Always been brutally honest. Some people don't like that because it's rare nowadays
Baker Mayfield
Being brutally honest with yourself is tough. If you want to succeed in sales you must get brutally honest with yourself. It's absolutely necessary.
How are you continually evaluating yourself to improve to become better at what you do?
Brutal Honesty: How Self Reflection Is Essential To Becoming A Better Sales Professional addresses how daily self-reflection allows us to understand what's important, and to focus on what might be done differently.
If I can’t lead myself, how could I possibly lead other people?
SELF-AWARE
Self-awareness means you know yourself so well that you become amazingly happy which in turn allows you to live a wonderfully balanced life.
- Are you living as the real you and not some sales facade?
- Do your thoughts match your actions?
- Does your walk match your talk?
Living a lie comes out sooner or later. Living a sales lies is even worse as this will ultimately screw with your career.
HONESTY
Honesty is a huge part of self-improvement. Get brutally honest with yourself and ditch the delusional thinking. In chapter 2 of Selling From the Heart, I write about sales chaos.
Has turmoil set in within your sales career? Is pure chaos keeping you from seeing the truth and taking the required actions of successful sales professionals?
If you're not honest with yourself then how can you expect to learn and grow? You must be willing to recognize reality for what it is and face it head on.
When you're dishonest with yourself, you choose to see what we want to see and you brush off, ignoring what you don’t want to see. This may provide you short-term happiness but in the end it’s unhealthy, destructive and screws with your mind.
Sales professionals are honest with themselves. They know this is hard work and can sometimes be painful, but it’s a necessary component to long-term happiness and success.
COMFORTABLE WITH DISCOMFORT
Becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable is what brutal self-honesty is built upon.
I encourage you to think about this one... How can you become brutally self-honest if you struggle to deal with any discomfort in your sales life? You can’t and you're only fooling yourself.
In the hyper competitive world of sales, those who are willing to take risks, step out of their comfort zone and create some discomfort for themselves will be those who will reap the biggest rewards.
All of this leads to this...
If YOU, can't challenge yourself to improve then how can you challenge your clients to improve?
MY CHALLENGE TO ALL SALES PROFESSIONALS, V.P. OF SALES AND EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT
Sometimes it's difficult to ask yourself self-directed questions; tough questions that challenge you to become a better person. It's not easy to have these conversations with yourself. I get it, it's not fun but necessary to fuel your career.
I encourage you to ask yourself:
Does my presence add value?
Where am I not being honest with myself and why?
When was the last time you read a book that had a major impact to your sales career?
Why is this so tough? It's the mental barrier called ego and the fear of what you may uncover that will prevent some of you from being the best version of yourselves.
I'm here to tell you, the time is now to change all of that! Stop the excuses as they only act as a deterrent. Once you veer off in a different direction it becomes difficult to find your way back.
Examine your own heart and look within to improve yourself.
INVEST IN YOURSELF
In sales, we invest in making sure our clients are well taken care of that sometimes we forget about ourselves.
Hands downs, investing in yourself has one of the best return on investments. Whether it’s investing in learning a new skill, developing professionally or personally, investing in community service; you need to give to yourself first before you can give to others.
Investing in yourself, this sends a powerful message to yourself and to those around you.
You must consistently challenge yourself by:
- Setting goals
- Reading books
- Finding a mentor or a coach
- Helping out in the community
What can I do every day to work on me?
On a daily basis invest in yourself. When you're the best version of yourself, you'll become an attraction magnet to others!
HELP OTHERS TO BECOME BETTER
My motto has always been, "Help others without asking for anything in return as this will come back tenfold."
Heartfelt people are those who empower and lift up others. What are you doing to help the people around you become better versions of themselves?
Allow me to share two ways you can help others...
- Find a not for profit organization near and dear to your heart. Volunteering is the most fundamental act of citizenship and philanthropy in our society. Volunteering is the greatest gift you can give to those who need it the most.
- Get reacquainted with your clients. Build stronger more meaningful relationships with them. Help them do their job better. Help them do better business. Help them grow their business. Introduce them into your network of friends, peers and colleagues. Simply show you care.
WHAT CAN YOU BE DOING EVEN BETTER?
As we get bit by the "success bug" in sales we also get bitten by the "complacency bug". Let's face the truth, it's happened to all of us at some point in time. You've been cruising along making great money, life's good and your career is going well; then why don't you think of what you could be doing differently to become even better?
Success can become blinding. Take off the dark sunglasses and uncover ways you could change to become even better at what you do.
Think of the 1% rule. What would happen if on a daily basis you made a 1% improvement to your personal and professional life?
If you make a 1% improvement every day, it would be an increase of 3778% over a year, meaning you would be 38 times better off compared to when you started. Isn't this worth the investment in challenging yourself every day?
This means...
Am I staying true to myself or living a sales lie?
NO LIES
You have complete control over what you do, however; without consciously evaluating your actions you can let things spiral away. You must take massive action as nothing happens until you take action.
Staying true to yourself means you're not deceiving YOU. The lies you tell yourself will play out in real life.
“A lot of the conflict you have in your life exists simply because you’re not living in alignment; you’re not be being true to yourself.”
Steve Maraboli
BRUTAL HONESTY REQUIRES PRACTICE
Being brutally honest with yourself requires you to become vulnerable. Are you willing to become vulnerable and accountable with yourself? This alone presents you with several learning opportunities. If you’re consistently nurturing your mindset, you will build up a tolerance against negative thoughts, procrastination, self-doubt and insecurities.
Becoming honest with yourself can be painful but massively rewarding. When honesty collides with your willingness to change, there's no stopping your growth.
"You have to believe in yourself, challenge yourself, and push yourself until the very end; that's the only way you'll succeed."
G-Dragon
I encourage you to build confidence in your abilities. I challenge you to get brutally honest and hold yourself accountable.
- Seek to become an expert in your field of work
- Constantly crave feedback on YOU
- Set goals and create a business plan
- Never ever stop learning
Please let me know how this works out for you.
And remember #nomeptysuits!
I understand, I get where you all are coming from. Every day, I walk in your shoes. I am fully committed to helping your sales team integrate social aspects through the eyes of a practitioner into your current sales process to grow new business. I want you to get results. This is why I am passionate about doing this the right way, the genuine way, the authentic way! It's about understanding value before visibility.
Selling From the Heart is making a difference! I poured my heart into every page of this book and I think you're going to love it. You can find it on Amazon in paperback and Kindle. You can click on the book image below and this will take you to Amazon.
You can find more material inside Selling From The Heart.
In a world full of empty suits, I'm passionate about helping sales reps succeed by getting valuable before they get visible. I help sales teams understand the true value they bring to the market.
I appreciate getting the opportunity to share my stories. Integrating the use of social and sharing my story on LinkedIn was my “game-changer” in the highly competitive office technology world. With great pride I transform, challenge, coach and inspire sales teams to grow new business by helping them share their story and how they communicate it out by integrating the use of social inside the sales process. You can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter and on my podcast by clicking on Selling from the Heart.
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