"You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of."

Jim Rohn

Question for all those in sales...

"Whose responsibility is it to ensure you have the skills, knowledge, behavior and tools need to engage in meaningful conversations?"

Personal accountability, it's the foundation of sales success. How much of your success would you say is up to you? The choices you make, your actions and your behaviors will all make you or break you in sales.

I wrote an article for my friends over at Vendor Neutral, Relationships + Human + Technology = Sales Success. Technology and sales enablement tools, they're not only helping sales professional’s gain momentum in their marketplace, they’re also changing the way they sell their services.

One of the biggest buzzwords in sales today is 'sales enablement.' While we all can appreciate these new platforms, I believe the problem lies if salespeople leverage these tools to help them gain visibility without working on increasing their value, they'll get vetted out of potential sales opportunities.

Visibility before Value = Vetted

THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES

We've heard the phrase, 'sales is an activity game' but all of these tools have shed a massive spotlight on the sales community. The masses out there are shouting right back at salespeople,

"Where's the beef?"

Sales enablement tools help sales teams get visible but the real question I would like to ask is... When you get in front of the right person what do you have to say?

All of this reminds me of throwing someone out in front of crowd who has stage fright, shining a bright spotlight on them and then watching them freeze.

Selling successfully in a digitally driven, highly networked and socially empowered business world takes a new mindset and skill set.

WHAT'S THE MISSING PIECE?

A true sales professional comes to the business table with value! There's no magic and no silver bullet behind any of this, the layer on top of all the sales technology related tools is self-enablement.

What can you bring to your clients and prospects that they will value?

SALES PROFESSIONALS ARE SELF-ENABLED

Self-enablement is all about the skills and resources professionals develop for themselves, in order to make sure they rock those business conversations when they get a seat at the table.

“If salespeople can’t articulate their value, their story, or hold a business conversation; then they’re dead in the water.”

Learning is at the core of self-enablement. Every time you dedicate the time to increase your knowledge about your clients, your prospects or your industry, you develop a new skill, or you enhance the tactics you already use, you're upping your chances of sales success.

You might be asking yourself... where do I start? How do I become self-enabled?

Self-enablement starts with you knowing more than your clients and prospects know about your company's products, solutions or services.

STARTS WITH...

KNOWING MORE THAN YOUR CLIENTS

In order for salespeople to bring value, they MUST know more than their clients and prospects. They must do their due diligence to educate themselves.

Nothing worse than an uneducated sales rep who recites information off the back of a brochure!

Hold yourself accountable to a weekly cadence dedicated to learning. You must learn your client's environment. You must learn about the trends going on inside your clients industry.

You must be willing to obtain a PhD in knowledge.

Imagine a teacher knowing less than their students. I need not say anymore!

LEARNING FROM YOUR CLIENTS

One of your most precious assets is your clients. I encourage you to spend quality time with your clients. No, this doesn't mean the dreaded stop by to say hello. I mean dig in deep. Learn something new about their business. Uncover a few key issues going on inside their business.

I encourage you to do this with your top 5 clients. Think of all the learning opportunities you'll uncover along the way. Think of the relationships you will develop. I guarantee what you'll uncover will closely mirror that of other potential clients.

Your clients are the greatest source of learning. You just need to ask!

Self-enabled professionals bring their top clients into their office and facilitate roundtable business discussions. This is not a sales pitch. They understand this creates one of the best learning and bonding moments with their clients.

Self-enabled professionals digest pearls of educational wisdom from their clients.

HAVING A WILLINGNESS TO LEARN

Self-enabled professionals have deep burning desire to learn. It means having a real love for discovery and self-development. It's about being curious and open to learning from failure.

How willing are you to dig in and get messy with learning? Become responsible for your own education. Hold yourself accountable. Do the things to make learning appealing, relevant, useful, and rewarding.

Sales professionals commit to lifelong learning while sales reps find excuses why they can't

LEARNING FROM MENTORSHIP

Mentorship, it's about showing an interest in the expertise and wisdom of others. It's seeing everyone and everything as a potential source of meaningful learning.

Mentorship isn’t just for the new or inexperienced; it’s a lifelong method of personal and professional development. Learning directly from someone who’s mastered a skill is a great way to boost your skills and knowledge with one-on-one accountability and feedback. Mentorship opens up the opportunity for fresh perspectives and new ideas.

PUTTING ON THE BUSINESS BOW

The road to self-enablement will set you apart from the sea of unfortunate sameness. It's the valuable moments you create through self-enablement that will become amplified with sales enablement and technology.

I encourage you to strive to make self-enablement part of your everyday sales life. Make the conscious effort to hold yourself accountable.

You have choices... You can swim in the sea of sameness with all the other sales reps or become a self-enabled sales professional.

“There are two primary choices in life: To accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.”

Dr. Denis Waitley

I understand and I get it. I get where you all are coming from. Every day, I walk in your shoes. I'm 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.

I encourage you to find out more about 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.

"Most people don't have that willingness to break bad habits. They have a lot of excuses and they talk like victims."

Carlos Santana

Practice! Who Needs To Practice... Salespeople Need To Practice

Can You Imagine A Professional Athlete Operating With A Sales Reps Mindset?

Once asked why he was so successful on the basketball court, Kobe Bryant looked right at a reporter and said: “Have you seen Los Angeles at 4am? I see it often because that’s when I start training.”

It can sometimes be difficult to find differences in top athletes which are noticeable. Their level of physical imbalance is minuscule. What separates the good from the great? What separated Kobe Bryant from good athletes?

