March 14, 2010

Has Your Joy Been Drained?

Filed under: attitude,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 7:12 pm
Tags: attitude, sales, selling

Two years isn’t a very long time. On the other hand, the last two years have been a very, very long time. I know of few companies, big or small, or sellers that haven’t struggled over the last months. I’ve also noticed that a lot of us have become preoccupied with coming through this recession in one piece; some have even become sullen and fearful. I know a great many, me included, have become so focused on our business struggles and taking care of the opportunities that arise that we’ve lost sight of why we do what we do.

I can’t speak for others but I don’t do what I do simply for the money or because it’s what I know to do. I do what I do because I enjoy working with sellers and sales leaders, seeing them grow, seeing their businesses change, helping them increase their skills and changing their behaviors. I do it because I enjoy the change I see in them as they grow. I enjoy the positive impact I can have on them. I enjoy the opportunities I have to learn more about sales, management, human nature, marketing, and business, and to grow.

For the past months—heck, not months, it’s been two years since business started to dry up and eighteen months since business really crashed, so I guess I shouldn’t be talking about months but rather years—I’ve done nothing but focus and worry about work—where my next contract would come from; will I have to lower my rates; do I need to expand the areas that I specialize in; what else can I do to market; what new markets can I work into;, and a million other concerns. Talking to prospects, talking to other trainers and consultants, writing, developing training programs, experimenting with new social media, and a whir of other things consume my attention while working 16, 18, 20 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Lots of work.

A great deal of worry.

In the past, my dogs, Mr. B.J. and Ms. Chloe, have taught me a bit about selling. Recently they’ve taught me about what I, and many of the men and women I work with, have forgotten—why I do what I do.

Let me explain.

Whenever I go outside and leave the dogs inside, whether for two minutes, two hours, or two days, when I re-enter B.J. and Chloe are thrilled to see me. They jump up and down, B.J. sits up, Chloe jumps up on my leg until I get down on the floor where they greet me with kisses and whimpers.

When we fix their dinner every evening they’re in the kitchen watching. They sit quietly watching whichever one of us is making their dinner. They know exactly the steps necessary to fix their food and once we get to the point of heating their dinner up in the microwave, they begin dancing around and playing with each other in anticipation.

Each evening after dinner we take them for a walk. As with everything else, we have a routine. After I’ve eaten and move into the den they begin asking to go out. B.J. asks by sitting up, begging, and Chloe asks by getting up in my lap and pawing my hand. If this goes on for longer than they think it should, the begging and pawing becomes more insistent barks and whimpers. When I begin to get off the couch they know what’s coming and the excitement really begins. B.J. begins rolling on the floor and stretching. Chloe jumps up on the chair and stands on her back legs, her little arms pawing the air as she works to keep her balance. Once they get hooked to the leash they can barely contain themselves as they rush for the door.

Later comes treat time. It starts with B.J. begging and barking. He’ll sit up in a begging position and stay there for several minutes if he has to. Once he has my attention I’ll tell him to “show me what you want.” He and Chloe run to the laundry room where their treats are kept above the dryer. Both dance and jump around until the treat is in their mouth.

What does any of this have to do with anything?

Well, for me, a lot.

Mr. B.J. and Ms. Chloe’s day is full of what I’ve lost over the past couple of years—joy.

B.J. and Chloe find great joy in the smallest things. Their life isn’t consumed with what’s going to happen tomorrow. They don’t dwell on their problems and issues. They live life for today and are thrilled with the simplicity of living such as going for a walk, getting a treat, or just having Debbie or I come home.

Life isn’t perfect for them. They have their share of doggie problems. They’re not happy all of the time. They get on one another’s nerves on occasion; they don’t get all the treats they want; they don’t their way all of the time. But they don’t hold on to their problems and they bounce back quickly. They spend far more time seeking the good things in their life than dwelling on their problems.

I’m sorry to say that hasn’t been me for many months; seemingly forever. Worse, that hasn’t been a very large number of my associates, clients, prospects, and acquaintances.

It took my dogs to remind me that the economy and a tough business environment aren’t the determiners of my joy in life. I love what I do. I love working with sellers and sales leaders. My joy comes from what I do and from my family, friends, clients, prospects, and the great folks I work with, not from the accident of circumstances I find myself in.

If you’ve found like I did that the circumstances of the past couple of years have slowly drained the joy out of you, I encourage you to take a lesson from B.J. and Chloe—there’s more to life than tomorrow. Love what you do and drain the joy out of everything. As for me, I think I deserve a treat and a walk.

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March 11, 2010

Guest Article: “Negativity–How to Overcome That Most Deadly Disease,” by Jonathan Farrington

Filed under: attitude,career development,success — Paul McCord @ 9:28 am
Tags: attitude, jonathan farrington, productivity

Negativity – How To Overcome That Most Deadly Disease
by Jonathan Farrington

“Experience informs us that the first offence of weak minds is to recriminate”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Negative people typically suffer from what I call the three “C’s” and are usually found to be: Criticising, Condemning or Complaining.

