Just look at yourself

I’ve been a speaker, author, and coach on things that really matter. People say, “I haven’t got sales and mental toughness for many years, the time to get fit. I haven’t got the time to spend and in my experience, most salespeople are with my family. I haven’t got the time to study.” not honest – with themselves. They don’t And yet other people manage to do it. admit to themselves the truth of their You need to be honest with yourself. You decided situations. They don’t admit to themselves not to make that time. You decided not to ask those that they are where they are because of the decisions questions of that client. You decided not to put time that they alone have made and the actions that they aside for prospecting. You decided not to spend time alone have taken. reading and improving your sales skills. You decided

Salespeople don’t accept that they and they alone not to spend time preparing for that important client are responsible for the sales that they have made and presentation. You decided to do something else with the sales that they have lost. that time instead. I meet salespeople every day who have lost sales, and they say things like, “Well, the “Salespeople don’t accept that they alone are responsible for In my talks on mental toughness, many people come in wanting “pixie client was never really into the sales they have made and the dust”. They want a us,” or “The client took us on sales they have lost” magic pill to take away a merry dance,” or “It was their pain – a simple, the economy,” or “We were unfailing strategy that too expensive.” They very rarely say, “You know will change their sales and their business. They do what, maybe I didn’t engage that client correctly. not want to be faced with the truth. They do not Maybe I didn’t ask the right questions. Perhaps I did want to know that they are responsible for where not add enough value.” they are and the results that they are getting.

I meet people who say to me, “I’m snowed under. They do not want to consider that they were not I just haven’t got the time to do the things that motivated enough, not persistent enough, not skilled you’re talking about.” And the reality is, they’re enough, or not client-focused enough. They do not lying to themselves because we all have time for want to know that, despite all of those long client

YOU GET OUT WHAT YOU PUT IN

I have three small children. With small children comes paraphernalia – prams, travel cots, nappies, bags, toys and car seats. And that makes many cars unsuitable, mine included. With this in mind, my wife and I visited a well-known, executive car brand to seek advice on what we should purchase.

One of the first questions we asked about a car we were shown concerned how much space there would be in the boot after a pram had been crammed into it. The salesman had no idea and even less interest in finding out.

I could have been his easiest sale of that day, if not that month. I was ready to change vehicle, I had an immediate need (my kids would not fit in our car), and I had the money – but Mr ‘Executive’ Salesperson could not even be bothered to look it up or make any calls.

I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. We continued our conversation, and I asked him about one of his competition’s cars that was in a similar class and price bracket. Somewhat arrogantly, he said that he had no knowledge about his competitors’ products and that all he knew was that his was the best. Really?

If you want to be a sales superstar, you need to put the effort in. You need to be an expert at what you do. You need to know more about your products, services, and solutions – the problems they solve, and why your clients really buy them – than anyone else. Failure to put in that effort will most likely just end in failure.

conversations and proposals, they never actually got to the root cause of their client’s situation, and they never touched them emotionally.

Many people cannot handle the truth. They are not ready for the truth. They do not have the mental toughness to be honest with themselves. They do not have the mental toughness to think critically about what it is that they do and how they are responsible for their own results.

And, here’s the thing – that’s OK. If you do not want to improve your sales, you do not have to ask yourself difficult questions. On the other hand, if you want to get amazing results, and if you want to be a sales rock star and drive yourself in the direction of your dreams, then you need to be more honest with yourself about how your beliefs, attitudes, and habitual behaviours contribute to your success – or lack of it.

So my question to you is, can you be honest? Do you want to be honest? Are you ready to be honest? Is it time you made some changes in your life and got the results that you deserve? Is it time you looked more closely at how your actions have got you where you are and what you can do to get you where you want and deserve to be? Is it time you committed to what you can do to get you where you want and deserve to be?

BE HONEST ABOUT YOUR SALES ABILITY I have worked with tens of thousands of salespeople, entrepreneurs and business owners. I have sat with them at their desks while they made phone calls to new and existing clients. I have attended sales visits with them. I have watched them make sales presentations. I have helped them negotiate deals. I have consulted with them on their opportunities and their businesses. And many are just not honest with themselves about the level of sales skills they possess. They think that they are sales gods when they are actually sales minnows. They think that their sales skills rock when, in fact, they wouldn’t even do a shimmy if their favourite song were playing in their favourite club.

