Mind Your Own Business.

Building a true sales team is a heck of a task these days. My demographic especially, is the worst demographic of sales people ever born. We're lazy, unfocussed, spoiled and uncultured. Show me a 20-30 year old who is a hard working and I'll show you 1000 who aren't. Show me a 45-55 year old who didn't hustle their butt off when they were 25-35 and I'll show 1000 who did. What happened? My opinion; Video games and unrealistic Reality TV.

As I weed through resumes on the weekend I find one common theme, many former business owners are applying for sales jobs. Great! I used to think. Business owners are hustlers. The motivated, big picture thinking, creative people I've been looking for... - In most cases I couldn't have been more wrong. Many of these men and women were beaten up and wimps. They feel like failures and they acted the part as well. When I asked why they were looking into sales as a career there was one major common theme; THEY WANTED TO RELAX. THEY WANTED TO NOT HAVE THE STRESS OF HAVING THE BE SUCCESSFUL.

So let me get this straight; You've walked into a sales job so you didn't have to do what it takes to be successful? This isn't a government job pal, go pound sand!

Being a professional salesperson is in every way, shape and form running your own business. I tell my team all the time that they have the luxury of being entreprenures that already have the brand, office, supplies, stock, service team and admin support - all they have to do is sell the best product in our industry. You wake up every single day deciding whether you will be 'a poor', 'a good', 'a great' or 'the best and most successful' business owner. I strive every single day to be the latter, why doesn't everyone? Are you?

Ask any successful small business owner where they get most of their business and they will likely say, word of mouth or referrals. If they say the ad in the local paper or fax blasting, I'll eat my shoes. Look around at all the salespeople you know. Who gets the most referrals? Who has the best relationships with their client when the order is made?

Wake up! It's the same person.

Now, think about the barber, mechanic, tailor or any other provider of a product or service you use every single time you need something. Do they have the lowest price? Are they members of the Better Business Bureau? Do they have 24 hour turnaround time? Are they open 24 hours a day? Maybe. But does that matter? Nope.

You continue to go back to these people/places because of how they treat you and make you feel. When was the last time you recommended someone go to a barber just because it was open twenty four hours a day? We recommend people go deal with people that we liked and that did a good job.

Just doing a good job isn't good enough for repeat business. What is enough to get people coming back and sending others? Doing a good job while making the person you are dealing with feel great. Most sales are emotionally driven. I don't know a single woman who has ever had a 'happy period' but Kotex still emotionally sells them on that.

Whether you like it or not, you are running a business. Where do successful small businesses get the majority of their orders from? You should already know.

If you clicked on the link, you need to master retaining the information you read before attempting to become a true sales professional.

So, you can beg your organization for longer service hours, faster turn around times, lower pricing or more advertising... Or you can treat engage people while treating them with respect and let the bad sales reps ask for that stupid stuff. See you at the top!