Here are some tips to help you overcome negativity and to recognise it in others.

Develop and build your own understanding of what is really negative. Do remember that constructive criticism is not negative.

Check your conversation with others, are you being negative? – Check your thoughts and thinking process – remember that if you are thinking negatively the only person you will harm is yourself. Remove those thoughts as you would a faulty slide from a projector, discard them, you have the capacity to do that and your mind will respond if you are strong enough and willing enough to discard a negative thought.

Build a bullet proof screen around you, so that negative comments or behaviour from other people will penetrate. You can do this by instantly recognising negative criticism or conversation.

From time to time, check the company you are keeping. If you have been mixing in the wrong environment, talk to people who are positive. Go out and mix with people you know have positive, constructive ideas. Mix with people who are doing better than you.

If another person’s negativity does get through to you, say to yourself “Why did he or she say that”? You must remember that no positive person becomes so unfeeling that they can’t see life from another person’s point of view. It could happen that someone very close to you says something that can be construed as negative; it may be because they are worried, they are concerned or they have fear. By asking yourself “Why did he or she say that?” You will more than likely be able to understand and by reassurance, conversation and looking at the worry from a different point of view, turn the negative into a positive process.

Have your own negative repellent whenever anyone says anything really negative to you just say “fantastic” – no truly negative person enjoy hearing that word; they really run for cover!!

In Summary:

■ Remember, the negative is always stronger than the positive.

■ Never allow anyone to pollute your thinking

■ As a professional you must take care of your attitude

“The most evil, dangerous and cancerous complaint that humanity inflicts upon itself is to be negative”
Anon

Jonathan Farrington is a globally recognized business coach, mentor, author and sales strategist, who has guided hundreds of companies and thousands of individuals around the world towards optimum performance levels. He is Chairman of The Sales Corporation, CEO of Top Sales Associates and Senior Partner at The JF Consultancy based in London and Paris. Early in 2007, Jonathan formed Top Sales Associates (TSA) to promote the very best sales related solutions and products. TSA is now a subsidiary of The Sales Corporation, based in London and Paris. Visit his website

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January 4, 2010

A New Year, a New Decade: Turn the Possible into the Actual

Filed under: attitude,career development,motivation,success — Paul McCord @ 10:47 am
Tags: career development, sales, sales success, selling

Today, Monday January 4, is not only the start of a new business year but a new decade as well. Whether you’re a top producer or on the bottom of your company’s sales board, whether you‘re an old pro or fresh out of school, you start today, this year, this decade with the opportunity to create a completely new future.

Maybe 2009 wasn’t what you wanted it to be—that is certainly the case for a great many of us.

Maybe the 21^st century hasn’t lived up to your expectations yet.

Put all of that behind you now.

The Timing is Right for Actualizing the Possible
I’m not a mystic, but there are times when there seems to be a shift in the universe, where what was, no longer has to be, and where the possible really can become the actual.

Of course, we preach turning the possible into the actual all the time, irrespective of the day, the year, the decade. And it is true, we can turn the possible into the actual at anytime. But the turn of the decade seems to present a unique opportunity, one where change seems to come a little easier and where the impact of change seems more dramatic. It’s a natural time for new beginnings.

The Change You Want Won’t Happen by Accident
Even though this is the year to turn your possibilities into actualities; it isn’t going to happen unless you make it happen. Thomas Jefferson observed about his own life that “the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.”

You too can have luck smile upon you by doing what Jefferson did his entire life—make your own luck. Jefferson was born into a family where he had money and status. He could have just sat back and drifted along with few worries. Instead, he saw possibilities for a new nation that would give citizens more freedom than nation had ever known. He, like many of his contemporaries, wanted to turn that possibility into reality. He invested his time, money, and energy, willing to risk everything he had—including his life–in order turn the possibility into actuality. And his willingness to invest all he had resulted in changing his future from one of a soft, lazy gentleman of means to one of the most important figures in history.

Like Jefferson, you must be willing to make the commitment and the short-term sacrifice to turn your possibilities into reality. Fortunately for us, we aren’t risking our life, just our time, energy, and at bit of our resources. Nevertheless, turning our possibilities into reality can be just as life changing for us as fathering a new nation was for Jefferson.

