Finding Your Personal Motivation, Part III
The final part of my quick video on Finding Your Personal Motivation. Thanks for your kind comments and thoughts on this one. We’ll be launching the all new GavinIngham.com sales training, personal and business success website in the next few weeks and we will be releasing a lot more videos. This will be one of the last in this more formal format as we’ll be over to a new, exciting format that will allow us to get you sales training and personal success tips more frequently and more often.
Finding Your Personal Motivation, Part II
When people find out that I am a “motivational speaker” they often ask me to motivate them as if it is something that I can do for them or to them. We’re often at a party or in a pub and it is posed as something of a challenge however, many times, it is deadly serious too.
Motivation is internal and the ability to motivate yourself is something that you can learn to do if you set your mind to it. There are many different ways to build self-motivation and hundreds of techniques that you could use. Here is part ii of my video short Finding Your Personal Motivation and these are some of my favourite strategies that you can use to help to develop your own personal motivation.
What Would You Achieve If You Knew You Couldn’t Fail?
I was meeting with a good friend of mine, Andy Smith (NLP and EI trainer), the other day and, over a tasty Chinese buffet lunch, we were talking about “things that truly make a difference”. Interestingly, and despite all of the training courses that we had both been on, we were in total agreement that you could track back the things that had truly made a difference for us to a handful of techniques and strategies. Perhaps more interesting still was the fact that, even with our very different backgrounds, it was very similar topics that had made the difference for both of us…
And, most interesting of all, the really powerful techniques that really changed our lives were the simplest ones.
Now, I’ve talked before about how sales people and business owners ask for the “advanced” sales training strategies, rushing headlong into studying “advanced sales skills” when they’re not even covering the sales training basics so I’m not going to say again how important nailing important sales principles and reviewing and practising them regularly is…
I am however going to share with you one of my favourite ever questions…
What would you achieve if you knew you couldn’t fail?
A simple question, and one which is easily overlooked. Don’t make this mistaake. Really thinking about this question and your answers to it could well change your sales results, your career prospects and your life.
I was reminded of the power of this important question this week when one of my readers sent me the following passage…
“Let’s imagine that for one day only, you will be guaranteed success on every single new business call that you make, and you absolutely cannot fail……..
What time would you set your alarm in the morning?
What time would you start prospecting?
What time would you finish prospecting?
How many new business calls would you make?
How long would you take for lunch?
How long would you spend socialising?
How long would you spend in the supermarket?
How long would you spend chatting to colleagues?
How long would you spend on ‘admin’?Now, compare your answers to the questions above to what you actually did do today.”
You’ve probably seen a question like this before. You may have even thought, “Good question”. Perhaps you were even slightly motivated by it. But you probably moved on and read something else without really benefitting from the inherent wisdom behind this question.
If you want a great day, stop now and take a break. Get a coffee and consider…
How would you spend your time today if you knew you couldn’t fail? What would you do? Who would you prospect? What would you ask of them? What would you achieve? What would you ask for that you’re currently not asking for? Who would you ring who you are currently avoiding? What price would you aim for? What targets would you set for yourself? What would you stop doing? How would you deal with distractions? How would you protect your valuable time?
You get my point.
What are you going to achieve today?
Repetition Is The Mother Of All Skill If You Want Sales Success
“Repetition is the mother of all skill.”
~ Tony Robbins, author of Unlimited Power
In sales seminars and sales training programmes I often talk about the difference between sales skills and sales techniques…
Sales techniques are something external to you, they are something that you hear or that you know. Sales skills are something that you own, they are yours through hard work and practise. And, what’s more, they won’t abandon you in even the toughest of markets.
When I speak at sales conferences many salespeople sit back, cross their arms and ask for “the advanced stuff”. They tell their boss that they don’t need sales training because they already know it, they’ve heard it all before…
Take open questions as an example. Any salesperson with more than about 5 minutes selling experience knows what an open question is – a question that requires more than a “yes” or “no” answer. We all know that open questions start with the words what, where, when, why, how, who which. But how many salespeople put undue sales pressure onto their clients by asking (self-centred) closed questions when they should be asking (well constructed) open questions?
“Most salespeople” is the correct answer.
The ability to ask great questions is one of the critical skills for being a sales superstar yet most salespeople fair badly at best in this area.
Think back to the first time you were taught about open questions. Did you understand it? I’m guessing that you did. Let’s face it, it really isn’t that complicated is it? Most salespeople hear it, think that it makes sense and move on. They hear it, they acknowledge it but they never practise it. They get it intellectually but because they never practised it, it never becomes a skill for them. It never becomes something that they own.
