Today will be better than yesterday

The first thought of many successful CEOs at the beginning of every day is:"I will work today to be better than yesterday."  This underpins everything and needs to be our daily mantra.  Emile Coue', a French philosopher who lived a Century ago, was a proponent of "auto-suggestion"--using your own mind to convince yourself how good and important you are.  He started every day with the thought: "every day in every way I'm getting better and better."

In a couple of earlier posts, I discussed the importance of posture--good posture gives you confidence--posing like a super hero makes you feel like a super hero.  Well, constantly talking in positive terms to yourself--"auto-suggestion"--and telling yourself that you are good and you are smart and you can do good is just as important as good posture.  All of these components go to making up a good salesperson and a good sales call. Any successful professional sports figure has to have two essential components: positive mental attitude and excellent physical capabilities.  Mental attitude is critical to success in sales.  Start your day:

Every Day in Every Way I'm Getting Better and Better; and I Will Work Today to be Better Than Yesterday.

Starting the Day--Every Day

"Inc." Magazine has an excellent summary of 10 things successful CEO's say to themselves every morning.  I think this applies to salespeople as well--maybe even doubly so:

1.   I will work to be better today than yesterday.

2.   I will make what is important a priority.

3.   I will cultivate deeper connections.

4.  I will stay positive no matter what.

5.   I will keep pushing boundaries.

6.   I will refuse to take failure personally.

7.   I will help as many people as I can today.

8.   I will appreciate people.

9.   Everything I do will be grounded in integrity.

10. I will live in gratitude.

I will be exploring each of these inspirational items in depth in future posts.

Scales....Yes, Scales

My hobby is music.  I play a couple of instruments (piano, bass, ukulele) and the thing I hate most about learning music is learning scales.  Scales are patterns of notes based on a "root" note.  The foundation of music is the "scale".  The foundation of any song is the scale.  Learning scales on an instrument involves learning finger patterns that are unique to the instrument and that produce the sound that makes the music beautiful.
I went to a concert recently ("Dead and Company"--the re-made "Grateful Dead" group) and was amazed by the perfomance of the 38 year old lead guitarist (I mention his age because the six member group's accumulative age was 485 years).  The camera closeups showed his fingers dancing over the guitar fretboard--seemingly randomly.  But NO!  He was playing scales as fast as a human being could in a pattern that created a wonderful musical sound.  The foundation of this music was scales.  And he would do these solos night after night in town after town--and they would sound fresh and exciting every time.  Just like a great actor in a play running on Broadway year after year.
What does this have to do with the fine art of selling?
We are musicians; we are actors.  We need to learn our scales or our lines (product knowledge) so intimately that we can perform them day after day.  We need to love what we do so much that the performing of these "scales" sounds fresh every time we solo.  Our fingers need to dance over the fretboard so well that the customer's only possible decision is to buy our product.
We, salespeople, often sell our profession short (pun intended).  Done properly, the sales job is just as wonderful as the rock musician's job, or the Broadway actor's job.
I was introduced to a church minister a few years ago and he asked what I do for a living.  I said that I was a salesman. He responded "I guess someone has to do it".  I wanted to say (but didn't out of respect for him) "Mr. Minister, you are a salesman.  Every Sunday you are selling."  And everyone, at some point in their lives, are salespeople: applying for a job, convincing your kids to do something, etc. etc.
Selling is a great profession.  Be proud of it.  Be good at it.  Be the best at it. Practice it like the musician practices his scales.