Much of this stems from the mythical, unicornlike beast – the natural-born salesperson. People love to believe that some people were just born to be great salespeople. And other people were not. And maybe that is true for some. But for most people, learning to be a great salesperson requires hard work. It requires dedication and commitment. It requires time and effort. Learning to be a sales superstar demands a frank assessment of the sales skills that you currently possess. It requires a good look at where you are good and where you need to improve. I remember working with a young salesman. He had only been a salesperson

for a couple of years, but he already thought that he l Practising questioning, listening, and presenting? could walk on water. He saw himself as a top l Studying the techniques of the most successful performer. He thought he was the finished article. I salespeople in your market? am sure you know someone similar. His sales figures l Researching, learning, and understanding your were OK, but they did not support his total competitors and their products? over-assessment of his own abilities. When we went through some of his recent negotiations, it became TAKE 100% RESPONSIBILITY patently apparent that he did not have a clue about FOR YOUR SALES RESULTS how to negotiate a deal effectively. His principles of When you lose a sale, what do you say? Do you negotiation seemed to have been gleaned from TV blame the client? Do you blame it on bad luck? shows like The Apprentice and consisted of little more Do you blame it on your company? Your products? than market-stall haggling. Rather than being The market? The economy? Your competitors honest enough to acknowledge this, he chose undercutting market rates? instead to blame his clients. He insisted that they did Most salespeople and companies blame their lost not have the budgets of those of his peers and that deals on something or someone else. Anything else they just did not appreciate the real value behind other than themselves. If you want to make more the services that he was providing. Yawn. sales, you need to invest time and energy in

If you want to improve your sales results, then an considering how you are responsible for the results audit of your sales skills is required. Make a list of that you are getting. You need to ask yourself some core sales skills, such as listening, questioning, and searching questions. objection handling, and then mark yourself out of One of my passions is asking the difficult 10 for each of these. Better still, ask someone else questions that other people don’t – the laser-like who knows you to mark you out of 10 for each of questions that will make you think about things in a them. Look at the areas where you can get better different, more resourceful way. They are gameand focus on doing so. You can dramatically changing questions that will make a difference for improve your skills by reading, training, watching your sales, your career, and your life. Without videos, or shadowing top performers. If you challenging questions, you will not grow. And improve even a point or two in any area, it can without growth, you will ultimately fail. make a massive difference Your sales results are to your sales results. your responsibility. If you

Be honest about your “You can dramatically improve did not make the sales you current levels of expertise. your skills by reading, training, want, it is down to you. When I speak at watching videos, or shadowing If you have not got the conferences, I often ask how many people have a top performers” clients you want, then only you can do something degree. In today’s working about it. If you are not a environment, many people benefited from higher sales superstar, then doing something about it is up education. I often ask them how many books they to you. And sales superstars love this about selling. read as part of studying for their degree. Many tell They love the fact that whatever success they want, me that they read, or at least used, hundreds of it is down to them and them alone. books and did thousands of hours of work during The truth is this: if you blame someone else, then their studies. I then ask them how many books they there is nothing you can do about your lot. You have read on selling. Or communication Or absolve yourself of any blame, but you also absolve motivation. And how many hours of study they yourself of any responsibility for your results. And have invested in their sales career. Many have never with that, you lose control and all of your personal read any books on selling or related subjects. Most power to direct your own results and your own life. have never done any training other than that Taking responsibility might not be comfortable. prescribed by their company. It might not be nice. It might not even be fair. But it

I find it somewhat disturbing that people will does make you the captain of your destiny. It gives invest huge amounts of time, effort, and study over you control, and it means you can take positive several years in gaining a piece of paper, but will do action and move toward creating the sales results nothing to help their career, the rest of their life, and the life that you want. When you take and their destiny. responsibility, full responsibility for your clients, your

How much time have you spent: sales results and your career, you are well on the l Improving your sales skills? path to sales superstardom. l Learning about your products and why clients In the next edition, I will move on to discussing really buy them? how you can really add value to the sales process, l Planning your sales activities and your strategies and how you can think like an entrepreneur to for approaching new and existing clients? make great things happen for you.

GAVIN INGHAM is a motivational speaker on mental toughness. He is a Fellow of the ISM. This article is an edited extract from his latest book, Be more, do more and have more. Visit www.gaviningham.com