How confident and motivated are you on a daily basis?
I want you to seriously consider that question. Give yourself a score from 1 – 10 and be as honest as you can with yourself because this is important. If you’re below 7, you’re a part of the sales majority and definitely NOT alone.
“Sales” is tough. It involves rejection, failure, problems, uncertainty and we’re measured like very few other professionals are. The score board is brutally clear on a moment by moment basis and it constantly gets reset no matter how good last month or quarter was. This is our reality and the environment we work on and that’s why a deliberate approach to building confidence and motivation is SO important.
This is a big area but let me share a few of the big questions that will get you started.
“Why am I committed to growing my sales?”
First question to ask yourself is linked to the first conversation. As I mentioned very early in this series, you MUST link your personal goals to your sales goals, if you want the motivation it takes to break free of the bill paying and boss’s budget cycle.
“Why do I enjoy and feel passionate about helping the customer’s I help with the solutions I sell?”
Second question is really important. Try telling an Apple employee they should buy a Samsung phone and you’re going to have a very serious debate.
Not every product or service we sell is going to make a huge difference in people’s lives but the more you get in touch with, and passionate about why you and your solution matter, the easier it will be to maintain consistently high levels of motivation.
A question that’s aligned to this is “What do I enjoy and like about working with my customers and prospects that match my ideal target customer?” The number one predictor of whether you will be supported and successful in your customer relationships is how much you like them and dealing with them.
Another interesting and valuable exercise is to reflect on what really motivates you as an individual. Generally, it’s a combination of factors and needs but understanding what really gets you going is important. As a human you’re motivated by 6 things:
- Achieving a base level of certainty
- Freedom and choice
- Feeling important
- Feeling more connected
- Achieving progress and a sense of advancement
- Contributing to the lives of others
If your sales role is just about paying the bills, then your motivation is attached to achieving a base level of certainty. Don’t be surprised if you’re in the bill paying, boss’s budget cycle if that’s your only motivation.
We also need to consider confidence. Higher quantities and quality of sales action is correlated to higher levels of confidence in being able to execute on the plan you’ve developed, and the activities required to grow sales.
As an example, if you’ve identified asking for referrals as a key part of your strategy but you don’t feel confident in asking for referrals then we have a problem.
Once again, a huge subject but let me offer two key questions here.
The first is “Who is making me feel more confident on a regular basis?”
As a starting point, most people should probably start with “Who in my life is destroying my confidence?” and make plans to spend a lot less time exposed to those people.
But we also need to consider which people we need to be spending more time with. Our confidence should be positively impacted by the peers we spend most of our time with and I challenge you to reflect on this and make changes if you’re not surrounding yourself with peers that build your confidence.
Rumi challenged us to spend more time with people that fan our flames. Great advice and please make sure you’re NOT spending time with people that are tipping buckets of water on the fire!