Figure Out Where You Want to Go: Unless you know where you are going, you’re just drifting aimlessly—maybe you’ll drift somewhere you want to be, maybe you won’t. Set specific, measurable goals. At a minimum set goals for:
1. Gross sales dollars
2. Number of new clients
3. Number of sales
4. Monthly and annual income
Figure Out Where You Need Help: Examine your strengths and weaknesses, then figure out where you need specific help. Is you weakness prospecting? Maybe it’s building a relationship based on trust? Possibly it’s in the area of persuasion. Maybe you have several areas of concern. If so, which area if improved would have the most immediate and/or dramatic impact on your career?
Get Help NOW: Now that you know where you need help, it’s time to put your time, energy, and money on the line—acquire the help. Whether it’s a book, CD, webinar, seminar, or sales coach, don’t hesitate, get it and get it now. Yes, you’ll have to work, you may well have to spend some of your hard earned cash, and you’ll have to change your behavior which is always hard to do. In other words, it probably won’t be comfortable and there won’t be a guaranteed result.
Once you’ve overcome one area of weakness, start on another. Although we never get to the point where we have perfected our sales skills, over time we will continue to get better and better.
Eradicate Your Failure Demon: Many of us have to deal with more than just weaknesses that limit our potential for success; we also must deal with a personal demon that is actively blocking us from success. That demon can come in many forms. It may be one that whispers “you can’t” or “that’s going to be hard, leave it until tomorrow.” Once you believe the demon that you can’t, you can’t; once he convinces you to leave it until tomorrow, tomorrow will never come.
The “you can’t” and “leave it until tomorrow” demons haunt many of us, but even more common is the “you don’t deserve it” demon. The “you don’t deserve it” demon takes our history and turns it into a bat to bludgeon us with. Because we failed in the past, because we didn’t do this or that, because we don’t believe we’re good enough, because we don’t believe we’ve worked hard enough, because, because, because whatever, we don’t deserve to succeed. The “you don’t deserve it” demon is incredibly powerful. It can defeat the best training, the best product offering, the strongest success commitment. It wears on us and influences us to unconsciously sabotage our potential success.
If we want to succeed, we must defeat our failure demon, for, if we leave it to continue working on our psyche, we have little chance of success. We must recognize our demon and then recognize that its argument is false—we can if we want to, we don’t have to put off until tomorrow what should be done today, and we do deserve success. We must give ourselves permission to succeed—and then be ever mindful not to let our personal demon creep back in.
Don’t Settle for Failure: The above steps are critical but they’re still not enough. You have to make the commitment to succeed. Yes, you have to know where you’re going and you certainly have to improve your skills. In addition you have to eradicate your failure demon. But you still haven’t done enough. You have to commit yourself to succeeding—to putting in the time and the effort, to seeing enough prospects, making enough presentations, signing enough contracts. You have to be willing to not quit until you’ve met your goals.
Too many of us are willing to settle toward the end of the month for just getting close. We convince ourselves that we’ll make it up next month. Of course, we don’t. We just keep settling and the next thing you know; we need a miracle to meet our goals. Settling is just another word for failure.

Now is the time to make your possibility into your reality. Take the steps necessary, commit yourself to improving your skills, eradicate your failure demon, and refuse to settle, and you’ll find that a new year and a new decade can create a new life for you and your family.

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September 10, 2009

There’s Light at the End of the Tunnel–But It Isn’t the Time to Celebrate

Filed under: attitude,Economy,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 9:49 am
Tags: Economy, sales, selling

Slowly we’re beginning to hear about an improved bit of economic news here, a better than expected economic thing there. Some of the sellers and sales leaders I’m speaking to are asking about when I think the markets will really pick up and what are other clients saying about their sales and what they see on the horizon. The feeling of deep gloom is beginning to get edged out by a feeling of at least a modicum of hope.

That slight feeling that the weight of the past year may be easing brings a bit of a sense of relief and in many cases a good deal of hope and joy.

Don’t get carried away.

No celebrations are in order.

The fatted calf gets to live another day–or another week, month, or maybe even for another year before being slaughtered for the great celebration of the return of good economic times.

We sellers can’t allow ourselves to let up in the least. As most of us know, contracts are still elusive and hard to nail down; competitors are still willing to cut profit margins to the bone; management is still fretting and in many cases micromanaging to their and our determent.

Having had the advantage of living and selling through previous recessions, I’m well aware of false bottoms; of long, slow, hard recoveries; of the sometimes almost irresistible urge to take a breath, to come up for a bit of a break after an exhausting run.

We see a bit of light.

The air begins to smell a little bit fresher.

The days begin to have the hint of spring after a long, hard winter.

A break seems to be not only in order, but very well deserved.

We relax.

We lose momentum, and once we’ve lost momentum, we may find it almost impossible to regain it.

We’ve all gone for a year, many of us for almost two years, fighting tooth and nail for even the smallest of sales.

We want a break.

We need a break.

Our body and our mind are demanding a break.

Don’t buy into it.

Most of us won’t see an uptick in business for some time to come. Others may already be seeing signs of increased business. Either way, now is not the time to relax.

Those of us whose markets aren’t in the process of turning—that’s most of us—must continue to aggressively work to generate business. Our survival depends on it. We are still in survival mode. If we let up, we risk more than just losing ground, we risk putting ourselves in a position where we cannot recover.

Those lucky few of us whose markets already appear to be in recovery cannot afford to relax either. Now is the time to continue to push. Your competitors are feeling the same urge to take a bit of a break after a hard run. They also feel that they deserve—and need—some down time. Let them have it while you aggressively go after the little bit of new business that is coming into your market. Take this time to expand your sales business while your competitors are sitting back congratulating themselves for having survived.

