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In my Previous
blog, I ended off with the statement:
"…In business
and especially in sales, we cannot allow ourselves to be influenced by
emotions/reactions/frictions - we have to ground ourselves and be consistent
within our daily application. Having a 'WHY' is of great support if the 'why'
is genuine and can stand the test of time. Test of time meaning - when the
'why' is so strong inside yourself where it doesn't matter what you face, it
won't change who you are and what you stand for/as. So, if you are in sales and
you haven't yet allocated your own individual 'why' - I suggest you take a
moment and find inside of yourself your 'why' to support yourself in difficult
times. With having the 'why' and understanding the 'number game' (which I will
explain in my next blog) - nothing is impossible…"
One of the first
things that you learn as a sale person is the term 'numbers game' - the more
prospects you identify, the more contacts you make, the more appointments you
have, the more sales you make. Though, if it was as simple as that, we would
all have been rich by now won't we?
When I first got a
direct sales job, my boss wanted to measure my level of commitment or, in other
words - he wanted to see how far I will push myself to make the business work
and in that, what creative ways I could come up with to make it work. He called
me 2-3 days before I started my first day and he asked me to prepare a list of
500 potential clients before I come to work. Obviously, I didn't know 500
people and even if I would, the people that I knew would not fit the company
profile as potential prospects. But, I accepted the challenge and jumped right
to the deep water. Little did I know that the list was a test to measure my
commitment, creativity and strength but more importantly, it was for me to
recognize my ability to stand, direct and create meaning, the list was not so
much for my boss but more for me - to eliminate any and all excuses that may
come in the future where the statement: "I have no leads" can be
valid and instead break through my own limitations to discover the ability to
create.
I spent the weekend
making lists of people and contact details with the most incredible help that I
found - Google; and by the first day of work - I already had extensive lead
data base to start working with. When I got to work on the first day, I was briefly
trained on the marketing approach, the value of the product that we sold and
2-3 hours later, I was already making phone calls to schedule appointments.
Obviously, I was terrible in my real time application, it was so awful that I
felt so embarrassed inside myself. But, I had a 'why' in front of my eyes - I
couldn't give up even though I really wanted to. With the support of my boss,
who is a master in direct sales, I learned from the mistakes I have made and
made it a point for myself to investigate what went 'wrong' and align it the
next time; basically, I had to realize that perfection is not something that
you born with - it is something I must create and become within myself through
walking the process of making mistakes, learn from the mistakes, align and
correct in the physical reality.
The next problem
that I faced was with not completely and effectively understand the 'numbers
game' principle and thus, I went into the energetic cycle during the first 3
months as I explained in the first
blog post of this blog series. See, in my mind, because I had extensive
lead data base, I believed that I am playing the numbers game yet, little to no
result actually manifested - I was able to schedule appointments and meet new
people though the people that I met with were not the type of clients that were
suited for our company and so, my effort was in vein essentially.
For example, the
first 500 contact details list that I created was very random and if I would to
look a bit deeper at the details, I would have seen that 450 out of the 500
names were not qualified for the type of business that we did at all. That
means that I spent all this time making phone calls to 450 people, meeting with
a few of them, hoping that the 'numbers game' principle will work for me and
when that didn't work out I open the door for me to access the energetic cycle.
Here, I had to
understand that hope, cannot take place in a business - I must know the
product, know my prospect clients and specify my application to success or
otherwise, I will waste my own time
The clock was
ticking as there was a 'why' that I had to accomplish very fast which to me was
the number 1 priority - I was at the breaking point but I could not allow
myself to give up - I had to push myself forward and reach my goals. So I set
down with myself and brain storm my options - by the end of the day, I created
a new marketing approach to a new market that was never tested/walked at the
office - it was a long shot but there was nothing much to lose - I had to
create a plan to work in the right market and apply the numbers game. I spent a
lot of time in lead generation because that was the heart of the business - if
I didn't have qualified leads, there was no business to build. I found lead
generation to be the most time consuming part of the business, the most boring
part of the business, the most down motivated part of the business AND the most
expensive part of the business. Though, if following through the process
effectively, specifically and consistently, the lead generation phase turns
into gold which is the most rewarding part of the business.
Once I focused the
lead generation phase in the right market, with the right people, an
interesting thing happened: I still played the numbers game though I had to put
in less effort than before (when I worked with the 500 random people list that
I made before I started the business). Meaning, previously, I called maybe 100
people, seen 10 people and closed 1 sale. Now, with the focused market list, I
called 12 people, met 4 people and closed 2 sales. Thus, with understanding
that the game must be played within the right market, my effort and creativity
was specific and the only real challenge was to find 12 new prospect every week
though, it wasn't a struggle anymore because 12 people, is not a lot to ask
for.
So the point here is
to understand the relationship between the numbers game principle and the
energetic cycle that a sales person goes through when not applying the numbers
game effectively, specifically and consistently. It is very easy to blame the
business or the product/service and make so many excuses and justifications in
the mind as to why the business isn't working for oneself. Though, in self
honesty one have to ask oneself at the end of each day: Did I apply the numbers
game effectively - did I generate new specific potential leads today? Did I
schedule appointments today? Did I had an appointment today? If any of these
questions answered with a 'no' than you must realize that you didn't apply the
numbers game effectively and you will soon enough access the energetic cycle
because you allowed yourself to sit back and stray from your purpose, from your
'why'.
I often hear people
that are in the process of giving up that they have done everything in their
power to make their business work yet, they keep on failing. When opening the
point with them, there are underlying currents of excuses, justification and projected
blame as to why they are not making it in sales. This has primarily to do with
the main 2 components that we discussed thus far- the 'WHY' and 'Effective
Numbers game' application.
I looked at this
point and the process that I've walked and I found that there is one more
primary component that needs to be realized and applied in one's process of
developing a sales business mind - the Comfort Zone - this will be discussed in
the next blog post.
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Art work: Richard Diebenkorn, Seated Woman No. 44, 1966
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