Overcoming Adversity in Sales

Do you wish you could close sales faster? Are there times when you dream of landing a huge multimillion-dollar account? After you lose a client do you ever think, “I wish I could keep my clients forever?” And at the beginning of every month when your commission feels like zero, do you wonder, “How in the heck will I ever prosper?"

I’ve been working with sales professionals for six years in a training capacity. If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the previous questions, you’re not alone. The majority of sales professionals struggle from the same thoughts. Would you like a simple solution that will take care of all your problems in one blink of an eye? Well, I’ve got the answer it is going to take a little longer than a single eye blink, but if you’ll invest some time into this article and other articles on this web site I’ll show you the light.

In the past years, I’ve pondered the same questions I asked earlier. The whys and why nots have always gotten me. I’ve heard all the excuses; have probably said a good portion of them in my time. Oh, you know the traditional ones:
?nbsp; How come I work so hard and still can’t seem to make quota?
?nbsp; Why do I seem to be here everyday and Joe seems to never be here and he always hits quota?
?nbsp; Why doesn’t the person just say yes?
?nbsp; Why doesn’t this person ever call me back?
?nbsp; Why can’t I seem to land a huge account?
?nbsp; Why this time last year were times so good and no they are so bad?
?nbsp; Why is the market so flat?
?nbsp; Why doesn’t the company do more marketing to help make sales easier?
?nbsp; Why, why, why…

It is an ongoing dilemma. After toiling with the idea for years, I have finally come up with the answer. Are you ready? Here goes – Because! You can say it! Dennis why in the heck would you have me waste 3 minutes of my time reading only to come to the point “Because.” The reason is fairly simple.

When I was younger, I would ask my mom if I could I do something; she would reply, “Yes or No” and I would ask “Why?” Often she would say, “Because I said so.” Now I am not an advocate of unclear communication so I don’t agree with lack of answers, however; a simple principle prevails. Sales are built on whys, why nots, ifs, and who knows how many others. The clear-cut thing you have to understand is because. All right let me explain!

The sales profession is a perfect paradigm for life. In life, you are met with challenges. Some of your challenges are extremely large and others quite insignificant. Nonetheless challenges face you everyday. You have to understand that challenges are God’s way of helping you to set goals, help other people as well as realign your inner being.

Life threatening diseases can be the most difficult challenges for people to face. Yet people live through disease every day. My mom had breast cancer several years ago. I asked if she ever felt like she was treated unfairly or had negative feelings towards God because she contracted such a life threatening disease? I also asked her what was the greatest lesson she learned from the experience?

The answers she gave floored me but changed my life. She said, “You see, Dennis, God doesn’t pick any certain day and say, ‘Well today I think I will create and earthquake in San Francisco and kill 10,000 people, cause a war to breakout in the Middle East, and give Nancy cancer.’ When I got cancer, I first asked ‘Why’ and then I realized it didn’t matter, so I realized the answer was ‘Because.’ Everyone faces difficulties in their life. This is just mine and I need to learn from it."

My mom was so right. God blesses us with an opportunity to live. Through living and its pure nature we face challenges. Those challenges are won and lost in our mind. When we are faced with a challenge, we either look at the challenge with intensity and create a plan to overcome the adversity or we become a victim to the unfair dealings of life. Adversity is just a fact of life. Life just isn’t fair. However, you have to take the unfair dealings of life and create a plan to conquer them.
As to my second question, about the lesson she learned, Mom replied, “I have one that sticks around. We have to decide what we want and make it happen."

Evaluate, make-up your mind, set your goal, create your plan of action, put a date on it, make it happen. You have to evaluate your present circumstances. Evaluate them in-depth but don’t spend a lifetime going mentally crazy trying to figure out why everything in life happens. Sometimes we just have to understand sh*% happens. Make-up up your mind that you will not be a victim to the situation and you will change your perspective for the positive.

Set a goal for yourself. Make a clear-cut vision of what you want the future outcome to be. You need to make it razor thin. I mean focus on it and make it as clear and realistic as possible.

?nbsp; Create a plan of action, which entails writing down your goal and all the tasks, which it will take to accomplish the goal.
?nbsp; Put a date on the goal. Ask yourself when do you want this goal to be realized. Goals without a finish line are meaningless and not to mention tiring. Imagine you were ready to run a race. You ask the official race starter where is the finish line. She points out in the distance and says just down the road. Off in the distance you see a faint sign of what looks like a finish line. The gun is fired and you begin the race. Running with vigor and excitement you’re propelled to reach the finish line to enjoy the accomplishment. However, you soon realize that the line never seems to get closer. It just stays as a mere vision in the distance. Unbeknownst to you the whole time you have been running there has been a person at the other end continuing to move the finish line forward and forward at the same pace you run. How rewarding can that be? To be quite frank it is down right exhausting. It will at some point cause you stop the race. How many times in life do you stop the race because you never get to the finish line. That’s because you never put a finish line on your goal. You have to be a finisher.
?nbsp; Finally, make it happen. Life isn’t about waiting for the next opportunity to be a millionaire or to get in shape, or saying I love you to someone you haven’t said it to for years. It is about learning how to make it happen. We are empowered creatures who are put down by the society in which we live. We are not taught how to grab life by the hand jerk strongly in the direction we want it to go. Most people just get jerked around. You have to take control of your life. Once you have decided what you want in life go get it. And don’t let anyone out there tell you different. Make it happen – finish the race.

My mother was stricken with cancer when I was 10 years old. I feared that I would be without my favorite female role model. But she stood strong and faced the fear and adversity. She conquered the disease with ease and brilliance. She taught me that anything and everything in life is possible if you believe.

Through this vision I began to apply these principles to business. I looked closer at my clients and began to see each person for who they are, not what they offered to me. I learned it is important to help other people solve their problems and through this I could attain anything in life.
I recently created a full training system called the CAP Selling System. CAP is an acronym meaning Caring About People. The fundamental of the program teaches professionals how to put the client first and commissions second. It is my firm belief that commission, revenue and profit are limitless when you put the clients’ best interest first. Sales professionals and organizations not doing the right thing many times compromise the client’s integrity.

Do you remember earlier when I asked if you would like to close sales quicker and generate larger accounts? Here is my guarantee! Care About People more and you’ll increase your sales by 10% in the next three months. Over the course of the next few newsletters I will discuss various principles in the Caring About People philosophy. As I share these principles with you, I would ask that you please pass our newsletter web site onto a friend and ask them to sign-up at www.positiveresults.com/monthly_newsletter.
Take care and good selling. I always love to hear from people please send me an email with your comments.
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