Whether we’re still in the midst of a bleak market but are beginning to feel a bit better based on some of the economic news we’re hearing or we are in a market where we actually see some relief from the past downturn, our focus must be on charging ahead.

Yet, we can all take heart knowing this won’t last forever. Those of us who lived through the terrible Ford/Carter years of the 70’s and the Savings and Loan debacle of the 80’s can attest that no matter how bleak things may appear—and, boy, 18% interest rates and seemingly every S&L executive in the country going to prison made things look awfully bleak–the light does eventually shine through.

Don’t let your guard down but don’t despair either. You can get through this. The demands of slogging through this recession and then taking aggressive advantage of an improving market won’t last a lifetime (although it may seem that way now). You’ve come a long way in the past year or so. You’ve done what so many haven’t—survived a terrible recession.

No, it isn’t over.

No, you can’t let up.

But you’re winning the battle and when the economy does recover, you’ll be in a position to expand your sales business—and your income.

Take five minutes to congratulate yourself for your endurance, your determination and commitment to succeed.

OK, now back to work.

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April 22, 2009

Guest Article: “I Think It’s Time for Me To Call It Quits,” by Tim Wackel

Filed under: attitude,Economy,motivation,sales,selling,success — Paul McCord @ 7:41 am
Tags: attiude, business development, ecoonomy, sales, selling, success

I Think It’s Time for Me To Call It Quits
by Tim Wackel

I don’t know about your experience but I’m hearing so much economic doom and gloom that I think it must be time for me to give up and quit. The newspapers and television networks have convinced me (and almost everyone else) that we’re in a hopeless situation. I really wanted my business to prosper and grow in 2009 but I must be an idiot for believing there is any chance for success. I guess it’s time to turn off the lights, lock the doors and wait patiently for the economy to improve.

Or is it?

Maybe business development professionals everywhere need to answer these four questions (honestly) before tossing in the towel.

#1. How does this “recession” actually affect you? The National Bureau of Economic Research defines a recession as three quarters of falling real gross domestic product. This might be fascinating stuff to some people, but I can’t directly correlate “real gross domestic product” to my sales effectiveness.

Can you?

Even during a recession companies still have to buy goods and services. They may buy different, they may buy less, but they still have to buy. If you can’t convince prospects that what you’re offering is a solid investment with meaningful return, then maybe the problem lies closer to home.

#2. Do you really believe you’re on your customer’s speed dial? Customers are nervous just like everyone else; they’re reading the same headlines that you are. Sitting in the office waiting for them to call you isn’t going to help you meet your goals.

Reach out and contact everyone you’ve ever done business with. Show up with valuable ideas, offer help, look for referrals and ask for their business. This isn’t open season to “call and check-in” but it’s a great time to reconnect and nourish all of your existing relationships.

This may sound like a lot of work because it is. Very few people ever drift into greatness; it requires action.

What are you waiting for?

#3. Are you as good as you could be? Many sales people think that once they’ve taken a professional selling course, they’re essentially done with learning. That may be OK if someday your closing question becomes: Will that be paper or plastic?

Success as a sales professional requires skill, knowledge, attitude and purpose. If you’re not consistently developing yourself in these areas then you’re going backwards. There is no status quo.

There are more development tools available for today’s sales professional than ever before. Books, podcasts, tele-seminars, live training programs, webinars, personal coaches, downloads, sales portals and much more.

You can’t wait for your boss or organization to take responsibility for your success. It’s up to YOU!

It takes courage to admit you can be better and confidence to believe you can change. It takes nothing at all to create excuses.

#4. How much energy are you wasting on things you can’t control? The world surrounds us with headlines about inflation, bailouts, credit crisis, mortgage fiasco, recession, debt, jobless claims and on and on.

Are you concerned? I know that I am. But I don’t have much control over what is happening in the headlines, so why get tied up in knots?

This is a valuable lesson I learned as a kid on the farm. It’s a tough life and it sure doesn’t get easier if you worry all the time about whether or not it’s going to rain. All you can do is take care of the equipment, prepare the land, plant the seed, fertilize the fields and wait for the harvest.

And running your sales business isn’t much different.

Take care of the equipment (invest in yourself)
Prepare the land (make yourself known in all of your accounts)
Plant the seed (add value with every contact)
Fertilize the fields (take care of your customers)

Wait for the harvest (if you do everything else right, the business will follow)

Tim Wackel is hired by sales executives who want their teams to be more successful at blowing the number away. Tim’s “no excuses” programs are insightful, engaging and focused on providing real world strategies that salespeople can (and will!) implement right away. Sales teams from BMC Software, Cisco, Fossil, Hewlett Packard, Allstate, Thomson Reuters, Raytheon, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Catalina Marketing, Philips Medical Systems, Red Hat and TXU Energy count on Tim to help them create more success in business and in life. Vist his website

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March 18, 2009

Guest Article: “The Paradox of Expertise,” by Kevin Eikenberry

Filed under: attitude,career development,developing expert reputation,success — Paul McCord @ 7:28 am
Tags: attitude, personal development, success

The Paradox of Expertise
by Kevin Eikenberry

Throughout life most people tend to look up to others who are experts in their fields â€” whether they are authors, speakers, leaders, athletes or some other expertise. In our minds and in our culture we value – and sometimes even revere – expertise.

