he thought.

The very next morning, though, the invitation appeared again!  Jerry started to get annoyed, but, as always, managed to keep his cool.  He simply hit ‘ignore’ again and went about his day.  His annoyance grew, however, when later the same day there was another invitation!  ”This is madness,” he thought to himself, clicked ‘ignore’ again, and wondered what he should do.

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Commitment Makes Everything Easier

Last night, I was poking around, looking for something good to read, when I came across this post from Crystal Williams, keeper of the Big Bright Bulb blog.   Crystal discusses the fact that when we really, really really want something, we have a tendency to go after it with gusto.  We give it everything we’ve got, and it doesn’t even feel like work.

OK.  That last bit isn’t really true.  It still feels like work, but it’s fun at the same time.  And it doesn’t feel like that kind of work we do grudgingly or against our will (for me, that’d be be something like sorting and delivering mail), but like the kind of work we’d do even if we weren’t getting paid for it (for me, writing this blog).  It’s still work in the sense that it can be difficult and challenging and a real pain sometimes, but it’s exhilarating!

Crystal’s post got me thinking about my own successes and failures, about the things that work in my life and the things that don’t.  And what I’ve come to realize is that if I want something badly enough, if I commit to it, there’s really not much that can stop me from having/being/doing it.

I think most, if not all, of us are built the same way.  Sometimes, though, we forget we have this amazing ability.  I know I do.  Sometimes, we give up at the first sign of trouble.  We concede at the first “No!” we hear.  We accept the excuses our mind comes up with for why we quit, and we go about our day as if nothing was lost by our surrender.  But something was lost, because every time we set out to accomplish something and give up, we believe a little less in our ability to succeed the next time we try.  And that loss of belief in our ability to succeed actually diminishes our ability to succeed.

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You Can Accomplish Whatever You Believe You Can

Over the course of 2009, my friend and business partner Joel D. Canfield and I had some fun creating a series of videos for YouTube.   We were the Business Heretics, and we called the series our Burning Business Tips.  I was going through the videos tonight, and I came across one that I think has some relevance as we head into the new year.  The video below was recorded in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo lunar landing:

I think it’s important that we all give this some thought as we look ahead to what we’re planning to accomplish in 2010.  I know that, for many of us, 2009 was a year we’d rather forget.  I also know that many of us are still carrying around some of the bruises and scars that we received during the past year, and that those scars are affecting the way we’re thinking about the future.  They’re even having an impact on the goals we’re setting for the new year.

As the video states, though, we can truly accomplish anything, as individuals or businesses, if we start with the firm belief that we can.  I know this to be true, and so do you, though you may have forgotten it. And it’s time to take our power back now.  No more wallowing in the misery of 2009.  It’s time to plan for a much better 2010, a task which can only be accomplished if you believe that you can do it.  After all, who sets a goal that he doesn’t truly believe he can achieve?

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Understanding the Root of Motivation

When it comes to creating and maintaining forward momentum in your career or in your business, there is one factor that rises above all the others: your why, your reason for doing things, the motivation behind your motivation.  It’s been said that you can accomplish any what, so long as you have a big enough why.  I’m a firm believer in the truth of that statement.

Have a look around, and you’ll see that those who get what they want out of life are driven to succeed by their why for doing it.  In other words, their reason for succeeding is bigger than any defeat they may experience along the way.  These may sound like empty platitudes, but look a little deeper and you’ll see what I mean.

Think of a time when you were close to achieving some particular goal but stopped just short of getting there because of some obstacle that came up.  Most likely, like the fox in Aesop’s fable, you made a declaration of “sour grapes”, justifying to yourself that not attaining the goal was probably for the best anyways.  Dig beneath the surface, though, and I’ll bet you’ll realize that, no matter how important attaining that goal may have seemed to you at the time, somewhere along the way you lost your zeal for it: you no longer had a big enough why.

Now think of a time when you did achieve some goal you’d set for yourself, in spite of any roadblocks that may have come up.  No matter what the setback, you got up, dusted yourself off, and kept right on going, pushing ahead until you got what you wanted.  What kept you going in this case?  Examine your motivation, and I’m sure you’ll find that in this case, you had a really significant reason for achieving that particular goal.  In this case, your why was big enough to accomplish the what.

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Are You a Rotten Apple?

Early last month, my friend Tibor Shanto shared an experience he’d had with the Apple store in Toronto.  The story reminded me of something out a bad retail dream: disrespectful technicians, a rude store manager and a genuine lack of regard for the customer.   Unfortunately, this scenario is becoming all too familiar, and the time has come for a little wake up call.

When is the last time you genuinely thanked a customer?  I mean really, truly thanked them from the bottom of your heart?  A couple of days ago, I wrote a post about the importance of gratitude.  Well, here’s a good place to start: how about a little gratitude for your customers?  After all, if it weren’t for your customers, where would you be?

I’ll always remember hearing Jeffrey Gitomer talk about saying thank you to your customers.  He said we should get in the habit of saying something like “Thanks for dinner!” when a customer places an order, since that will always help us remember that without the customer, we don’t eat.  Is that how you see your customers?  If not, it might be time for an attitude adjustment.

In a world where consumers have nearly unlimited choices for almost everything they buy, why would you give them any excuse to buy from someone else?  Why not give them the best possible experience each and every time they choose to do business with you?

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