I’ve seen it over and over. The best sales people know EXACTLY what matters and the spend their time working on those things. They ignore the rest

The best sales leaders help sales people focus on what matters. They take the rest off their plate.

Selling is complex. A lot of things compete for our time. Knowing what matters is the difference between the good and the great.

Know what things matter and work really hard on them, ignore the rest.

That’s all!

“Why?” and “Who?” have books named after them. They are getting some pretty good airtime.

“Where?” certainly gets it’s time in the spot light. Everyone loves “where?”. Where do you want to meet? Where is the party? Where are we going to do this? “Where?” is loved.

“How?” on the other hand is treated like the red-headed step child. I don’t think we like “how?” very much. “How?” isn’t asked as often. “How?” doesn’t get much board room play. “How?” seems to always be left for later.

“How?” should get more play. “How?” holds us accountable. “How?” is an ACTION word.  Without “how?” nothing gets done.

• How are you going to do that?
• How are going to find the new employee?
• How are you going to implement the new sales process?
• How are you going to save for your dream trip?
• How are you going to find your next customer?
• How are you going to build the pipeline?
• How are you going to build a good marriage?
• How are you going to raise your kids?
• How are you going to get that house on the beach you’ve always wanted?
• How are you going to grow revenue by 20%?
• How are you going to make quota this month?
• How are you going to lose weight?
• How . . .

“How?” is that nagging little word that get’s everything going.  Maybe, that’s why we don’t use it as much as the others. Because, once we do, we actually have to do something. Hmmm!

To be good at sales, we have to be emotional. We have to feel our customers pain. We have to feel their anxiety. We have to feel their fear. We have to feel their confusion. We have to feel their anger. We have to feel their frustration. We have to feel their excitement. We have to feel their confidence. We have to feel their relief. We have to feel their comfort. We have to feel their joy. In sales we have to feel what our customers feel.

I’m talking about more than empathy.

I’m talking about full blown, in the gut, emotional connection. You have to jump in celebration when they jump in celebration. You have to lie awake in bed fearful of losing a big customer, as they are lying in bed awake afraid too. You have to cry when they cry. You have to get fucking pissed, when they are fucking pissed. I’m talking about you, being completely, utterly, emotionally connected to your customer and their world.

When we truly feel what our customers feel, then and only then can we be the best sales person we can be.

Be emotional damn it!

I chose to start writing this blog 3 years ago. It started A Sales Guy Consulting. I chose to move to Vail from Boston for one season in 1989, and then chose to stay in Colorado. I chose not to got back to Boston. I met my wife in Colorado. I chose to marry Ellen and not any of the other woman. I chose to have 3 kids. ( I didn’t choose to have 3 girls. I wouldn’t choose to change that.) I chose to go back to school after being out for 15 years. I chose not to snowboard. I chose to become a ski instructor. I chose to get my level 1 and level 2 PSIA certifications. I chose to buy a used car instead of a new one. I chose the amount of money in my savings account and I chose to spend what isn’t. I choose to read a book a month. I choose to read only non-fiction. I chose not to go to Chicago this weekend for what I know was a great event with a number of great sales bloggers. (That may have been a bad choice. ) I chose to get up today at 6:00 a.m.  I chose to do this post today, rather than an another one I had in mind. All of these choices have been mine and have framed my life and will continue to frame it. I can’t change that. It’s done. The decisions I make today and tomorrow, just like the decisions above, will shape my life even more.

Everyday we make choices, it’s how life is designed. We can not move through life without choosing. Life is peculiar in that way. From the moment we wake up we construct our day, choice by choice, like masons laying bricks. Each choice setting the foundation for what happens next. Many of our choices seem insignificant and require little thought, but still shape our life.

Our choices bring us closer to some people, and move us further away form others. They get us closer to the things we want and take us further away from those very things. Our choices can be both conscience as well as beneath our awareness. Yet, they are still our choices.  The key is to be as aware as possible of our choices. It’s to know why we are making the choices we do and what we expect to get from them. It’s to be honest with ourselves in assessing the choices we’ve made to date and those we will make tomorrow.

When we are aware of our choices we make more deliberate choices. Deliberate choices fit well into the structure of our life. They get us closer to where we want to go. Making choices without awareness is like rolling the dice, some end up being good for us, others, not so much.