Put under pressure in a sales meeting or in a cold call, and with the adrenaline flowing, they revert to type asking controlling closed questions and “forgetting” to ask carefully constructed open ones.
As Robbins says, “Repetition is the mother of all skill.”
- If you want to be a great golfer you need to practise your swing, over and over.
- If you want to be a great pianist you need to practise your scales, over and over.
- If you want to be a great at anything you need to practise it, over and over.
- If you want to be a great salesperson you need to practise your sales skills, over and over.
If you are a salesperson and you want to outsell your competition and win more clients fast, you need to create an ongoing sales development programme for yourself that includes regular practise of all of the sales training basics.
Don’t wait for your boss to put you on a sales training programme. Don’t wait for your sales results to fall off a cliff. Don’t wait until it’s nearly too late to start. Start now and make regular sales training practise of your selling skills part of your daily habits. You’ll be amazed what you can achieve from a mere 15 minutes a day practising your basic sales skills.
If you’re a sales manager, sales leader or business owner then you need to think about how you can help your sales team to practise their core sales skills regularly. One-off training is not enough by itself. You need to create ongoing sessions and exercises for them to participate in, both individually and as a team. One company I know bought several copies of my Objection handling book Objections! Objections! Objections! and then “drilled” the answers in sales meetings. They added £1 million to their bottom line.
Not convinced it’s worth the effort? Not convinced you can get the same results? not convinced that you buy into this whole practise argument? What would Tiger Woods, David Beckham and Johnny Wilkinson tell you to do?
I rest my case.
Read For 15 Minutes
“The only thing worse than not reading a book in the last 90 days is not reading a book in the last 90 days and thinking that it doesn’t matter.”
Jim Rohn
When I give motivational speeches and talks at conferences I often ask the audience, “So, hands up if you’re reading a book on sales, business or personal development at the moment.” In an audience of hundreds, usually only a handful raise their hands.
When I then ask, “Hands up if you’ve read a book on sales, personal development or business in the last month” the response is usually little better. Often I finish up by asking, “OK, so hands up if you’ve never read a book on sales, business or personal development” and the response is overwhelming with the vast majority of the audience raising their hands.
Sharpening your mindset, your skills and your competitive edge has always been important but with today’s challenging lifestyles and in today’s difficult economy it is essential. If you want to get and stay ahead of the game you need to read. Everything you could ever want to know about pretty much anything is written down and available for you to read, digest and use to get the results that you want in your life but so few people take advantage of this.
Want to know how to stay more motivated every day?
Read about how experts, sportspeople and business winners have done it in the past.
Want to sell on value not price and get what you’re worth in every sales transaction?
Read and learn how to do it in one of many, many great sales books.
Want to lead and manage your team to unparalleled success?
Read about how those before you have overcome their challenges to achieve uncommon results.
I’m not asking you to become a book worm. You don’t have to become a born again academic. You don’t need to invest hours per day. Even reading consistently for as little as 15 minutes per day could well have profound and far reaching effects in your life and in your business. What’s more, filling your mind with positivity and “I can” every day will help to keep you motivated, positive and up beat too.
Help Me, I Need Motivation! 10 Tips For Getting Motivated…
When I’m at parties and people find out that I am a motivational speaker and sales training expert they often say something like, “That’s fab, can you motivate me?” Flippant questions aside, motivation is a huge part of what I do when I am consulting with companies to increase sales results and is essential if you want to build a high performance sales team or if you want to be a successful salesperson.
Understanding how to motivate yourself to be proactive, positive and focused is critical if you want to be a sales superstar. Check out this email I received…
Thank you for sending me the newsletter, it really helps. I am having a particularly horrible time at the moment as I work in…… and the whole thing is a mess. I am losing the will to live rapidly and I feel like I want to leave. My boss has cut commissions, rightly, so I suppose, but with the financial worry and the ever decreasing market I really don’t know how to stay positive……
Please help with some advice. We have been on two of your seminars and they were brilliant. I would love to come on another one, but have no money, and the company is not spending at the moment.
I run whole sales training sessions and give sales conferences talks on motivation, but here, in a nutshell, are my top 10 sales training tips for getting and staying motivated to sell more, even in the most competitive of markets.
Motivational sales training tip 1: Remember that motivation is internal.
Many salespeople treat motivation as if it is something that happens to them. They allow themselves to be buffeted by difficult prospects, client challenges, lost sales and poor market conditions. This leaves them out of control of their personal motivation and out of control of their sales destiny.