For this reason it isn’t surprising that most everyone strives – consciously or unconsciously – to become an expert in some area(s) of life. When you want to be an expert in your work, you strive to learn the skills and tools that will make you more successful. You probably study and passionately practice a hobby or two or other related interests with the goal at least in some part to gain knowledge and expertise.

Reaching new levels of expertise does more than satisfy your sense of self competition. It helps you create better results, achieve more in less time and, when you share your expertise, help others achieve better results as well. Plus, beyond all of these things, your expertise can give you status, promotions and higher pay.

When you think about all those ideas (and many more), it’s not too surprising we want to become experts in our fields and areas of interest is it?

And yet this expertise can also get in your way . . . if you allow yourself to fall into a very seductive trap – the trap of arrival.

When you’re an expert and you’re in the know, it’s so easy to feel like you’ve “arrived” and once you believe you have arrived, you run two major risks:

You “know-it-all”. If you believe you know it all, you have very little incentive to continue searching. If you’re in list trap, you might not listen to people with less experience than you. You also may not be open to new ideas because of your confirmed expertise. Your habits and dedication to become an expert can create a false sense of confidence. Yet when you look at someone else’s situation you realize there’s always something about the topic that you don’t know. But in your field you may miss that fact – after all, if you do know it all, there really isn’t anything else to learn is there?

You’ve “seen-it-all”. Your expertise and experience definitely helps you greatly in diagnosing a situation and seeing patterns that others might not see. At the same time, because of your experience you may miss a subtle difference because you automatically match the situation up to the pattern “you’ve seen a hundred times before.” Your vast experience and exposure may actually blind you to what you really need to see. You must remain open to new possibilities to make your expertise of greatest possible benefit to yourself and others.

All of this proves the wisdom of the quotation from the great basketball coach John Wooden:

“It is what we learn after we know it all that matters.”

What you already know may keep you from seeing what is most important in a given situation.

That is the paradox of expertise.

You strive to gain valuable expertise and when you gain it you may fall prey to the problems that your expertise can cause.

When you approach every situation with the curiosity of a learner, you will avoid many of those problems and actually continue to grow your expert status at the same time!

Potential Pointer: As you strive to grow your expertise realize that it’s a journey not a destination. Remain open to learning new things and applying new techniques. When you match your ongoing openness and curiosity with your considerable expertise, you will avoid the paradox of expertise.

Kevin Eikenberry is a two-time best selling author, speaker, consultant, trainer, coach, leader, learner, husband and father (not necessarily in that order). Kevin is the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group, a learning consulting company that has been helping organizations, teams and individuals reach their potential since 1993. Emphasizing the power of learning, Kevin’s specialties include leadership, teams and teamwork, organizational culture, facilitating change, training trainers and more.

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March 5, 2009

I Ain’t What I Thought I Was–Are You What You Think You Are?

Filed under: attitude,business,sales,selling,success — Paul McCord @ 10:50 am
Tags: business development, change, change management, sales, selling

One of the easiest parts of my job has always been writing. I’m not saying my writing is good, just that it has always been easy to do. When I write, whether a book, article, or blog post, I turn a topic around in my mind for a few days and then when I sit down, the writing just flows. I can knock out a 20 or 30 page chapter in 3 or 4 hours, a 3 or 4 page article in 30 minutes. Devote maybe half again that much time to revise and correct and its done. Easy.

This post hasn’t been easy at all. The topic is too personal–it deals with a very real and serious problem I face-and one that to one extent or another I suspect you’re facing also.

I’ve started and restarted and restarted and restarted this post time after time. The issue is how personal should this post be? Not that I have a problem discussing my personal struggles-I just don’t want to bore you to death. But no matter how I begin, it always comes back to the issues I have. Those issues are at the heart of what we all face-what do we do in THIS economy? Today? Right this second?

Forgive me if this comes off as too self-indulgent-it isn’t meant to be.

If you’re like me, you’ve watched your market change radically-maybe even disappear altogether-over the past few months. You might be staring at a pipeline report that’s as empty as our national bank account-I am. You might be seeing your booked business disappear due to budget cutbacks-I am. You might be wondering where in the world you’re next sale will come from-I am. You might be wondering just how much McDonald’s really pays-well, we’re not there, yet.

If we want to continue to be successful-if we want to survive-in this economy, we have to rethink everything about our business, our markets, and our approach. We have to discover where we can be relevant and have an impact today and tomorrow. We have to be ready to change in short order.

