Attention Sales World... The Key To Sales Success Is Looking Inward. Are You Willing To Take The Journey?

“Every answer you are seeking is already inside of you. Look within. Do the inner work.”

Akiroq Brost

I believe the truth we seek lies within us. We must do the work to uncover it, however; old habits and deep-seated beliefs blindly rob our attention, keeping us from connecting to our own best self.

To set up our journey together, allow me to introduce you to Paracelsus. I'm a firm believer in what's forever old is forever new. Paracelsus was recognized as the most influential medical scientist in Western Europe during the Renaissance period between the 14th and 17th centuries.

To quote,

"Man does not know himself and does not know how to use the energies hidden in him, nor does he know that he carries the stars hidden in himself and that he is the microcosm, and thus carries within him the whole firmament with all its influence."

Meaning... The answers you're seeking to some of your deepest questions about your sales career may already lie within you.

The hardest work one will do is the heart work.

The journey to self-discovery is a long and winding road. It becomes freedom for many who are willing to do the work. It's the road less traveled.

Are you ready to take the journey?

If so, then grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea, find yourself a comfy quiet place to sit... Take yourself back to 5 years ago, reflect for a moment and now push to the present...

Have you reached greater heights in your sales life, now?
Are you happier, more fulfilled and with a clearer vision, now?
What has changed about your sales career, now?

If you want to live a better sales life, you must learn to grow.

A true sales professional doesn't sleepwalk through the day nor their career.

Voltaire, the famous 17th century writer once wrote:

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”

I believe a fulfilling sales life isn’t determined by what you know, it is by how willing you are to learn.

One obvious way to learn is by asking questions. You do this every day without thinking about it.

Sales professionals actively and with intention think about the things they do. With an open mind they assess themselves on a regular basis. They view things through an unbiased and crystal-clear set of lenses.

Daily, they ask themselves:

Am I learning from my mistakes?
Am I constantly pushing myself, stretching the boundaries of comfort?
Do I still believe in my heart I can do this?

DEEP QUESTIONING... STARTS WITH LOOKING INWARD

“Going inward. That’s the real work. The solutions are not outside of us. Get to know who you really are, because as you search for the hero within, you inevitably become one.”

Emma Tiebens

Many of you already have commendable achievements in the ‘outer work’ aspect of your life.

With this I mean growth in your sales career, growth in management, leadership, or with your relationships. However, the ‘outer work’ is a small part of who we are as humans.

The key to happiness is transforming yourself and your life through inner work.

Courtney C. Stevens once said,

"If nothing changes, nothing changes. If you keep doing what you're doing, you're going to keep getting what you're getting. You want change, make some."

Question becomes... What does it mean to do the inner work?

Turning inward is freaking scary!

Are you willing to open the cupboard and unpack what's on the shelves?

Doing the inner work is about shaping your emotions, beliefs, and attitudes to form or recreate a healthier and happier version of yourself.

It’s about adjusting and correcting your mindset to help you improve upon and facilitate your goals.

I believe the business world desperately needs more kind, loving, self-aware sales professionals to share their best selves.

ARE YOU WILLING TO CHANGE?

We all live in a rapidly and I mean rapidly changing world. Our marketplace has changed. Our communities have changed. Our clients have changed. Their clients have changed. Are you starting to get the picture?

Question for you... Have you changed?

It’s much easier to point fingers at something outside ourselves, it's the excuses many in sales love to dish out - (“those people, the situation or circumstance”) then to look inward and accept responsibility.

Are you willing to take responsibility for you?

As a sales community, we’re largely fixated on the outer work. We focus on the stack rankings, where we are at quarter or year to date, key performance indicators, and number of new clients... I'm sure you're starting to the get the picture.

Let's all take a step back for a moment and realize these are merely outer symbols. This does not reflect your inner world.

It becomes difficult to transform your sales career if you're unwilling to transform yourself.

I love how Dr. Yvette Erasmus talks about inner work,

"Inner work brings light, compassion and awareness to the conscious, subconscious and unconscious realms of your being. It’s about diving inward: speaking to yourself, being in connection and dialogue with yourself, seeing yourself, knowing yourself, loving yourself."

Looking inward becomes an emotional rollercoaster. It's hard, it's heart-breaking and it's surrendering yourself to the unknown.

It’s giving yourself grace to be called out, as you build yourself back up.

Self-growth happens through self-leadership.