Motivation is something that you do (or don’t do) for yourself. It is a set of mental processes. It is something that you can remain in control of irrespective of market conditions and irrespective of what happens to you. I’m not saying that staying motivated to sell is easy but it is inside of your control. And what’s more, the more that you work on controlling your personal sales motivation, the better you will become at harnessing it to get the sales results that you want.
Motivational sales training tip 2: Take the daily motivation challenge.
Many salespeople career through their lives unaware of their lack of motivation or their “average” levels of motivation. It might be ok to do some jobs whilst operating from average levels of motivation but not selling.
Salespeople need to be up for it and motivated.
One good way of staying motivated is to set yourself a daily challenge to keep motivated so here’s my challenge for you…
Take your “motivational temperature”, so to speak, several times a day. Simply stop and ask yourself honestly, “How motivated am I right now?” Just stopping momentarily to check your motivational temperature will make you more aware of your habitual levels of sales motivation and will awaken you to the possibility of doing something about it.
Motivational sales training tip 2: Remind yourself “WHY”.
Many salespeople and many people in general spend their lives “going through the motions”. They get up, they go to work, they go home, they watch the TV, they go to bed, they get up, they go to work, they go home, they watch the TV, they go to bed…
Same old, same old, over and over, day in and day out.
Now don’t get me wrong here, I have no problem with routine; what I do have a problem with is that same routine blunting your hunger, that same routine dulling your passion, that same routine killing your spirit…
Top salespeople have passion, drive and hunger and one way they maintain this is by waking themselves from their “going through the motions” reverie by reminding themselves “WHY” they are here and “WHY” they are following the path of a sales superhero. When I am sales training and consulting, helping individuals to know “WHY” something is important to them helps them get and stay motivated more easily.
Motivational sales training tip 4: Fizz it up.
One of the quickest ways to change your mental state is to change your physical state. Your physical state is hard wired to the way that you feel. Every physical state has an emotional state associated with it. Conversely, changing your physical state will change the way that you feel – fast.
Feeling short of energy? Get some air in your lungs, punch your arms in the air, stand up straight, jump up and down, run on the spot, yell out loud, smile stupidly, breathe more quickly…
Remembering to take control of your physical state can work wonders for your motivation on a moment to moment basis.
Motivational sales training tip 5: Be your own internal sales coach.
We all talk to ourselves, the question is not whether you do or not but what you say to yourself. Many salespeople have an inner critic who deserves shooting! Many salespeople berate themselves in a way that they would never allow anyone else to do. Many salespeople get beaten up by their own inner sales critics on a daily basis.
It doesn’t have to be this way. By taking control of our self-talk and training our inner critic to be our inner sales coach we can change our persistent internal dialogue from destructive to constructive and from cynic to coach.
Motivational sales training tip 6: Set BIG goals and go for them.
Demotivated salespeople do not set ambitious goals. Lack of ambition when goal setting will not motivate you. Lack of ambition when goal setting will not drive you. Lack of ambition when goal setting will not set you on the path to sales success. Lack of ambition when goal setting will not help you to perform in the sales super league.
Demotivated salespeople do not set ambitious goals because they think, “Well, hey, I won’t hit it anyway so why bother?” or “I’ll set it low because I’ll manage that”.
Top salespeople set BIG goals to motivate, stretch and focus themselves. Top salespeople set BIG goals knowing that even if they don’t hit them they will develop and improve along the way. Top salespeople set BIG goals because they expect success.
Motivational sales training tip 7: Reward yourself.
Reward yourself for a job well done. Reward yourself when you deserve it. Reward yourself when you work hard. Reward yourself when you work long. Reward yourself when you win. Reward yourself when you learn.
Rewards motivate so make sure that you reward yourself for the sales behaviours that you want and need to do more of. Reward yourself for doing what you told yourself that you’d do. Reward yourself even when others don’t.
Motivational sales training tip 8: Hang out with top sales superstars.
Hang out with sales superstars. Spend time with sales rock stars. Roll with top sales aces. If you spend time with demotivated, uninspired losers they will suck the sales juice right out of you. Spend time with motivated winners however and they will teach you how to be more motivated, how to stay more motivated and how to create the life that you want.
Motivational sales training tip 9: Get the sales edge.
One of the best ways of motivating yourself is to invest in yourself and your personal development. Enrol yourself on a sales training seminar, buy a sales training book, listen to a sales training audio or watch a sales training DVD.
When you invest in your own personal development you send a message to yourself that you are worth investing in and that makes you feel good about yourself and that, in turn, builds motivation. Don’t know what to do? Stuck for choices? Check out my sales training shop here…
Motivational sales training tip 10: Get your buddies involved.