Over the past several days I’ve spent a good amount of time speaking with a number of my friends and colleagues such as Jill Konrath, Jonathan Farrington, Keith Rosen, Lee Salz, Wendy Weiss, and Dr. Greg Stebbins about the current state of the economy, where the sales consulting and training market is and where it is going, and how we must adjust our businesses in this environment. This is a group of men and women that I both trust and respect their insights and judgment. Each is one that I am comfortable confessing my current business concerns to and who have the wisdom and integrity to give advice and guidance worth taking seriously.

And I haven’t been disappointed. Each has given great advice and guidance. Each has brought to the surface new opportunities and new avenues to pursue. In many cases they’ve reinforced my own thinking-but accompanied that with a good, hard, swift kick in the butt.

I suggest that whether you are the leader of a large company or sales team, or an individual salesperson struggling with the direction of where your business should be headed, find several people outside your company, men and women you trust, who know you, who understand your business and your challenges, and approach them for a serious discussion about your issues. Go outside your company. Get broader perspectives from men and women you are comfortable opening up your inner fears and doubts to. You will learn a great deal about where you are and where you need to go. They’ll point out things you haven’t seen, help you organize your thoughts, and very probably help you pinpoint areas where the obstacle to your success has been the limitations you’ve put on yourself.

We all have put limitations on ourselves. We all have self-limiting beliefs about who we are, what we do, where we fit in the marketplace.

I have them.

You have them.

Everyone has them to some extent or another.

If we want to expand in today’s economy we have to bust through those self-limiting beliefs. The problem is we can’t eliminate them if we don’t even recognize what they are.

I had (have?) several limiting beliefs that were brought to the surface in my conversations this week.

Although I’ve done work outside the financial services industry, the vast majority of my work has been with bankers, investment brokers, mortgage companies, insurance advisors, and others in financial services. I had spent my entire career in financial services. I saw myself as being a financial services specific expert. That’s my market, my niche. That is where my name recognition is. That’s where my clients and consequently my references are. Financial services companies are who I get referred to.
No one outside of financial services knows who I am. In my industry name recognition and reputation is a key factor. How could I break into new markets when no one has ever heard of me? Am I going to have to start from scratch as I did years ago?
Virtually all of my references are financial services companies. I have few contacts and references outside financial services and most potential clients will want examples of my work with like companies. High tech companies will want references from other high tech companies, pharmaceutical from pharmaceutical, manufacturing from manufacturing. How am going to overcome this? Am I going to have to do free or extremely low cost training as I did at first in order to establish a foothold in a new industry?

These problems seemed very real to me. I know how much work it took to get my business where it is and I didn’t want to ‘give up’ what I’d worked hard to create. That, actually, was my biggest limiting belief-I was feeling sorry for myself. I was allowing myself to wallow in misery. I was steadfastly holding onto my image of who I am and what I do.

It certainly wasn’t during my first conversation that the light came on that my primary issue wasn’t the economy or the market, but rather me. My thinking isn’t swayed that easily-and who really wants to admit that, as Pogo pointed out, ‘we have met the enemy and he is us?”

Yet over several days I ‘discovered’ a number of things about my business:

I have good name recognition outside the financial services industry as demonstrated by some recent, unsolicited, out of the clear blue calls and emails I had received. For example, I received an email asking my availability for a speaking engagement by a division of FUJIFILM and a few days after that a call about a potential training contract from one of the largest general contractors in the country. They had to have heard of me someway, right? Over this week I’ve seen many other recent, tangible examples.
Finding and connecting with high quality, non price driven prospects who will allow companies to maintain margins and who will be loyal long-term clients is THE ISSUE most companies are facing in today’s market. My business is focused almost exclusively in helping companies and salespeople learn how to develop high quality business by finding and connecting with prospects who are seeking real solutions to real issues and are not simply trying to buy the cheapest patch-up solution they can find and who will be the loyal backbone of the company’s or salesperson’s business for years to come. What I do is in great demand and it is totally transferable to any business whose sale is primarily relationship based-and that includes thousands upon thousands of both B2B and B2C companies in hundreds of industries.
References need not be in the industry I’m marketing to-they just have to be able to address issues of importance to the prospect firm. If XYZ client is talking to ABC Company about how I helped them increase their business and both companies use a relationship based sales model, the connection is there even though they are in different industries. The important thing to my prospects is what I did, not who I did it for.

My business is stronger than ever. I have an almost limitless pool of prospects. My services are needed now more than ever. My strength is what I do, not who I did it for in the past.

Now, if you’re sitting there thinking, “gee, what a dope. All of this should have been as obvious as daylight. Is this guy blind or just an idiot,” don’t feel too smug. When I lay it out as above, yes, it seems pretty obvious. But when one is wrapped up in the issue, when one has developed a vision of who they are and what they do over a period of years, the obvious isn’t necessarily so obvious. You may be in the exact position I’ve been in-missing the big picture because of your pre-determined vision of what the big picture is.

