‘Motivation’
Success Stories From The Trenches – Increased Income 40% in 3 Years!
Welcome to our newest feature on the Success Blog: “Success Stories From the Trenches.” I want to hear from you! Send in your personal success stories to be featured in our Tuesday Quick Tip.
I’m pleased to announce our 1st Success Story comes from Randy, a Regional Sales Manager from West Palm Beach, Florida. Randy says:
“I have been listening to your audio programs and attending your webinars for about 3 years now. I have worked hard to apply everything that you teach. I wanted to personally thank you for the positive impact you have made on my sales career and my management style. Over those three years I have received a promotion, earned President’s Club in my company, and increased my income 40%!”
Thanks Randy. I’m glad to accept some credit, but pretty much all the credit must go to you: You’re the one who took action. Congratulations!
There Are No Bad Jobs, Just Bad Attitudes – Sales Motivation #12
MOVE YOUR A$$ MONDAY! #12
Warren will tell you why a job, any job, is a beginning and an opportunity, not an ending.
Sign up for Warren’s 90 minute webinar, “Face to Face Selling: Make Great Presentations and Close More Sales,” taking place Thursday, June 16th, at 12 noon EST.
For information about all Speaking of Success online sales seminars go here:
http://greshes.com/live-webinars/
Everybody Sells – Sales Motivation #11
MOVE YOUR A$$ MONDAY! #11
Warren knows that every member of an organization sells; some just don’t know it. After watching this video they will!
Sign up for Warren’s 90 minute webinar, “Time Management for Salespeople,” taking place Thursday, May 19th, at 12 noon EST.
For information about all Speaking of Success online sales seminars go here:
http://greshes.com/live-webinars/
Money is Not a Motivator – Sales Motivation #10
MOVE YOUR A$$ MONDAY! #10
Let Warren show you why it’s not always about the money.
Sign up for Warren’s 90 minute webinar, “Time Management for Salespeople,” taking place Thursday, May 19th, at 12 noon EST.
For information about all Speaking of Success online sales seminars go here:
http://greshes.com/live-webinars/
Do Salespeople Suffer from the Sophomore Jinx?
Anyone who knows me knows I have one really bad vice: Baseball. I’ll watch any baseball game. But more specifically, I’m an out of control fan (sufferer) of the San Francisco Giants and have been since 1957 when they were the New York Giants.
Baseball has something called “The Sophomore Jinx.” Throughout its long history, baseball has seen hundreds, if not thousands, of rookies have great success in their first season only to die a horrible death in their second season in the major leagues: hence, “The Sophomore Jinx.” Some of these players recover and go on to have great careers (Giants Hall of Famer Willie McCovey immediately comes to mind), while many others just fade into oblivion.
This is happening right now with one of the Giants best young hitters, Pablo Sandoval. Last season, his 1st in the majors, he was one of the best hitters in the National League. This year, his performance has dropped off a cliff. Not only has his hitting died, but his fielding is worse and his conditioning, while never the best, is downright atrocious. With the Giants in the middle of the playoffs (this could be our year!), he’s been benched.
I bring this up, because while watching the Giants whip the Braves in the 1st playoff round, I was having a discussion with my Father-in-Law, Charlie Romano, on whether or not salespeople suffer from “The Sophomore Jinx.” To me, the answer is a resounding “YES!”
As with ballplayers, I’ve seen hundreds, if not thousands of salespeople have excellent 1st years only to see their production plummet in year two. The problem is: many salespeople (and ballplayers) relax after that first taste of success, because they don’t understand that all the time, energy, effort and commitment it takes to get to the top, are the same things you have to do every day just to stay on top.
Many 1st year “sales wonders” actually believe that after one very good year they’ve “Paid their dues,” and now it gets real easy; the customers will just come to them. Imagine their surprise when it doesn’t quite work out that way and year two turns into one HUGE bust? At this point, they could go in one of two directions.