Spotlight on Passion

Mark Ruffalo plays a Boston Globe writer, Michael Rezendes, in the movie "Spotlight".  This was a very powerful movie, but what stood out for me was Ruffalo's characterization of a very passionate journalist.  The movie won an Oscar and the only reason Ruffalo didn't was because of Leonardo Dicaprio's incredible performance in "The Revanant".
Ruffalo protrays a journalist with true passion--the kind of passion that a good salesperson needs; the passion that comes from belief in your cause--in a salesperson's case, the cause is your product.
So how do you get passionate about your product?  Let me start with a negative: if you can't be passionate about it, you have no right to be selling it.  If it is just a way to generate income to support your true passion, you will not be successful.
If, after much research and study, you find out that your product is inferior to your competitors' products, then you probably can't be passionate about it.
I have sold industrial air compressors throughout my sales career; I have sold different brands of compressors.  My technique is to find the features and benefits of the product that I can be passionate about: the efficiency, the volume of air produced per horsepower--whatever.  I find it and I'm passionate about it.
Another product I've sold throughout my selling career are fiberglass tanks.  Through most of my career I sold one brand and then, because of circumstances, changed brands.  How do you change your passion for one into a passion for another?  By understanding the manufacturing and how it is better; by understanding the company and the company's service--going beyond that materials in the product to all the "bones" that make one company different from another.
If you can't find the passion, then you can't sell the product.  You can take orders, but you can't SELL the product.

Passion

I have written before of the importance of Product knowledge and Personality as critical ingredients for a good salesperson.  The third P is Passion.  Three legs of the stool: Product knowledge, Personality and Passion.  But not just the generalized notion of passion--but the ability to be passionate about what you're selling.  Product knowledge can be taught; even personality can be worked on; passion cannot be taught.
You know what you're passionate about.  I have a friend who gets very passionate about the subject of fusion; another who is passionate about rock bands.  But can you be passionate about refrigerators and air compressors?  Can you be passionate about Subaru's or a house you have to sell as a realtor?
Passion for selling as a career--not a job to create income for your true passion (whatever that is) is the first step on this path.  Passion for your product--truly believing that it is better than the other guy's, that it serves an important function for your customer,  that you truly believe in it, is critical to success as a salesperson.
Passion for your product arises out of product knowledge and knowledge of your competitors' product.  Passion for your product arises out of knowledge of your customer's business and how your product can improve your customer's business, or lifestyle in the case of a consumer product.
You can "feel" passion--when a salesperson believes in what he's selling.  That passion arises out of confidence in his product knowledge and confidence that he understands you as a customer.
Passion is the leg that the stool must have to support your weight.

Build up your nerve to sell by just doing it

The story below is from Dan at empowermentnation.com.  (Check out www.empowermentnation.com) The point of the story for this blog is that the best way to becoming a better salesman is to go out and sell.  Fear is the enemy of sales. Just Do It, as the Nike motto goes:
A few days ago, I was inside a cafe, having lunch, drinking coffee, and reading a book. Through the cafe window, I saw another guy at a table outside, also eating. (I'm one of those strange "people watchers" that always pays attention to the people around me.)

Shortly after he was finished, the guy (I later found out that his name is Brian) reached into his bag and pulled out a flute. The flute was one of those Native American-type of flutes with six holes, and it looked something like this:

A few minutes later, I could see that he had started to play it. Brian wasn't with anyone. It was just him, his empty plate, his bag, and his flute.

I decided it was time for an after-lunch coffee and moved outside with it to continue my reading. Now I could actually hear Brian. Honestly, he was not the best at playing, but was much better than I would be.

While I heard people comment about how he lacked skill, I thought what he was doing showed something else about him: he didn't care how good (or bad) he was; he didn't fear what others thought. He was enjoying practicing his flute.

Eventually, Brian had two, then three other people surrounding him, asking questions about the flute, while he gave little demonstrations of what he could play. (He must have played "Frère Jacques" ten times, which was driving some people nuts, but didn't bother me much.) He was more than happy to share what he knew to his little audience and didn't worry about what others thought.

Later, I walked up to Brain and talked to him. I asked him about his flute, and he was happy to explain what he probably already had explained multiple times to the others that were with him previously.

Then he told me something interesting:
He had only practiced for a few hours before playing in public.

After he told me that, I was really surprised by how little fear Brian had and that he didn't really care how good he was or not.

I said, "I have to give you credit: many people would fear playing in front of others like this." Brian then told me he practiced for a few hours and was "good enough" to play.

After those few hours of practice and with his little audience, it showed that he was "good enough" to capture the attention of others and to teach them what he knows.

Many times we think that we aren't "good enough" to help others or display our talents. Before we help others, we need to have more: more knowledge, more time to learn, more time to research... when we may already have the talent that can capture the attention of others, or help or teach them.