Misery likes company. Losers like support. But then, so does motivation. Get yourself upbeat and motivated and then enrol your buddies into your “motivated” group. Run competitions, create energy, encourage, cajole and persuade each other to go the extra mile and make selling more fun.
Teams that motivate and support each other in being more motivated, up beat and up for it are more effective and make more sales.
Motivational sales training comment:
So there you go, 10 top sales training tips for getting and staying more motivated. Where are you going to start?
Getting The Sales Superstar Mindset, Sales Training Video 2 Of 3
Part 2 of Getting the Sales Superstar mindset, sales training video 2 of 3. Getting and maintaining the right mental state is essential if you want to achieve sales success, especially in the challenging markets that many are facing in today’s competitive environment. Do you get in a right state or the right state?
Successful Selling Lying On Your Back
I never cease to be amazed by how little effort many salespeople put into improving their sales skills. Ironically, of course, if you’re reading this I am probably not speaking to you. If you didn’t care about your sales development and your sales results then you probably wouldn’t be reading this at all.
One of the questions that I ask of the audience in my Selling in Tough Markets (or Selling in a Recession) keynote speech is, “Who is currently reading a book on selling?” The answer is usually about 2% of the audience at any one particular sales conference. Even if you widen this to, “Who has read a sales book in the last 6 months?” the percentage of sales professionals answering in the affirmative is still well under 10%… a very low figure by anyone’s reckoning.
Reading a book on sales, business, personal development or even a biography of a successful person can benefit you in many ways. You can benefit by…
- Learning new skills, strategies and techniques. If each book that you read delivered you even just one new strategy, one new skill and one new technique what would that mean for you, your sales results and your business over the next 5-10 years? A heck of a lot – that’s what. Top performing salespeople tell me that they always learn something from every sales seminar they attend or every sales book they read. It’s only less successful salespeople that come up with the line, “I knew it all already”.
- Revising, improving and reenergizing existing skills. As Anthony Robbins is fond of saying, “Repetition is the mother of skill”. If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. I am constantly amazed by how much I “get” from rereading really quite basic books that I have read before. Sometimes, several times. It’s not that there is something new in there, it’s that you see stuff differently and make critical distinctions that you did not make on the first read.
- Building motivation and self-confidence. People who study have an inner confidence. It comes from knowing that you know your stuff, knowing that you are in the top 5%, knowing that you can do a professional job and knowing that you have put your time in.
- Continuing professional development. All professionals undertake ongoing learning programmes to improve, refresh and update their skills. Why should salespeople be any different?
- Empowering yourself with a sales superstar mindset. In today’s economy, there is far too much negativity and far too many people moaning about how bad things are, how we should be prepared for the worst, how things are all going to go wrong and why there is nothing you can do about it. Spending time focusing on what you can do, what people are doing and sharpening your sales and business skills is the perfect antidote.
Listening to the news and reading many experts at the moment is like being bitten by a deadly snake – the bite won’t kill you but the poison seeping through your veins just might. I have two tips…
- Take lots of pre-emptive antidote &
- Try not to be bitten in the first place
That means, surrounding yourself with motivational books, audios, seminars and people and avoiding negativity as and when you can. Still not convinced? Check out what someone wrote having read Objections! Objections! Objections! recently…
I am a sales professional and have been selling for about 15 years… I have contracts that require a lot of cold calling. I seemed to not be getting anywhere and was feeling pretty de-motivated. I saw your book Objections, Objections, Objections and read it cover to cover. I put the advice into immediate practice, and from getting an appointment rate of 1 per 10 phone calls, I am now getting on average 6 per 10 phone calls – simply by changing my approach.
Now I don’t know about you but that seems like a real sales result to me. Here’s what you need to do…
- Think about the areas of selling and business that you could do with a boost in.
- Research books or other learning products that meet your needs.
- Check out their reviews online.
- Buy them.
- Commit to reading 15 minute per day.
It’s amazing what you can achieve in such a short period of time. Have a great week
Invest 15 Minutes A Day And Double Your Sales Results?
As a motivational speaker and seminar leader I speak with tens of thousands of sales and business people every year and my blogs and articles are read by far, far more. Speaking with so many salespeople and business owners gives me a unique insight into what drives people to do what they do and to behave how they behave.
I really enjoy this aspect of my role as I am, and always have been, intrigued by how and why people behave the way that they do. It’s certainly one of the reasons that I became a motivational speaker and author in the first place. And I have a few questions that I like to ask of nearly all of the groups that I speak to in nearly all of the seminars and keynotes that I run…
These questions are the ones that I think are really important, the ones that I think salespeople and business owners should really think about and the ones that will make the most profound difference for them, their sales, their businesses and their lives. Of all of them one of the most interesting and enlightening is…
“When did you last read a book on sales and selling?”
