Everybody wants to be a better closer. Of all the skills salespeople say they want to improve, it’s closing. But there is more to a GOOD sale than just closing.

What is a good sale? It’s one where all parties – clients, salespeople and the agency – are satisfied with the transaction.

To make every sale a good sale, there are things to do before the major close, the close for the ‘order’. Continue reading There’s More To a Good Sale Than Just Closing

Relentless – I like that word. It means “unceasingly intense”.

I also like the word Persistent, which means “able to bounce, withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions”. And “continuing firmly or obstinately in an opinion or course of action despite difficulty of opposition”. These are good attributes for salespeople.

Sales is not for everybody, especially those who give up too easily or are easily discouraged. Salespeople need to press on, especially when things aren’t going their way, which is often. Continue reading Relentless

There can be many barriers to success, but one of the greatest challenges for some people is perfectionism.

Perfectionism is the enemy of success. People who suffer from it will not ‘launch’ until everything is ‘just so’. Most often, they fail to launch at all.

I find myself wondering if the problem really is perfectionism and not some kind of fear. I have seen salespeople getting ready to prospect spend so much time ‘getting ready’ that they run out of time to make the calls. Continue reading The Enemy of Success

Here we are at the beginning of a new year. But before we get too far into this new year, how were your results last year? Were you happy with what you achieved? If not, why not?

Far too many business people drift from year to year, without ever setting goals, determining the targets necessary to achieve those goals, and without planning. These people are unfocused and lack direction.

And so they drift – spurts of ‘busyness’ interspersed with long periods of unfocused work that does not produce results. Compound this over a full year and the lack of consistent, focused action manifests as low income.

For these people, unless their thinking and actions change, they are doomed to repeat their previous year’s results.

Habits

Habits can be good and bad. Unless we consciously work at developing good habits, we will, by default, develop bad habits.

Action, and lack of action, are habits. We can become used to high levels of focused, productive action, and we can become used to low levels of actions and unfocused drifting.

If you want your results in this new year to be better than last year’s results, you must break the cycle: do things differently than you did last year.

Goals

Without something to focus on – a clear goal that is important to you – you will almost certainly drift. What goals are you going to achieve in this coming year? Choose goals that you really want, and are willing to go the extra mile to achieve.

Targets determined from goals

Worthwhile goals require bigger targets. What targets will you need to achieve so that you earn the income necessary to reach your goals?

Plans

Targets that are higher than you are used to hitting must be planned. Don’t just plan for the number of listings and sales, plan for the number of people you will need to speak to each day. Hint: if you aren’t speaking to 200 potential sellers every week, your goals aren’t big enough!

Affirmations

If you want to focus, write Affirmations daily. Affirm your major dominant goal by writing it 15 times a day for 21 unbroken days.
You will find more information on affirmations and goal setting in my book, Why Winners Win.

Study

Unless you study your profession, you will not improve. By not studying, you rob yourself of the opportunity to get better results from the many great ideas offered by experts.

Practice

Knowing what to do isn’t enough – you have to perform actions competently. You can study all you want, but if you don’t practise what you learn, and keep practising until you get it right, you will never develop skill.

Study will give you knowledge, but knowledge alone is not sufficient to make you successful.

KNOWLEDGE + PRACTICE = SKILL

Study and improve your knowledge. Practise what you learn and develop your skill. Do this and your actions will become more competent.

All you have to do now is increase your level of actions and success is assured. And, provided that you have goals that you really want to achieve, you will stay focused.

You can make 2018 your best year ever – indeed, a very happy new year!