Top athletes are finely tuned machines. They spend their lives perfecting their craft as they look to gain every conceivable physical and mental advantage over their opponents.

Let's look at Tiger Woods’ daily routine. He starts the day with an hour of cardio exercise and an hour-and-a-half of weight training. He follows this up by at least four hours of golf then another half an hour of weight training.

Since the age of three, he has always practiced his golf game. As Tiger transformed the game of golf, becoming the one of the greatest golfers of all time, he still practices hard to improve his game.

What separates an average athlete from an average sales rep? Millions of dollars and their mindset.

Success is simply a consequence of practice and repetition. There's no shortcuts. It's based on pushing yourself to do better and better.

Sales reps consistently talk about their work ethic as most enjoy puffing the chest BUT are they really committed to it? How many walk the walk and talk the talk when it comes to putting in the hard work and long hours that it takes to become a sales professional?

Top athletes understand the process of developing their talents will have obstacles along the way. They embrace the challenge. They embrace the suck in order to get better every single day. They understand failure is just another challenge, a roadblock to overcome. 

Top athletes encourage feedback from their coaches, using it to focus on areas of improvement. Less successful athletes tend to dismiss, ignoring feedback and focus on the person providing it, rather than using it as an opportunity to reflect and grow. This sounds an awful lot like most sales reps, doesn't it?

My challenge to all those in sales and management... come up with a meaningful and purposeful plan of not only when you're going to practice, but HOW. And then, just do it.

The roadmap to success for an elite athlete is based upon hard work, personal ownership and practice. They hold themselves accountable to the process and they just do it!

Why do sales reps have difficulties doing what elite athletes are paid to do? What makes a sales professional AND how they go about doing their job any different than an elite athlete?

My answer to all of you is quite simple - MINDSET, PRACTICE AND NO EXCUSES

TO ALL THOSE IN SALES MANAGEMENT... STOP USING SPORTS AND SALES ANALOGIES!

Are you willing, able and committed to provide an environment around practicing, planning and preparation? This is what professional athletes are held accountable to do every single day!

Are you holding your team accountable to practice?

NO EXCUSE MENTALITY

Athletes with an excuse mentality fear negative outcomes and make excuses to avoid responsibility. Sounds a lot like many in sales and management, doesn't it?

According to Patrick Cohn, PhD, sports psychologist and founder of Peak Performance Sports, "an excuse mentality results from allowing circumstances to dictate your actions instead of taking control of them."

Sales professionals hold themselves personally accountable. They hold themselves to a higher degree of standards than sales reps. They have a no excuse mentality and they don't point fingers when they fail to hit their sales plan. They hold themselves accountable even if their manager doesn't.

Why do so many in sales management accept excuses?

Salespeople of today love swimming in the sea of excuses. Many of you use excuses to rationalize your actions regarding the circumstances you've created for yourself - why you didn't hit your sales plan, why you lost one of your best clients and why you don't have time to prospect.

One excuse follows another excuse which follows another excuse. You want to know what the real issue is here... lack of commitment!

When you only put half of yourself into something and then proceed to make excuses, you disrespect yourself and your manager.

Half-ass efforts gets you half-ass results

• How committed are you to the sales profession?
• How committed are you to practice?
• How committed are you to yourself?

WHY DO SALES REPS INSIST ON GETTING PAID TOP DOLLAR BUT LACK A TOP ATHLETE MINDSET?

The biggest problem with salespeople today is they’re consistently inconsistent. 

True sales professionals, the elite of the elite do things just a little differently than the average sales rep. They practice with purpose, passion and pride.

Sales professionals practice with purpose. Sales professionals operate with a no excuse mentality.

GET REAL

Sales professionals set goals and invest the mental and physical energy towards achieving their goals. They equip themselves with an arsenal of effort, patience, and persistence as they know their journey is difficult. They are realistically optimistic.

Can the same be said for sales reps?

BE THE BEST

Sales professionals know, no matter what, there's always room to improve. This may involve learning a different technique, strategy, or even hiring a coach.

Can the same be said for sales reps?

CONSISTENCY

The success of sales professionals is built upon small sustainable changes. When those become second nature, they add in new challenges. Whatever their goal is they track their progress and are consistently consistent with practice.

Can the same be said for sales reps?

WAKE UP SALESPEOPLE

Imagine for a moment, how long would any professional sports athlete last on their team with the attitude and mindset of most sales reps? Not long at all, as they would be released from their team immediately.

Some can say athletes are over-paid prima donna's, however; the one thing they possess that most sales reps don't - a growth mindset.

I encourage the self-centered and the "all about me" sales reps out there to kick your complacent mindset right in the ass. Do you think a complacent mindset lands an elite athlete a new contract?

Sports athletes don’t come out of rookie training camp saying, “I’m shooting for average – average skills, average income and average performance.

When you started out as a sales rep you didn't set out with the goal of hanging on, doing enough to just “get by”, or riding it by figuring out how to survive until you can inherit another sales reps accounts. Well, at least not in the beginning, correct?

You learned that mindset. You learned that behavior. You learned to settle. You failed to practice. You started to make excuses.

I'm positive the mind can be convinced of almost anything if you tell it the same story over and over again. So here lies the question to all of you in sales...

Are you really happy with average results or have you just convinced yourself that’s the case?

I understand and I get it. I get where you all are coming from. Every day, I walk in your shoes. I'm 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.

I encourage you to find out more about 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.