When we are honest with our choices, we can measure them for success. Honesty holds us accountable for our choices. Yes, it was a good choice. No, it wasn’t a good choice. Yes, it was a conscience choice. No, it wasn’t a conscience choice. Yes, I should make that choice again. No, I don’t want to choose that path again.

Life has been given to us to design one choice at a time. We will make billions of choices in our life. Choosing is unavoidable. Being aware of our choices moves us in the right direction. Being honest with our choices, keeps us from moving straying off course.

What time did you get up today? Did you spend time with the kids and your spouse. Did you clean the house? Did you play words with friends. Did you work on Sunday? Did you buy those new shoes? Did you save an extra hundred dollars this month? Did you start blogging? Did you read a new sales book? Did you make an extra 50 calls? Did you go to the gym? What choices do you make? What choices are you going to make today?  Are you going to be aware of them? Are you going to be honest about them?

Our choices are very different when awareness and honesty are added. How do you choose?

Determined, he stubbornly keeps climbing. After about a minute or longer he arrives at the top. He now has to negotiate his dismount. He has to get off the last step and on to solid ground.

Attempt one; he almost falls. He is flailing like a drunk and almost drops his carry on bag slung over his shoulder.

Attempt two; he thrusts himself forward, lurching toward flat, solid ground. He misses and grabs the railings. He barely averts falling all the way down.

Attempt three, he grabs the railings of the escalator. His pace this time is even faster. As he reaches the last step he lunges forward . . . Success!

Then, gracefully and unaffected, he walks to the second tier of escalators and goes up the appropriate one. Yes, the up one.

Rather than admit he made a mistake and head down the down escalator and go back up the correct escalator, this man wasted 2 minutes of his time, almost hurt himself and looked like an idiot in the process. All in an attempt to a avoid admitting a mistake and that we was wrong.

How often do you run up the down escalator. We’ve all do it, but most of the time it’s just easier to admit you made a mistake, ride back down and go up the right one.  Really, it is!

Stop riding up the down escalator, you’re not fooling anyone.

There is a secret and it rests in this story.

A young woman wants to get more out of life. She decides to seek out help in a well known success guru. She works hard to get a meeting with him and she is proud of herself when he agrees to meet her.  She arrives at the meeting and shares with the guru she wants to be as successful as he is and wants to know how to do it. She says she wants to get the most out of life.

The guru looks at her and pauses, as if determining whether or not she is worthy of his guidance. After a moment, he asks her to meet him at the beach at 4:00 am the next morning.

She arrives the beach the next day at the 3:55 a.m. She’s ready. She has on her best suit. She’s prepared and excited.

She looks out into the surf to see the guru is already in the water. She waves to him and he motions her to the water’s edge.  Walking on her tippie toes, as to not get her heels stuck in the sand, she walks to the edge of the surf, just to where the waves roll up.

The guru motions her to come into the water.  The young woman states the obvious to the guru; “I’m in my best suit.”

The guru responds with; “Do you want to learn the secret to success?”

Reluctantly, the young woman wades out into the water.  Her Jimmy Choos, now in her hand, are held high above her head to avoid getting them wet. As she wades out, the guru backs up into deeper water, motioning her to come to him. She wades further and further until she is at her waste. She stops and says; “OK, what is the secret?”

The guru smiles and motions her to come further.

The young woman is unwilling. She demands to know what the secret is and she won’t go any further.

The guru smiles again and says; “You’ve come this far, it’s only a few more steps. You’ve already ruined your suit, you might as well get something for it.”

Unable to argue with the logic, the young woman wades further out into the ocean. She reaches the guru and finds herself up to her chin.  She then, frustrated, cold and irritated demands the guru now tell he the secret.

Just as the last word comes out of her mouth, the guru grabs her head and pushes it under water. He holds it there. The young woman can’t lift if up. She begins to thrash and kick. She drops her Jimmy Choos and uses all her might to lift her head out of the water. As she is struggling, the guru continues to keep her head underwater, not allowing her air.

Just as the young woman is about to lose consciousness, he let’s her up.

Her head comes flying out of the water and she grasps for air. Before she can say a word and before she can even get her breath back, the guru asks her one question; “What did you want most while you were underwater?

The young woman, panicked and scared, unable to answer the question, starts cussing at the guru.

