You Possess the Magic

There is a magic in being in the sales profession. And, that magic is the opportunity to “pay the price” for success—just once. And when you do, no one can take that from you. The average individual makes approximately seven career changes during his/her working life. Diagrammed, it would resemble not a straight line, but would look more like a slowly rising roller-coaster course. Each change requiring a hesitation step, a backward move, before the individual begins heading upward again. Difficult enough professionally, and even more difficult if you consider the stress being placed on the individual and his family as they adjust and readjust to the accompanying financial and family pressures. These same people tend to overlook the fact that life has a beginning and an end. They allow their work to consume as much as 75% of their time, depriving themselves of life’s abundant gifts. How many of these struggling individuals find themselves sitting by the roadside of life watching the winners go by and thinking, “There, but if I had stretched just a bit, go I”? The secret is to discover early in life how unnecessary it is to start over, again, and again. Instead, be smart enough to search out and grab hold of a vehicle which will propel you towards your goal.



“I hated every minute of training,
but I said, ‘Don't quit. Suffer now
and live the rest of your life as a
champion.’” ––Muhammad Ali

To live your life as a champion salesperson, you have to go through the same training process as other top professionals whether they are athletes or astronauts, fire fighters or fighter pilots. Training conditions you to act and react in certain ways. This conditioning becomes a way of life based on rules, principles, and systems developed to ensure your success.

One of the most important Sandler conditioning principles is maintain a healthy self-esteem. You can’t be a champion—work effectively and enjoy long-term success—if you don’t feel good about yourself. Ironically, you fill your day with activities that have the potential to chip away at your self-esteem.

You make prospecting calls on people who either don’t want to talk to you, or if they do, don’t have the time when you call. You make presentations to people who should buy, but won’t…can buy, but don’t. You hear “no” more often than you hear “yes.” It’s one rejection after another. What can you do? You must be conditioned to not take personally, the interactions you have with prospects and customers. If they reject your product, service, or company, it’s not a rejection of YOU. And, in the rare instance when you don’t click with a prospect and they do reject you…so what? Maybe they don’t get along with anyone. Maybe they were having a bad day before you showed up on the scene and rejecting you is the only way for them to feel good about themselves. By rejecting you…ruining your day, their day is now better by comparison. Your training must condition you to become mentally and emotionally tough. You must be able to accept a NO, even from those who should have said YES, and then move on. If There's a lesson to be learned from the failure, learn it, apply it, and subsequently benefit from it. It's part of training. If you don't quit, you will live your life as a champion.



You took the first step in fulfilling your life’s goals when you chose the selling profession as your vehicle. You have the opportunity to realize a long-term payoff, if you are smart enough to make a short-term investment of time and energy. This can be the year you lock up your future. Carrying through on what you have prepared yourself to do—one day at a time—will reap the rewards waiting to be harvested. This is the time to make a new resolve to do whatever it takes to gain for yourself and your family…financial freedom, personal growth, and professional success. The vehicle is in your hands. You provide the magic!

The Power of Choice: It’s All in the Attitude

Attitude.  Most of the time, we associate it with an outlook of possibility or an outlook of limitation.  The dictionary defines it as a state of mind regarding a person or matter.  We all carry attitudes about our employer, our products or services, our marketplace, our prospects, and of course, ourselves.  If you jump out of bed every day, dive into your work with a zing, and find nothing more exciting than reviewing your financial statements for 2010 and projections for 2011, skip to the next article.  You don't need to read this.  If, on the other hand, you occasionally start your day with some "I don't want to be here" chatter in the shower, dread making prospecting calls, or plummet into a dark mood when things don't go "right", these few words might help you make this new year a bit brighter.  Attitude dominates all functions of success.  In other words, your performance is consistent with the way you view yourself conceptually.  At any given moment, your state of mind can be one of possibility, or one of limitation.  Do you see yourself as a leader, or a follower?  Are you at the top of your game, or at the bottom of the heap?  You can see and accept the reasons and obstacles that block your progress.  Here's the kicker: Its your choice, and the choice you make is potent.  The outlook you take is generally the result of previous experience, or a perception based on someone else's experience.  The reality is that your previous experience, or the history of others, may not be relevant in the moment.

You Are Always Right

We humans are a habitual bunch, typically more aware of information that is consistent with the outlook we choose - even when that choice is subconscious.  Henry Ford once said, "Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're right."  If you believe your marketplace is saturated, you'll likely believe that your quota or goal is unattainable.  Once you've accepted that judgment, it will color all of your actions.  If your attitude is one of resignation, for example, you will be more likely to forego setting goals, making plans, and taking action steps, and less likely to commit and follow through on the techniques that lead to success.

Your actions are influenced by the judgments you make, and the judgments you make are influenced by your attitude, which governs, ultimately, your behavior and the techniques you employ or forget.

Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.  Einstein was a pretty smart man - with an overwhelming outlook of possibility.

Pay attention to the conversation going on in your head when you wake in the morning.

Is Attitude a Problem for You?
 

Pay attention to the conversation going on in your head when you wake in the morning. Notice how the lightness, darkness, or neutrality of your thoughts color the way you approach your clients and your daily tasks – if you let it.  David Mahoney, former Chairman of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, once said

“There comes a moment when you have to stop revving the engine and slam it into gear.”

Changing our attitude takes the same kind of practice as learning to drive with a manual transmission– there will be some sputtering and jerking, but eventually the shift becomes smooth and natural.

Final Thought

Choosing a new attitude is a commitment you make with yourself. The guidelines are simple.

Ask yourself:

• where are you experiencing

difficulty?

• Is it painful enough to change?

• And what are you willing to do

to make it different?

Changing one thing for the better is worth more than proving 1,000 things wrong. Make it your goal today to change just one thing about your approach to your life and your business, and remember the words of Thomas Edison: “Hell, there are no rules here – we’re trying to accomplish something!”