One, they could take the attitude that the majority of “Sophomore Busts” take and say, “You can’t make a living in this business,” totally ignoring all the successful people that are making a great living in the same business, and quit. This attitude absolves them of all responsibility for their actions (or in the case of year two; non-action). It’s the industry’s fault, not theirs.
Or, they could do what successful salespeople do and go back to the things they were doing every single day that worked for them as rookies; things like consistent, every day prospecting and lightning-quick follow-up. In addition, just like great ballplayers, they’ll make adjustments. Great salespeople look at how their market or customers may be changing and make adjustments accordingly.
They’ll look at what their competition is doing and do something different to make them stand out. They’ll be visible and talk to prospects and customers every day while competitors hide from the “soft economy.” Instead of worrying about the size of the sale, they’ll concentrate on how good the sale is for the customer and how it will drive repeat business and expand market share.
Instead of using the economy as an excuse, they’ll use it as a weapon, by becoming consultants to their clients and giving them ideas and solutions on how to increase THEIR business, which, in turn, means more business for them.
So, if you’re currently suffering from “The Sophomore Jinx,” or have someone on your staff who is, have faith. This is not an incurable disease. However, it can only be cured by action.
People do Things for Their Reasons, Not Yours
I have a good friend and fraternity brother, Dr. Alan Zaremba, who is a Professor of Communications at Northeastern University in Boston. Many years ago, to stay in shape, he started running. It almost became an obsession with him. He ran so much and so often that he started running marathons. When I asked, “Why are you running so much and why marathons,” he said, “So that I can eat like a pig.” The moral of the story: Everybody is motivated by something different, and, people do things for their reasons, not yours.
As a manager, executive or business owner, assuming all the people that report to you are the same and are all motivated by the same things, is not only stupid, it’s lazy and counterproductive.
Would you assume that all your clients are the same? Better yet, if you have kids, especially if you have more than one, I’ll bet there’s no way you can tell me your kids are exactly the same.
I know my kids, Michael, 23 and Emily, 19 are as different as night and day. Michael is part leader, part non-conformist. He’ll do something just because nobody else is doing it. I’m convinced that if underage drinking and illegal drugs were something high school kids NEVER did, Michael would’ve been stumbling home drunk and high every day. Luckily the opposite was true.
Emily, on the other hand, is a follower, and while she’s gotten much better since starting college, she’s still WAY more comfortable as part of a group. She’s extremely social (alright she likes to party), has had boy friends (notice the plural) since 9th grade, is a member of a sorority, and is far more likely to let someone else lead.
Michael, while a friendly and well-liked person, who maintains a small circle of friends, is a bit anti-social. He has no problem doing things on his own. When he was in college, no way he was joining a frat. He lives by himself in an apartment in New York. He likes to go to concerts, restaurants and movies by himself.
Michael is so cheap he can make a dollar bill yell “Uncle.” He not only supports himself in NYC on an entry level salary, but he’s saving money. Emily has a black belt in shopping.
Michael likes baseball, music and eating (a lot). Emily likes shopping, Broadway musicals, hanging with friends and her boyfriend and going to parties.
Does this make one kid better than the other? No way. They’re both great kids. It just means they’re different and they’re motivated by different things.
When Michael graduated high school, his gift was a trip to San Francisco to see the Giants play (3 games; we won 2), and stuff his face in some great restaurants.
When Emily graduated high school, we took her to London, where she had a great time spending a week visiting with her brother (who was there on a study abroad program), hitting every store on Oxford Street and seeing “Jersey Boys.”
If all your incentives and rewards are the same for everyone, how do you get them all excited about it? Guaranteed there’s a huge percentage of your staff who couldn’t care less about contests you might think are fantastic.
If you’re not willing to invest some time knowing what makes each one of your people tick, the same way you spend time trying to understand the specific needs of each client, why should your people care one bit about the needs of the company or the clients?