The guru stared at the young woman with no reaction. Emotionless and calm, he asked the question again.  ”What did you want most while you were underwater?”

The young woman started to settle down. Looking into the guru’s eyes and seeing his calm and unaffected demeanor she exhales and says; “To breathe!”

The guru then smiles at her and says; “You now have the secret to success. When you want, whatever it is out of life you want, as much as you want to breathe when you are drowning, you will have it.”

The guru turned and swam away.

The young woman turned looked at the beach in front of her and started back to shore, leaving her Jimmy Choos at the bottom of the ocean.

This is my own version of the story.  You may have heard it before.  I hadn’t until this morning. I heard it as I watched this video.

I’ve talked about the role hard work plays in our success. I am guilty, more than I’d like to admit of NOT wanting it more than I want to breathe. When that happens, I get exactly what I deserve, less than I wanted.

Watch the video. It’s worth it. As you watch it, whenever the pastor says “successful” add, at marriage, at sales, at leadership, at parenting, at golf, at skiing, at blogging at . . . what ever it is you want to be successful at.  Then, at the end, ask yourself of  things you say want or you have wanted do you want them as much as you want to breathe?

You will learn a LOT!

Desire is at the core of all motivation. You have to want it bad enough to get it.

When we rush to get something done because we don’t have enough time, we risk making things worse. Convincing ourselves that getting it done quickly is more important than doing it right is a shell game we play with ourselves. We play the game to give us more time. It allows us to do things at the last minute.  We convince ourselves that we can get it done, but we almost never do.

If you don’t have time to do it right, you don’t have time to do it over.

Save yourself and everyone else a lot of hassle , slow down and do it right or just don’t do it at all.

The path to the end is predictable. It requires smaller wins. Smaller wins are the successes that get us to the big win. It’s the critical accomplishments along the way. It’s getting to the impossibly elusive CEO. It’s saving a deal from the clutches of a loss. It’s making the 100 cold calls a day for a week and STILL getting the proposal done. It’s getting the speaking gig. It’s nailing the VC presentation. It’s building the pipeline to 5x instead of 4x. It’s implementing the new cadence. It’s hiring the killer new sales person. It’s letting your seasoned veteran go because you knew it was time.

Getting to the end goal requires a lot of little wins. Little wins are like wind to our sails. They propel us towards our goal. They give us momentum. We can’t get the big wins without the little wins.

Get a 3 little wins a day.  It’ll get you the big win.

I’m not sure why, but I’ve always felt sales people and sales leaders can be some of the slowest adopters and critics of change. When things work, we stick with them. Sales people don’t change very quickly. It’s always been odd to me that people in such a dynamic occupation are so resistant to change. You’d think working in dynamic environment would attract dynamic people.

Sales isn’t changing. The science behind decision making is no different than before.  The “immutable laws” of selling are strongly entrenched. They will never change.

1. There has to be a need for change.
2. There benefit of change as to be substantial enough to warrant the change.
3. The prospect has to have confidence the outcome is achievable.
4. The outcome must be persuasive enough so the prospect can get others on board.
5. The prospect must be able to clearly see the process of the change and how it’s going to happen.

Although the basic laws of selling aren’t changing, how we address these laws is changing big time. The “how” of sales is absolutely evolving.  What we used to focus on, the approaches we take and the tools we use are undergoing tremendous change.  Some of us are embracing them, but just as many of us aren’t and it feels like the chasm is growing.

What do you think? Do you see the same thing? Are you seeing two camps of sales people?  Is the chasm growing?  If the chasm is growing, why? Why are so many of us NOT getting on board with the changes?

What the caption always lacks is what it inspired in them and what action it inspired them to take. The sender almost never took any action. Without action, inspiration can’t exit.

Inspiration requires action. There is no inspiration without action. Inspiration is the act of motivating us to do something. If we call something inspirational and don’t act, it’s not inspirational. It could be heart warming. It could be emotional. It could be uplifting. But it’s not inspirational.

When we are inspired, we act.

If we don’t act, we we’re not inspired.

The next time you see a video or read a story that is emotional, uplifting, or heart warming, rather than posting it to Facebook or emailing it to friends saying it’s inspirational, make it inspirational and take action. Then email it, put it on Facebook or Twitter  and tell everyone what action you took. It’s much more powerful that way!

Inspiration is action, not talk!