Trent Leyshan, will be braving the elements at 12pm Friday 13th of August 2010 to promote his new book, The Naked Salesman!
Wearing only his socks and jocks on a soap box, Trent will be spruiking his book outside Angus and Robertson cnr Collins and Queen Streets Melbourne.
Also $50,000 worth of giveaways for sales and business people! One show only! Be there at 12pom sharp so not to miss out!
I was talking with my Father who told me the story a friend shared with him recently. His mate John had been training at a local gym for a couple of months.
A few days after New Year’s Day John went to gym and couldn’t find a car park. He approached a gym manager to address his concerns about the gym being so busy. The manager responded in an ironic tone, “Don’t worry, there will be plenty of car parks in a couple of weeks, just you wait and see.”
The manager’s point was that most people who declare a New Year’s resolution to lose weight and get fit — don’t stick at it. In fact, they stick all of about two to three weeks on average and then they’re gone, resigned to the murky backwaters of procrastination once again. It’s common knowledge that gyms make most of their money from patrons not showing up. So remember that next time you sign-up, because you may be better served saving your hard earned money.
How do you stay motivated? Motivation comes from within and can be boiled down to one simple definition: Focus.
What you focus on establishes your reality and your perception of what you focus on determines your experience.
In Victor Frankl’s disturbing yet fascinating book, Mans Search for Meaning, he tells of his experiences as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp in World War II, namely, how he and some of the other prisoners defied the odds and survived this ordeal mentally and emotionally.
I believe everyone should (and deserves to) follow a career they are passionate about.
I understand there are demands and responsibilities in life, of course there are, but they shouldn’t be an excuse for underperformance or an unfulfilling existence.
Life is a precious gift that we often take for granted. Our time is way too short to waste. The average life span of an Australian male is 77 years, and females are a tad longer. The clock is ticking, so if you’re not having fun yet, what are you waiting for!?
Can you be a “star” all the time ― shining and twinkling high above everyone else, every day? I think a few remarkable people can, but much more attainable for most is being a “star” some of the time.
If you’re a career salesperson like me, you will know how challenging being a “star” can actually be. It’s not an easy road to take and the goal posts appear to magically move and the rules of the game are always changing.
We all have our ups and downs. I’ve had my fare share of downs. You could say the best part of my career has been defined by downs.
I have talked at length in my blogs about the importance of being confident when selling. This week I thought I would shed some light on how you can not only build confidence in your sales role but also create a way of being that will enhance your sales performance.
What is confidence? Dictionary.com: full trust; belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliability of a person or thing. What a great definition and way of being to work and live by. Full trust, belief, trustworthiness and reliability! Give your customer these things and you will have ‘em for life, it’s that simple.
As a (willing) potential customer I want to trust you and believe in what you are saying and that you will deliver on your promise. You can make the odd mistake here-and-there, because if I trust you it’s not a deal breaker―I know you will be the first person to bring it to my attention. You can sell the best product or service in town, but if your salespeople fail to instill belief, build trust and deliver on their promises, the success of your business is limited, if not ultimately removed.
One of the most frequent areas that I get asked to consult on is sales team ‘performance’, or lack thereof…
In many sales teams what I observe is a small percentage of sales stars shining and the rest making up the numbers. This conundrum I call ‘The Law of Lesser Equals’. This law propounds: All men and women are created equal, yet when compared in competitive environments some underperform, not just marginally, but resoundingly. Many team members have the same training, similar backgrounds and experience, but some get the results, while others struggle. Is that a result of luck, experience or natural talent, or is there a more substantial explanation?
A few months ago, I coached a team of 12 experienced medial liaison offers. This group consisted of a mixed bag of personalities: outspoken directors, reserved thinking types, socialisers and relaters. As I facilitated the session, I observed the behaviours and engagement levels of each participant and it soon became evident who would get the most out of the sales training content. By the morning break, even without viewing individual sales performance records, I could tell who the top sales performers were and why. How?
Donald the management consultant arrived late to a public sales seminar I was conducting.
The rest of the participants arrived early for their 8.45am registration and had been chatting amongst each other. He apologised for being late and then rushed in and sat down. His body language was stiff and noticeably anxious. Although now behind schedule, for Don’s benefit, I asked everyone to again quickly introduce themselves and describe what business they were in. All were happy to oblige.
A couple of minutes into the introductions I sensed Don’s energy. He seemed disengaged and uninterested in the stories the others were sharing. I continued into the morning break paying extra attention to him but not at the detriment of anyone else. As soon as the other participants left the room for the break, he approached me and explained the seminar was not what he had expected.
Don had white-grey hair and the lines on his face told me he was in the twilight of his career. He looked stressed and his desperation was obvious. He thought the content was about generating more leads. I explained this was not advertised – the session is about the ‘sales fundamentals’ – things that are easy to do but easier to forget. He responded, “No thanks, I’m really busy, I just need more leads.” His comment didn’t make sense to me, yet hearing the resolve in his voice, I explained that’s not our content for today and offered a refund. With half a foot out the door, he promptly agreed, but pretended he didn’t care about the money.
Inspirational selling comes from a place of contribution. Desperation is selling from a place of contradiction.
Selling in contradiction is when you sell a product or service without believing in it. What you say and believe is not congruent. In these sales models the monetary exchange takes priority over the value and benefits being created. Conversely, selling with inspiration means you dont need to sell, but the customer wants to buy. Why? Because your proposition adds real value and benefits you and the customer understand. Therefore the line between you, your value and the customer’s benefit is congruent. This makes selling relatively easy if you’re talking with the right customers.
Being desperate is not pleasant and it’s an exhausting place to be in all the time. To achieve and sustain long term sales success you need to sell with inspiration! If you can’t get up every morning motivated by ‘what’ and ‘how’ you sell, you’re in real trouble because no one else is going to do it for you. One of the biggest tests for any salesperson is how they perform under immense pressure ― yet if you’re resilient and made of the right stuff you may even thrive in it. Many salespeople crack under pressure. They have a couple of poor months and then get desperate. They start cutting corners and looking for quick-wins. This is the beginning of the end. The quick wins seldom come, particularly when you’re desperate.
Some people may think my views on business are fanciful and idealistic, and that may be true. However, I’ve been in the sales game long enough to know taking an approach that is anything less only limits success to a lucky few.
I don’t mind people voicing their opinions on matters they are genuinely passionate about; in fact, I encourage it. I’m always enthusiastic to hear when someone has something authentic and valuable to say. There is an abundance of creativity in our world. Humanity is replete with inspirational people who have enormous value to contribute in their own ways ― yet most are never seen or heard.
As a collective society, we seldom encourage others to take a path of true innovation because it’s untested, risky, and breaks convention and related reputations. Most of us are trained to do things based on what’s already been done, and that’s ok, but being led to believe it’s the best and only way― isn’t. I’m here to say, there’s always a higher and more powerful way if you dare to jump off the cliff of ‘certainty’ into the unknown realms of ‘possibility.’