| Excuse #1: “I Don’t Have
Enough Time To Prospect or Focus on Sales Related / Dollar Productive Activities.”
Solution: Create Time.
Sales professionals of all levels and business owners who
achieve extraordinary levels of success have days just as hectic as everyone else, right?
Yet somehow they make prospecting a part of their daily or weekly activities.
So how do they do it? They create the time. You can
instantly create time if you begin to plan ahead and stay committed. This means planning
your days and weeks. One of the best time-creating techniques is to schedule prospecting
or selling time on your calendar and delete unimportant activities.
Schedule your most important tasks earlier in the day to
ensure they get done. Ask yourself, “Where am I wasting time?” Make sure you
remove those activities from your daily schedule right away. Set up a recurring event for
prospecting and don’t miss it. To be successful with this, be sure to eliminate your
distractions.
Excuse #2: “I Can’t Stay Committed.”
Solution: Find Compelling Reasons For Your Actions.
There is a significant difference between intentions and
action. The difference is commitment.
Our commitment to our goals leads us to achievement, even
during the toughest times. There is a direct relationship between motivation and
commitment. If you are really committed to making a change now in your sales or business
results, create a sense of urgency.
You need reasons that are so compelling and so intense you
must follow through. So right now, ask yourself the following questions and come up with
the three reasons why you must commit to your sales growth goals.
What will this cost me if I don’t make a change right
now? What has this cost me so far in sales results, income, and overall success? If I do
start prospecting effectively and on a regular basis, how will I feel about myself? How
will this impact my sales career, my business, my life? What will I gain as a result of
this new commitment? Your answers to these questions will help you gain an immediate
understanding of what you’re committed to and why!
Excuse #3: “I Don’t Feel Confident That I
Will Succeed. This Is A Waste Of Time!”
Solution: Break down your sales and business goals into measurable steps.
Sometimes trying to accomplish sales goals seems so
overwhelming, the immediate temptation is to give up before we even start. Ouch. That
kills self-confidence. And it’s true; we can’t gain confidence until we take
action. Yet, we don’t take action because we are afraid to fail. See the problem
here?
Take, for example, the intimidating obstacle of facing your
sales goals or business goals for the entire year. Now that’s paralyzing, isn’t
it?
To gain confidence, you must break your goals down into
measurable steps. For example, if want to win 12 new clients within 12 weeks, then you
could set your goal for 1 new client per week. It just feels easier and more attainable
this way.
You don’t have to focus on the entire goal; but
instead take smaller, manageable steps. This gives you a tremendous sense of control and
achievement.
By the time you are nearing the end of your first couple of
weeks on your new prospecting or sales plan, despite the ups and downs in progress, you
begin to feel more confident because you have experienced some results.
Suddenly, as the fear dissipates, you will discover new
found confidence. And best of all, you will have achieved what you once thought was
impossible—proceeding one step at a time.
Excuse #4: “I Don’t Know What To Say. I
Don’t Know If I Am Delivering The Right Message or Value.”
Solution: Seek Support & Don’t Try To Do Everything On Your Own.
It is understandable to feel a little confused. You may
feel overwhelmed and paralyzed. There are so many sales techniques recommended by so many
“sales experts”. So, whose advice can you trust?
Are you tired of trying to sort through all the information
on the internet, sales books, business articles and tips? Well, you can stop right now and
keep yourself from chasing every sales technique or theory.
So how do you find the answers?
When seeking support on these topics, make sure you are
working with someone with a proven record of producing top sales results. But that is not
enough. Just modeling the approaches of a highly successful sales person isn’t
enough. You can start there, but you must learn your own style, strengths, and how to use
them. If you can develop your own personal selling style, you will never come across as
“salesey,” which is the last thing you want to do.
Start by looking towards those with great success in this
field and then challenge yourself to develop your own sales style. Seek out a sales coach
who helps their sales coaching clients develop their own authentic selling approach that
takes into account what makes them unique, as they incorporate proven methods and
techniques. This combination of proven expert methods in conjunction with a personal
selling style produces dramatic results.
The bottom line: Seek someone who has achieved the
“extraordinary” results you desire, learn the “winning” methods, and
then integrate them into your own personal strengths to develop your own genuine selling
style. By committing to turning these mistakes and excuses into powerful success
strategies, you will begin to create extraordinary sales and business results! Don’t
wait, make a commitment to yourself today! |
