Recruiting People Power to Fuel Your Success

Overachievers are often self-reliant types who refuse to ask for any assistance.
They like to achieve everything on their own, so they can take full
credit. When you’re in sales, that approach is nonsense. The fact is that you
can do more and do it better by harnessing the power of people.

If you need proof, just look around at the major corporations. Do you think
they could be major corporations without hiring people? Think of yourself as a
mini-corporation, You, Inc. When you want to grow your business, you’d better
hang out the Help Wanted sign and start interviewing some qualified candidates.
Here are some tips for harnessing people power to fuel your success:

Envisioning your success

What does sales success look like to you? Are you sitting in an office all day
making cold calls? Driving around from one disinterested client to another
trying to drum up business? Or do you have people calling you to place
orders? Do you have to hire an assistant to handle the extra business? Do you
have more opportunities than you can possibly pursue?

Your first step in achieving success is to envision it. Most people can’t get
past this first step, because they don’t even know what they would love to
do. Dream, and then jot down a detailed description of that dream, so you
can close your eyes and see it playing out in your mind.

Implementing your plan

Sales and business consultants often discover that clients are more than willing
to pay them $300 or more per hour for advice and then rarely put that
advice into practice. They know what they have to do to achieve success, but
they’re unwilling to take that essential next step — implementing the plan.

After setting your goal and drawing up a solid plan, put your plan into action. If
it doesn’t quite work, make the necessary adjustments and try again. Successful
businesspeople rarely succeed on their first attempt. They fail, learn, make
adjustments, and persist. Unsuccessful people fail and give up or never even get
started. I’ve known salespeople who have stuck with a prospect for 14 months
and then given up only to discover that the customer decided to buy in the 15th
month. If it were easy, everyone would do it.

Setting stimulating goals

Most sales coaches stress that goals should be realistic, which is somewhat
true, but realistic goals that don’t make you stretch are of little use. I prefer
to encourage the salespeople I coach to set stimulating goals. A goal should
always make you reach outside your comfort zone. It should always include
some level of risk. A good goal should include the following:

Establishing a positive mindset

Success stands at the end of many different journeys, but it always begins
with the right attitude — a positive mindset. If you’ve been around negative
people all your life, your mindset may be holding you back.

Just as buggy software can bog down a computer and cause it to crash, negative
thoughts can slow you down and derail your efforts to succeed. You may
have to reboot your mind and fill it with positive affirmations and a strong
belief that you are perfectly capable of achieving your dreams. Here are some
suggestions on how to give yourself a positive attitude adjustment:

Mastering the Sales Success Mindset

Advanced selling is the full-court press approach to achieving success. It
requires clear vision, careful planning, shameless self-promotion, a discerning
vigilance, the ability and willingness to take calculated risks, and a
dogged determination that I like to refer to as sticktoitism.

Advanced selling is about more than boosting sales and profits, although
that’s certainly a part of it and is probably the biggest reason you’re reading
this book. The strategies and tips you master as an advanced seller can also
be applied to other aspects of your life to achieve both your professional and
personal goals.