It’s a great question and one which I ask in various different formats depending upon the size of the group, the subject and the audience. It’s also one which I never cease to be amazed by the answers that I get. Here are typical responses from a typical sales conference audience…
“Hands up if you are currently reading a sales book.” Roughly 1-2%.
“Hands up if you have read a sales book in the last month.” Roughly 5-10%.
“Hands up if you have read a sales book in the last 6 months.” Roughly 20%.
“Hands up if you have NEVER read a sales book.” Roughly 25-50%, dependant on the group.
Wow!
I have worked with sales teams in banking, IT, telecoms, recruitment, financial, engineering, car sales, retail, consultancy, training, estate agency, investment, catering, legal, accountancy and virtually every other industry that you can think of and my conclusion is…
Most salespeople do not read enough about sales, business and personal development and this is holding them back from the success that they want.
There are many reasons that they give me for this…
- They do not have the time.
- They do not like reading.
- They don’t know what to read.
- They don’t believe that reading will make any difference.
- They don’t believe that the techniques they read about will work in the real world.
- They cannot be bothered.
- Their boss wouldn’t buy any books for them.
- They tried it before and it did not work.
- It wouldn’t work for their business or in their market.
- And on and on…
This decision is a huge shame and one which is holding back hundreds of thousands (nay millions) of salespeople all around the world from achieving the sales and business results that they want and deserve…
Top sales professionals in all industries read to stay on top of their game. Top sales professionals in all industries read to stay abreast of new ideas, strategies and techniques. Top sales professionals in all industries read to set themselves apart from their competitors…
Top salespeople read to learn new sales techniques and strategies to give them the sales edge. Top salespeople read for education, inspiration and motivation. Top salespeople read because they know that reading allows them to harness the power of OPE (other peoples’ experiences) and accelerate their sales results.
Many experts have remarked that reading for a mere 15 minutes a day could make you a subject expert within only a matter of a few years. Reading for a mere 15 minutes a day consistently could double or treble your sales. Reading for just 15 minutes a day could return you tens of thousands of pounds, dollars, euros, goats… whatever currency you’re trading in… over the coming months, years and decades.
Reading for 15 minutes a day could help you to achieve more sales, more job security, more professionalism, promotion, a bigger house, a nicer car, financial security, early retirement…
Here’s why reading sales book, business books and personal development books is so important for your personal and professional success…
- You only need pick up one or two new sales strategies, tips or ideas from any one sales training book to get a phenomenal return on your time.
- Seeing something you already know in a different light or perspective can catapult your sales to a whole new level. It’s not what you know but what you do with that knowledge that counts.
- Reading regularly helps to maintain a “can-do” attitude when others around you are not being as positive as they might be. This is particularly pertinent in today’s negative environments.
- 15 minutes a day reading is an investment in yourself which will help you to value yourself, your job in sales and your professionalism.
- Reading sales books gives you time to think about how you can improve what you do and how you can get better results.
- Reading improves your sales skills, your sales techniques, your sales ability and your earning potential.
- And much, much more…
Start by making sure that you are subscribed to my free sales newsletter which brings you sales and personal development strategies straight into your inbox every week; then dust off your old sales books and start reading.
Not got any old sales books? The buy some new ones! Check out my books and recommended reading lists now.
Why Tenacity And Persistence Are Essential For Sales Success
Imagine for a second that you have set up a new business selling a new form of consulting service. There’s nothing like it in the marketplace and you are going to have to educate your clients on its worth. After a bit or research you settle on a price and go to visit half a dozen selected clients to get their opinion. Unfortunately, every one of them says that it’s too expensive.
What do you do?
A) Reduce the price to match what they think?
B) Re-evaluate the product and add more benefits?
C) Start negotiating furiously?
D) Visit some more clients?
Let me tell you that when I ask this question of delegates 90%+ of answers fall into the A, B or C categories. Now I admit that there is a lot of information missing here but I believe that the answer is D with maybe a small pinch of C.
Apparently, Colonel Sanders (aka Mr. Kentucky Chicken) was rejected 1012 times before someone bit on his idea! Read the biography of most successful people and you will see as many failures as successes.
Success in sales and business means playing the long game and that means tenacity and persistence. If you keep going after everyone else gives up and goes home then you are going to be successful.
Copyright Gavin Ingham 2008, extract from Real World Sales Attitude!
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