Soul of Selling Step 6: Keep going until you get the result.
What if you knew you would make your sales goal every time? Soul of Selling Step 6 is about making sure that you do.
The secret of powerful sellers, and the way to guarantee your results, is to keep going until you get them.
WHA-A-A-A-T?
It sounds harsh, I know. When I say those words in workshops, people slit up their eyes. They envision themselves slogging through an angry crowd of non-buyers, with “The Song of the Volga Boatmen” playing mournfully in the background.
It doesn’t have to be grim to keep going! In fact, there are many ways to make it fun, and even inspiring.
HOW TO MAKE GOLD OUT OF LEAD
Here are some ways to keep going in the spirit of generosity and joy:
- Pass the Dessert Tray! Imagine that you have promised to pass around a trap heaped high with cream puffs, brownies, and mini-pecan pies until it is empty. That’s your sales goal. You keep passing that tray, smiling and connecting with each person, not taking “no” personally, and moving on to the next delightful encounter until the tray is empty—even if you have to move out into the hall, or even to the kitchen! See more about The Dessert Tray in 5 Steps that Make Selling as Delicious as Chocolate.
- Enjoy being a force of nature. In perseverance, you can find both power and pleasure. This is a hero’s journey! You’re going where you may not have gone before, picking up the reins of your career and perhaps your life.
- Remember that if you don’t keep going until you get your result, you’ll get what you have always gotten. There will be no change.
- Start early, so you can make course corrections if necessary. Don’t wait until three days before your promise is due. Panic and desperation are no fun. Get it done, switch tactics if you need to do so, and make your goal with ease and grace.
- Create rewards—over and above the financial and self-esteem rewards of making your goal. Whether it’s a cabin cruiser or a gold star sticker on your stat sheet, do what is reasonable for you and what makes you feel good.
- Use the Soul of Selling Chant: “Complaint to contribution! Drama to dreams! Struggle to service! Reasons to results!”
- Remember the Big Rocks, a story often told in business schools. The professor takes a one-gallon wide-mouthed Mason jar and sets it on the table before him. He takes about dozen fist-sized rocks and places them in the jar. When he asks the class if the jar is full, they all cry, “Yes!” He reaches under the table, pulls out some gravel, and pours it into the jar. Now the class thinks the jar truly is full, but the professor fills in the remaining holes with sand—and then he pours in water until the jar overflows.
The class thinks that the lesson is: “No matter how much you do, you can always fit in more tasks.” That’s not it at all. The lesson is: “If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all.”
WHAT YOU GET IN RETURN
Getting the results you promise is the biggest rock of selling. It’s not always easy at first to keep going—but once you develop the habit, it changes everything.
In sales and in life, you become a force of nature. You don’t have to stress and worry about whether or not you will succeed; you just have to get creative about how you will succeed.
When you trust yourself on that level, and other people trust you on that level, life becomes a very exciting proposition.
What do you do to guarantee your results?