These obvious revelations came about because I had the good fortune to have some folks to speak to who cared enough to take the time to help me work through some problems. These revelations came about because I had people who were divorced from the situation and could see what was there, not what they thought was there.

I encourage you to look outside yourself and your company. The obvious isn’t so obvious to you when you’re right in the middle of the problem, especially when you’ve already determined what’s what. Sometimes what you believe to be the situation is 180 degrees turned from reality. It doesn’t mean you’re stupid, incompetent, or adverse from changing, it simply means you’ve formulated images and concepts that rule your thinking and in order to bust out of that box you’ve put yourself into you have to have an independent analysis-and neither you nor anyone in your company can really do an independent analysis. You’re too close. You’ve invested too much in what you believe to be objective.

I suspect you’re just as blind I was. I suspect the obvious isn’t so obvious to you. I suspect you have a world of opportunities at your doorstep just waiting for you to recognize the obvious-if you can, if you can see past what you’ve come to believe about yourself and what you do, that is, who you believe you are.

My discoveries over the past week will not change anything about my business unless I take the next step in the process-change my business. In a sense, recognizing the limiting beliefs I’ve operated under is really the easy part. Recognizing the opportunities that are out there is great, but unless I implement the needed changes in what I’m doing and how I’m doing it, the opportunities will go unrealized. I’ll have accomplished nothing.

And I’ve got a great deal of work to do:

I have to start marketing myself into new markets. Join new associations, write for new publications, give presentations to new organizations.
I have to pick up the phone and start calling on new prospects in new industries.
I have to capitalize on my connections outside the financial services industry
I have to concentrate on new income streams. For instance, like most in my industry, I have products-books, CDs, public seminars to sell. I’ve never really made much effort to do so since my business was corporate centered. I have to take those products-which are great products by the way-as a serious potential income source.
My website was not designed to be an attractor of business. It has always been used as a supplemental resource once I’ve connected with a prospect. It has to change. It has to become a business attractor. It has to be completely reworked, renamed, redesigned.
My marketing model has to be changed from the ground up. For several years I didn’t have to go after business, it came to me. Those days are gone. I have to be an aggressive marketer once more. God forbid, I have work again.
I have to find new ways of making what I do affordable in a tight economy. Fewer and fewer companies can afford to hold in-person training sessions, conferences, and regional and national meetings. The cost is just too great. A one or two day training session for a large region of a company can cost anywhere from a tens of thousands of dollars to a few hundred thousand dollars. There’s the trainer’s fee and travel, the travel expenses for the company personnel, probably some entertainment and many, many meals. Very likely there’s the expense for the venue, additional personnel for coordination and set-up. There’s the lost field time for the sales team. Huge costs that just aren’t practical in today’s economy. I must reformulate what I do into webinars where the company doesn’t incur travel and venue expenses, where the lost field time is counted in terms of the actual training time, not in days. The costs for a business development session can be reduced by 80 to 90% or more-and without losing a bit of the effectiveness of the session.
Coaching of sales leaders has never been a significant part of my business. But in today’s marketplace with massive uncertainty, pressure to perform, the threat of being replaced on a moment’s notice due to budget cutbacks, being absorbed by another company, or perceived under performance, managers are in need of coaching now more than ever. Their future and their sanity may depend on it. Objective outside advice, criticism, and direction is vital to staying on top-or getting on top. I must take a serious look at the possibility of taking on coaching as a significant part of my business model.

My work has just begun. My company will be very different in two weeks, two months, two years. My old comfortable way of doing business is gone-or more correctly, is going. It’s an exciting time filled with great opportunity and tremendous new challenges. In many ways, I’m re-energized. In other ways, I’m apprehensive. Change is never easy and seldom smooth–and usually doesn’t proceed in a nice neat straight line. There’s great comfort in the status quo. But in this economy we’re not talking about comfort or ease, we’re talking about survival, change, growth, and possibilities.

What are your possibilities? Where must you change? Where is your growth as an individual and organization going to come from and where will it take you? Few of us have the luxury of maintaining the status quo today. Don’t assume you that haven’t limited yourself. Don’t assume that you know what all of your opportunities are. Don’t assume that you have the answers-in fact, don’t assume you have any answers. You just might find that didn’t know as much as what you do as you thought you did.

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February 20, 2009

Guest Article: “New Day, New Jet: How to face each day with courage and fly to your highest potential,” by Waldo Waldman

Filed under: attitude,motivation,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 10:28 am
Tags: motivation, sales, selling

NEW DAY, NEW JET: How to face each day with courage and fly to your highest potential
By Waldo Waldman

The air conditioned briefing room felt as cold as ice as I waited for the arrival of my instructor. I was a bundle of nerves. One more ‘busted’ check ride would put me one flight away from washing out of Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT). My dream of becoming a fighter pilot hung by a thread. I began to doubt myself.

What if I mess up again? What if I forget to call ‘gear down’ on final approach or fail to apply the proper spin recovery procedures? I repeatedly chair flew the maneuvers over and over and knew what needed to be done but kept re-playing the previous flights I failed in my head. I second guessed myself and my confidence dwindled. The sweat poured down my back.

