1) Matthew
6:5-8,25-34.(re:
Kingdom
of God, re:
sufficient unto
the day is the evil thereof);
1Thessalonians
4:11,12. The Creator promises
to
take good care of you
and
yours.
-The Harvard Discovery
on Success:.(from
a
Brian Tracy letter)
In 1970, sociologist Dr.
Edward Banfield of Harvard University wrote a book entitled.The
Unheavenly City. He described one of the most profound studies on success
and priority setting ever conducted.
Banfield's goal was to find
out how and why some people became financially independent during the course
of their working lifetimes. He started off convinced that the answer to
this question would be found in factors such as family background, education,
intelligence, influential contacts, or some other concrete factor. What
he finally discovered was that the major reason for success in life was
a particular attitude of mind.
Develop Long Time Perspective
Banfield called this attitude
'long time perspective'. He said that men and women who were the most successful
in life and the most likely to move up economically were those who took
the future into consideration with every decision they made in the present.
He found that the longer the period of time a person took into consideration
while planning and acting, the more likely it was that he would achieve
greatly during his career.
It is important to develop
the habit of delaying gratification in small things, small expenditures,
small pleasures, so that you can enjoy greater rewards and greater satisfaction
in the future.
-The Key to Confidence:.(from
a
Brian Tracy letter)
"Most fear however, is rooted
in ignorance. The more knowledge or skill you have in any area, the less
fear it holds. Consider Napoleon's example.
"Napolean Bonaparte is considered
by historians to be perhaps the greatest single military leader who ever
lived. More than 100,000 books have been written about him since his death
on St. Helena.
"Napolean paid attention
to details. Napoleon's courage was legendary but it was not vain
or impetuous.
Napoleon was famous for his fastidious
attention to detail, for taking pains to study and thoroughly understand
every military situation he ever faced. He led the French army in hundreds
of minor and major engagements and lost only three, the last one being
Waterloo.
"The more you know about
what you face, the lower your level of ignorance, the more courage and
confidence you will have naturally.
"The more time you take to
think through a situation, the more capable you will be of dealing with
it when it arises. Napoleon planned for every contingency.
"Get the facts. Double check
everything. Be prepared for unexpected setbacks and reversals. The more
prepared you are, the more confidence you will have."
-Selling: How Much Sales
Experience Do Salespeople Really Need to Succeed?
Chris Lytle, CSP, Author
of The Accidental Salesperson..Her
name is Becky. She is 24 years old. Becky lives 'out West' and works for
one of those big payroll processing companies that are always after you
to outsource your company's payroll. Becky has won a dozen plaques, trophies,
paperweights and pens at the evening's awards banquet. Her two most impressive
awards are Rookie of the Year in her zone and Salesperson of the Year in
her zone. She has sold the most new customers.(212).and
has produced the most revenue too. As Becky walks to the podium to receive
her final award, the 80+ people she has outsold give her a standing ovation.
Some surveys say it takes
18 months of ramp up time before a salesperson is productive. Becky is
not only productive, but a top producer in her first full year. I want
to know how she manages to outsell her more experienced peers, so I ask
her and then boil down her answers into three key principles managers can
use to instruct and inspire their inexperienced, and experienced sellers.
#1 Trust your training
and your company's sales process: This is Becky's first sales job.."First,
I had to sell my manager on putting me into sales".she
explains. The company typically hires people with 2 to 3 years of sales
experience. She convinces her manager he will be hiring someone with no
bad habits or preconceived notions about selling. She goes through the
company training process and follows it. She doesn't try to reinvent the
wheel. She learns the standard, proven presentation and makes it time after
time.."The company
wants us to have at least two lunches with CPAs each week, to create a
referral network".she
says.."I have
at least four CPA lunches a week. I've had lunch with every CPA in my territory."
One secret that most salespeople
don't realize is that experience is accrued by the meeting, not by the
year. The more meetings Becky has, the more experience she amasses. By
taking massive action and simply holding herself to a higher standard than
her more experienced peers, she is able to nearly double the results of
many of them. And there's a way to go even further:.John
10:10.
By not changing the presentation
and by giving it to more people, she gets very good at it. The better she
gets, the more referrals customers give her and the more sales she makes.
#2 Set a goal and see
yourself achieving it every day:."Once
I decided to go for Rookie of the Year".she
tells the audience at the awards banquet."I
got up every morning and thought about it.".She
describes how she solicited the help and support of her manager and the
people who process the payroll. She had a strong support team in place
as she pursued her goals. She didn't second guess her goal or readjust
it when she had a little adversity. Becky's manager became a mentor. Mentors
set high expectations of performance, encourage winning
behavior, help build self confidence and inspire the people they mentor.
Becky's manager bought into her goal to be Rookie of the Year and helped
her get there. Having someone else believing she could do it helped Becky
keep the vision alive.
#3 Enjoy what you do:
I ask Becky when things really started to happen for her. She doesn't hesitate.."It
is the day I said and meant 'I truly enjoy what I do.' Those days are your
most successful days. When I'm completely prepared for it and my day is
perfectly planned, it is easy to have success. And those are the days when
people refer me to others."
Aristotle
said there are three principles of persuasion: 1) ethos, logos and pathos.
In English, we would call these three principles of persuasion credibility.(trust),
logical argument.(evidence).and
passion.(emotion).
Too often salespeople omit the emotion, or they take the meeting and themselves
so seriously that they bore the prospect. It is very difficult to bore
people into buying from you.
As Becky wipes back a tear
after the standing ovation and starts her acceptance speech, it is obvious
that she has invested a lot of herself and a lot of emotion into her successful
first year. It is easy to imagine her giving off the 'three vibes' that
lead to sales success:
1. I'm glad to be
here.
2. I know what I'm talking
about.
3. I love what I'm doing.
She knows her company's presentation,
but she also knows she has more information about payroll and IRS penalties
than her prospects. She knows she can save them time and money. She knows
she benefits them by meeting with them and educating them. That 'knowing'
gives her confidence that is contagious. Customers catch it. She doesn't
simply make the presentation. She transfers her confidence and her enjoyment
of the job to the people she meets with. And last year, 212 of them transfered
their payroll processing to Becky's company.
What to do to get right with
yourself so you get along well with others and have favor in their eyes;
a lesson from history about
a very wise woman.
And what about fulfilling
desires; a lesson from Deepak.
And getting
along well with others.
And how
to bless others and
why
you should.
And two secrets to success
in anything: 1, 2.
-Remember
DREM: dynamic, resourceful, energetic, motivated.
David Sarnoff of RCA, who
virtually single handedly made the addition of color to TV broadcasting
happen, applied these principles.
Successful people believe
that whatever they passionately believe becomes reality. So obviously it's
important to think good thoughts. What
are 'good' thoughts based in?
We all don't want more of
the negative stuff in life. We all have a tendency to block out information
coming to us that is inconsistent with our reality, our
conditioning. It has been discovered that successful people absolutely
believe they can succeed. They do not even consider the possibility of
failure. In addition they use their 'gut feeling'
all the time.