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Sales: Are You Making These 5 Boneheaded Mistakes?

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Written by Dr. Noah St. John
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Attack Yourself

Nothing feels better than winning. But while you are cashing that big commission check, relaxing on the beach at your sales award trip, or walking on stage at your national sales meeting to pick up your trophy ask yourself this question: What next? You see, winning was hard. It required perseverance, training, hard work and focus. But all too often, after achieving our big goals we take our foot off of the success accelerator and just coast for awhile. Relaxing in the glow of our victory we quickly forget that the game is still on, our competitors are not resting but instead are plotting our demise. I was reminded of this yesterday when I read a marketing slogan for a company that had just received a top award in its industry. The slogan simply read:


 

You just closed the biggest deal of your career, you blew away your quota, you made the president’s club, you were named sales rep of the year. You just crossed the finish line first . You raised your hands, pumped your fists, and celebrated. You are a winner!

Nothing feels better than winning. But while you are cashing that big commission check, relaxing on the beach at your sales award trip, or walking on stage at your national sales meeting to pick up your trophy ask yourself this question: What next? You see, winning was hard. It required perseverance, training, hard work and focus. But all too often, after achieving our big goals we take our foot off of the success accelerator and just coast for awhile. Relaxing in the glow of our victory we quickly forget that the game is still on, our competitors are not resting but instead are plotting our demise. I was reminded of this yesterday when I read a marketing slogan for a company that had just received a top award in its industry. The slogan simply read:

 “When you’re in second place attack the leader. When you’re in first place Attack Yourself.”

What a perfect message for winners. In the 21st century there is no time for complacency. We can not afford the luxury of comparing ourselves to those behind us. There is no time to rest easy. And though we must take time to celebrate and enjoy the fruits of victory, we must also stop and create new goals for ourselves. We must learn to take each win in stride and raise our own bar so that we keep reaching higher.

It is easy to look back poor performance or a failure with our 20/20 spectacles on and find all of the areas where improvement can be made. But it takes loads of self discipline and the heart of a winner to break down a brilliant performance and then take action to make small adjustments and improvements that keep us ahead of the pack. The great NFL quarter back Steve Young said once that “the principle is competing against yourself. It’s about self-improvement, about being better than the day before.”

In fact this is what all elite athletes and elites sales professionals do. Real winners constantly attack themselves. They pick apart each performance and seek ways to improve. It is the unwavering focus on constant improvement that separates the good from the great.



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While everyone wants to increase sales, we often forget the bone-headed MISTAKES people make when trying to make more sales.

 

I’ve been teaching people the secret "success code” to increasing sales for years. Many sales professionals have come to me after spending 10, 20, even 50 thousand dollars on every other sales training system out there with little to show for it – then watch their sales double in 90 days after following my System.

 

The biggest surprise in our research was that most people who’ve tried to increase sales have actually succeeded at one point. So the real problem isn’t increasing sales; the real problem is keeping them up.

 

My Students who’ve increased sales and kept them up have avoided these 5 bone-headed sales mistakes:

 

1. Not knowing your Why-To’s and Why-Not-To’s.

 

Everyone knows the Why-To’s of increasing sales: more money, more confidence, more time off. But have you ever thought about your Why-Not-To’s – the hidden reasons you might sabotage your own sales goals?

 

Your Why-Not-To’s of success might include: loss of feeling of safety; spending more time away from family; imagined jealousy from friends. If you don’t identify your subconscious Why-Not-To’s of making more sales, you’ll invariably fall back down again.

 

2. Trying to do it all yourself.

 

Not getting support for increasing sales is like trying to dig a gold mine using a teaspoon. There’s tons of support out there, from free groups on the Internet to in-person meetings. Find support and gain accountability for reaching your sales goals and stop trying to do it all by yourself.

 

3. Focusing too much on the end result.

 

While everyone wants more sales, we forget that a “sale” is, in the end, an outcome you can’t control. While you can certainly influence the sale (either positively or negatively), you can’t “make” someone buy from you.

 

Our work with tens of thousands of sales professionals has shown that the salespeople who focus on the process of building relationships produce much greater success than going after the quick buck. Put people first, money second.

 

4. Asking the wrong questions.

 

For example, most people have tried using an affirmation like, "I am rich." And your brain says, "Yeah, right!"

 

Instead of a statement you don’t believe, I invented AFFORMATIONS, or empowering questions like: "Why am I so rich?" No, that’s not a misprint. Use Afformations, not affirmations.

 

Using Afformations causes your mind to search for why you can, in fact, make more money and increase sales. One of my Students who’d spent over $30,000 on every sales training program out there had few results. In the first 30 days of using Afformations, his sales tripled. By year’s end, his revenues had increased by 560% and he was named Agent of the Year.

 

5. Stopping doing what works.

 

 

Here’s the truth: you know very well that in order to increase sales, all you need to do is talk with more people and show them the benefits of buying from you. And you’ve probably succeeded at one point.

 

But then you may have stopped doing what works. This happened because you didn’t identify your hidden Why-To’s and Why-Not-To’s. Do the opposite of these 5 bone-headed mistakes and you’ll not only make more sales, you’ll keep them up.

 

Each of these mistakes can be easily avoided when you understand what got you to increase sales in the first place. The biggest mistakes in sales aren’t on the phone, but in your mind.

 

 

Dr. Noah St. John
About the author:

Noah St. John, is the author of The Secret Code of Successand Founder and CEO of The Success Clinic of America LLC, a productivity/relationship consulting company. Noah's first book Permission To Succeed® is now in its 11th North American printing and has been published in French, German, Portuguese and Mandarin Chinese. Noah has been a featured guest expert on CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, Los Angeles Business Journal, Chicago Sun-Times, Bottom Line/Personal, Money Makers Monthly, PARADE, Woman's Day, Selling Power, Washington Post, and NPR's "All Things Considered".

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