In walked the instructor who would decide my fate, Major Jerry Free. A former F-4 fighter pilot who had little tolerance for mediocrity and laziness, he stood 6’3 with buzz cut hair and shiny boots. I was intimidated to say the least.

Not knowing what to expect, I stood at attention, braced myself, and saluted smartly.

He saluted back, looked me in the eyes, and reached over to shake my hand. “Ok, Waldo – it’s a new day, new jet! Are you ready to pass this flight, or what?”

He smiled.

Suddenly, the energy of the room shifted and I instantly felt more confident. All the stress and anxiety I had bottled up exploded out of me like a bullet. My mind became clearer as I thought to myself, “I can do this. Today, I’m going to fly like an eagle.” Major Free believed in me.

New Day, New Jet. Wow! I never heard that expression before. But somehow, those four words and the man who spoke them instantly changed my attitude from Fear to Focus…from anxiety to action. I was ready to fly.

Some of you may be facing similar predicaments in your life that are testing your resolve, skill, and focus. Perhaps you are experiencing financial challenges or are having concerns at work as your company and clients adapt to our volatile economy. Missed sales quotas, budget cuts, and lost customers plague us. No mission is ever perfect, and neither are we.

We’re all human and have our limits. But sometimes, when we’re stuck and full of doubt, we underestimate our power to overcome adversity and perform at our best. We focus on our past failures and can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel of success because our vision is darkened by our fear of future failure. We pull back the throttle of performance instead of pushing it up. In essence, we let our past define our future. This is the greatest challenge we face when dealing with adversity.

But I believe there is no reason for us not to live up to our potential each day and perform at our best. Fear and doubt are distractions that can de-motivate us and pull us off course. Don’t let yesterday’s failure define you. It’s how you respond that counts.

And while I do believe it’s critical for us to remain positive in tough times, no amount of motivation is going to replace the fundamentals of hard work and preparation. You have a job to do. You have the aircraft and are ultimately in control of your own jet. The question is: Are you better prepared to fly today then you were yesterday?

Success begins with self trust.
As you strap into your jet each day and conduct a pre-flight ‘attitude check’, ask yourself:

Am I focused on my past failures or my past successes?
How have I improved from yesterday to today?
What actions will I take today to plant the performance seeds for tomorrow?

You can’t philosophize your way to success. The world (and your customers) are growing tired of rhetoric and philosophy. Today, we need performers who can get the job done.

But sometimes, no matter how much you prepare, it’s impossible to break the performance barrier on your own. So here’s the next and most important question you should ask when fear and doubt hold you back from flying your jet: Who are the wingmen in my life I can call on to help me fly?

Winners Never Fly Solo.
Wingmen inspire us. Wingmen give us hope and lend a “helping wing.” Wingmen reflect our greatness back at us and help us release the brakes holding us back from success as we face each new day with courage. They don’t fly our jet for us but rather give us confidence in our own abilities. They alter our mindset from “I can’t” or “I won’t”, to “I can” and “I will.”

My challenge to you is not to be inhibited from calling out to your wingmen for some encouragement when you’re not quite up to that tough mission. Ask for help. Be vulnerable. We’re all taking hits. Today it might be you. Tomorrow it might be them.

But don’t forget to be a wingman to others, as well. Keep an eye out for your colleagues who are struggling and who might benefit from a little lift as they prepare for that job interview or big sales presentation. Like Major Free, be a shining light and inspire them to realize their fullest potential.

In business and life, yesterday’s clouds can block us from seeing today’s blue skies. Let us not forget that each day is a new day and we’re blessed to have a jet to fly.

In the end, I passed my flight with Major Free because he made me realize that I was good enough to fly.

You are good enough. You’ve got wings. And you’ve got wingmen.

It’s a new day, new jet. Now go and fly!

Never Fly Solo!

Lt. Col. Rob “Waldo” Waldman is a former combat-decorated fighter pilot with corporate sales experience. Known as “The Wingman,” he is an inspirational peak performance speaker and uses fighter pilot strategies to build teamwork, leadership and trust in highly competitive environments. Waldo’s clients include Aflac, Hewlett-Packard, Nokia, Bank of America, John Hancock, and Home Depot. His book Never Fly Solo will be released in the Fall of 2009. To download his Top Gun Motivation mission briefing, visit motivational speaker, email info@yourwingman.com or call 1-866-925-3616.

February 10, 2009

Run Don’t Walk

Today’s the day! Can’t say much till Noon Pacific Standard Time–but it is worth the wait.

Noon today PST, the doors open – on an offer that has the potential to save you thousands of dollars, increase your sales exponentially, and perhaps best of all give you peace of mind in the midst of a downward spiraling economy, massive budget cuts and increased sales quotas!

Watch the countdown to noon here.

Best,

Paul McCord

At noon PST run, don’t walk to here

February 2, 2009