Self-leadership is your ability to take charge of your own personal and professional development, to actively guide yourself towards growth and improvement.

It's about taking action and steering yourself towards becoming the best version of yourself.

This involves:

Self-reflection
Self-awareness
Self-discipline
Self-motivation
Self-development

Dr. Yvette Erasmus goes onto say,

"No matter how crappy something feels, you remember that a phoenix rises from the flames. You stay the course. That’s what it means to have courage: to feel into the things you don’t want to feel."

She shares you must be able:

To tolerate discomfort.
To challenge your own beliefs.
To examine your attachments.
To do unfamiliar and uncomfortable things.
To reach beyond the whims of desires of your fearful, limited, finite self.

Do you have the courage to dig in and ask yourself deep questions?

Here are some questions that will allow you to dig in:

What are you holding onto that’s holding you back?
What is my personal gift, and how can I bring it my clients?
What is something you do differently than anyone else you know, and why?
If you restarted your sales life tomorrow, what would you do differently based on what you know now?
In what areas do I need to develop myself to best serve my clients?

THE INNER WORKS DEFINES YOU

“I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time.”

Anna Freud

How would you define yourself?

What words would you use to describe yourself?

I encourage you to become your own Sherlock Holmes. Become interested in what grabs your attention and tugs on your heartstrings.

Please stop looking in the dictionary for words that define you.

Getting to know yourself allows you to tap into the road of happiness. This is mission critical to your success. Your beliefs, attitudes and your daily routines are essential to your sales well-being.

Understanding yourself means recognizing your shortcomings. It's about putting them on display for others to judge, critique and provide you feedback.

Yes, this means getting extremely vulnerable. This starts with looking in the mirror and saying to yourself, "This is me. This is the real me. This is who I am."

I believe this is about your willingness to ask yourself...

Who am I and who do I want to become?

What do I want for myself?

Why do I want to achieve these things? And what would it mean to me?

How can I become who I want to become? And what actions do I need to take to make this happen?

If you struggle to ask yourself deep questions, then mark my word, you will struggle to ask your clients deep questions.

GET COMFORTABLE WITH GOING INWARD

Becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable is what ferocious self-honesty is built upon.

I encourage you to think about this one...

How can you become ferociously self-honest if you struggle to deal with any discomfort in your sales life?

Those of you who are willing to take risks, step out of your comfort zone and create some discomfort, will reap the biggest rewards.

By venturing into new territories and challenging yourself, you will soon grow, learn, and achieve more than you initially thought was ever possible.

As you continue to swim in uncharted 'waters', you may just bring to the surface new skills, interests and new ways of going about your sales life.

Let this one sink in for a moment...

If YOU, can't challenge yourself to improve then how can you challenge your clients to improve?

John Simone nails it,

“The key to wisdom is knowing all the right questions.”

What questions are you asking yourself daily?

The questions you ask yourself directly affect the sales life you lead. The questions you ask yourself literally will determine what your mind focuses on, which triggers certain thoughts, actions, and inactions, ultimately affecting your sales results.

When you ask yourself empowering, deeply reflective questions, it shifts your mind to a whole new level and sets into motion the thinking and actions to jumpstart your sales life.

I will leave you all with this Maya Angelou quote,

"The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself."

The inner work allows you to bring you to life.

The inner work creates sales freedom.

The inner work creates a sense of fulfillment.

The inner work will lead you to monumental sales growth. And isn't this what you want?

Welcome to the Selling From the Heart podcast. This week we feature David Newman, CSP, Author of Do It! Selling. He talks about getting a 'selling from the heart' experience as a prospect and how these experiences should be something we should also take note of as sellers.

David dives deep into why there's such a hesitation in the prospecting process and how Do It! Selling attempts to address that and improve performance overall. If you approach it with complete integrity, transparency, and maturity, you're set up for success.

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

They will buy if you are selling with complete alignment with who you are - David: "You can have the world's greatest tips, tactics, techniques, and if your come-from is not from the right place, you will never ever make a sale. On the other hand, you could be human, you could fumble, you could stutter, you could say the wrong thing at the wrong time, if your come from is 100% genuine, heart-centered, and real, doesn't matter what you say."

Connect with David and get his book:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjnew...

https://doitmarketing.com/selling

Learn more about Darrell and Larry:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrellamy/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrylevi...

https://www.sellingfromtheheart.net/

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