Success in sales depends on three important and related elements: Attitude, Behavior and Technique. At Sandler Training, we call this The Success Triangle. At the top of the triangle is Attitude: Your perceptions about yourself, your company, and your marketplace. Without a strong positive belief system, you will find it difficult to muster the motivation to follow through on behavior and technique. For more on attitude, you can read our recent post here.
Second to attitude in importance to your success is Behavior: Your goals, plans and activities. You can have a great attitude, but unless you do something with it, you won’t win. Did you know, only 3% of people have written goals? Everyone else is floating through life thinking, “Oh no, it’s Monday again,” or “Thank God it’s Friday.” That’s pathetic.
One of the biggest problems we see when working with sales teams is poor time management. Without clearly defined goals, life just happens. Salespeople spend more time responding to e-mails, incoming calls and administrative tasks, than on the activities most likely to lead to results. Goals become the driver for behaviors and activities that take top priority.
Motivation is another important issue for many sales managers we work with. “My people are in a comfort zone. How do I motivate them to achieve more?” is a common question. The short answer is, “You can’t motivate others, because motivation is internal and personal.” However, compelling personal and professional goals will act as a rubber-band that pulls your people toward higher achievement.
Yet, when I ask sales managers about their goals and the goals of their team members, they talk to me about sales quotas. A sales quota handed down from on high, is not the same as a goal. A goal is an ideal vision of you in the future that is better than you are today. If you want your salespeople to be energized to accomplish higher levels of performance, help them craft compelling goals in the following areas: Education, Spirit, Social, Health, Financial, Work, and Family. By doing this, you will gain insight into what is most important to your people, and you will have a tool for initiating great coaching conversations.
Don't be afriad to challenge your team to be more and to do more. Help them see their mental roadblocks and then coach and mentor them. Help them achieve new breakthroughs. In the movie, Facing the Giants, the coach took away the mental roadblock of "sight" challenging his player to carry a 160lb teammate to the 50 yard line. See what the coach was able to do by inspiring belief and encouragement.
According to Doug Hoselton, Sandler Trainer in Seattle, "Anything you can conceive and believe, you can achieve." Once your goals are in place, you can plan the daily activities necessary to achieve them. The goals become your destination, your plans the roadmap, and your daily activities is the car that gets you there. So where do you want to end up?
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