Strategic Sales & Marketing Solutions

A stomach for great slabs of fortune: In the body of wisdom, a big mouth is an organ of no minor importance, because great capacity requires large portions. One worthy of more will not be gorged by good fortune. One person’s indigestion is another’s appetite. Many get sick when the food is rich, because they are naturally weak. They are neither accustomed to nor born to high living. The business sours on them, and they get dizzy on the fumes of their unearned distinction. They run great danger in their high places, unable to maintain themselves in them because unaccustomed. So let the really big person display the capacity for even larger enterprise, and scupulously avoid anything that suggests a faint heart.

“All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is this: Act as if it were impossible to fail. That is the talisman, the formula, the command of right about face which turns us from failure to success.” – Dorothea Brande

Know how to help yourself. There is no better companion in the great struggles of life than a stout heart. When it flags it must be supported by the organs that stand about. Anxieties grow less in one who knows how to defend himself. Never surrender to fate, for then she ends by making herseelf intolerable. Some help themselves little with their burdens; in fact they double them because they do not know how to carry them. One who really knows himself brings thought to the support of his frailities. Wherefore the person of intelligence comes out victorious from under everything, even the unlucky stars.

The Art Of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian

Every time our economy stumbles, we hear those four magic words: “Work Harder, Not Smarter.” We find ourselves surrounded by catch phrases like “productivity gains,” which can often be a euphemism for “We just fired the person in the cubicle next to yours, so now you will be doing your job as well as his.”

When times get tough, the tough occasionally want to intellectualize. You can think yourself out of a lot of problems in life, but you can’t think your way out of a hole. You have to grab the rope and start climbing. Falling into the “work smarter, not harder” trap is nothing more than an excuse for you to cease working and start daydreaming. Successful selling is never a matter of what you know. It’s a matter of what you do with what you know. While all living and breathing creatures must evolve, maybe the problem isn’t the fact that you need a new game plan. Maybe you have a great one and you simply are not working it hard enough.

This doesn’t mean that continuing education should be absent from your Professional Selling career…quite the contrary. You must learn something new every day. But you must learn while doing. Greatness has never been achieved strictly through the pursuit of knowledge. Greatness is achieved by learning and applying that knowledge, by taking action and risks and falling down and getting up and doing it all over again.

Professional Selling is built on a foundation of several pillars that may vary in appearance, but are always consistent in principle.

First, you must love the art of selling. If you don’t, you will never be a successful salesperson. You must embrace selling as your chosen profession and you must have a deep, burning desire to excel. When you show up for a job that you don’t like…maybe even a job that you hate…you watch the clock, contribute only the bare minimum that will keep you employed, show up late, leave early, take long lunches, surf the Web when your boss isn’t hovering over you, make personal phone calls, email your friends, and spend all day Saturday and Sunday dreading Monday morning. That’s not life. That’s a prison sentence.

Second, you must think like Elvis Presley and Take Care of Business…”T.C.B.” Elvis distributed gold-plated “T.C.B.” trinkets to the members of his “Memphis Mafia” as a constant reminder of his personal manifesto. What is your manifesto? Is it to show up late and leave early, to take care of business, or some other point in between? People must be able to trust that you will keep your word and follow through on everything you’ve promised. You will occasionally run into extreme, unpredictable circumstances which are not within your control, but most people will understand and appreciate your honesty and direct, immediate communication during these times. On the other hand, if you let something fall through the cracks because of your apathy, laziness, or neglect, you will begin to erode any trust you’ve built among your customers, colleagues, or peers, and will be on the fast track to “unemployable.”

Third, you must believe in the product or service you are selling with an unshakable sense of faith. You must believe that while you may have competitors, you have the superior offering. You must be able to back this up with client testimonials and success stories, not simple arrogance. If you do not already have this belief, or you cannot foster it over time, you are selling the wrong product or service. Get out now and find the right scenario for you.

Fourth, you must embrace the age-old goal setting wisdom that dictates you will strive for “this or something better.” You can never control the final outcome. You might meet a prospect and close the sale after one or two brief conversations. You might also invest considerable time in proposals or consultations, only to find that the prospect is either price shopping or just curious, with no means or motivation to buy in the near or distant future. Both of these scenarios are realities along the Professional Selling landscape. You must accept what is in your cup, whether it is fine wine or ashes, and realize that your path is a forward one. You have no time for self-pity, anger, hurt, or resentment. As you are driving away from your failed sales call, struggling with your emotions, your prospect is buying a candy bar from the vending machine and thinking about 100 other things that don’t involve you. Celebrate the successes and move on. Acknowledge the lesson in the defeats and move on. Never stand still.

Fifth, always earn the sale. The exact moment in which you earn the respect, admiration, and future referrals from your customers is the exact moment in which you give them everything they paid for, everything they expected…and you haven’t slowed down a bit. They’ve gotten everything you promised and you’re still delivering. One aspect of sales that is true in any economy, strong or weak, is that the salesperson who consistently exceeds expectations is the same salesperson who will never fret over an empty or diminished pipeline. Be as passionate about the success of your customers as if it were your own.

Finally, take the advice of a wise old friend of mine. When you are facing the lion and the lion has only one thought…to eat you…stand firm, stand tall, and look the lion straight between the eyes. Smile, and say “I hope I taste good.” Fear and weakness and doubt have no place in sales. Economies come and go. When you build your motivation on favorable circumstances and a level playing field, you will reap nothing beyond the low-hanging fruit. In a tight economy, that fruit has already been picked by your competition. You must make a stand, decide to fight, and work harder.

The overwhelming majority of limits in life are self-imposed. The concept of an “eight hour work day” is wrapped around companies who must pay overtime for anything beyond eight hours. If you are a Professional Salesperson…especially if you are a sole proprietor or entrepreneur…there is no time clock. There are no weekends.

There is only life. Life’s what is happening to you right now, while you are reading this article.

There is your work, your passion, your craft, your success. Don’t work smarter. Work harder. You already know what to do and how to do it. You’re just not doing enough of it. Make a decision right now to change that behavior. You can do it, and you will see immediate results.