11: Don't Procrastinate--Activate!
"Magical things" won't happen just because you read a book or took a class on salesmanship, an reflecting on ideas doesn't accomplish anything. You have to take action.
The author expresses some dismay that, as a trainer, much of his advice falls on deaf ears: people attend a training event, then go back to the office and carry on as usual. They feel that the course didn't work because their numbers didn't improve. He guesses that 70% of his students will fail to thrive for the same reason - they do not put ideas into action - but the other 30% who do will get real results.
He also laments those who "overthink" instead of "overdo" - if you spend time analyzing the process, you'll find an excuse not to change from existing routines: they are comfortable, though ineffective. He also cautions against probing the client - if you ask someone "would you like it if I started ..." chances are they will say "no" and you will use it as an excuse not to make a change that will result in a more important "yes", the one that closes the deal.
The way to proceed is to make changes, do things that seem uncomfortable at first, and see the results. Do not reveal your motivations and tactics to anyone - not your fellow staffers, not your competitors, and not your prospects and clients.
The results you will get from training depend on the effort you put into practicing what you have learned. If you take no action, you will get no results. If you timidly make a few changes, you will get negligible improvement. If you boldly take dramatic action, you will get dramatic results. It's much like driving: the harder you press on the accelerator, the faster the car goes.
The author challenges the reader to take a bit of time - fifteen minutes at least - to do a complete "brain cleanse" and make a list of all the skills he has taught in the book. Do it on a legal pad, a mobile device, or a computer. For each item, determine the level of impact you think it can have on your sales, and mark it as emergent (you are already doing this), urgent (you're not doing it, and should be), and non-urgent (you could do it, but it may not have dramatic effects). Over the next several days, refer to the list to get a sense of what you should be doing: mark the things you actually do and make a point of doing those items you are avoiding, especially the urgent ones.
He also suggests setting deadlines and making schedules, as people tend to procrastinate. Anything that can be done "whenever" tends to get done never. Make sure you work on the things that have the greatest impact, per your ratings. And few of these things are "once and done" - set a goal of doing them multiple times.
You should also chart this against your performance, commissions and closes, to give you a sense of how these actions are impacting your bottom line. The more you do, the greater results you will see, and the greater motivation you will have to tackle the ones you are likely avoiding. Ultimately, the engine that drives any plan is the results it will achieve - and unless you pay attention, you can miss the progress you're making and assume you're spinning your wheels.
Another tip is, for each action item, write down all the things that might come up that will hinder or impede you in making a change, and consider how to react to them. This should be a familiar exercise: it's exactly like overcoming the objections a client will raise in the selling process - only here, you're selling yourself.
He also suggests having a "support team" that will help remind you of your goals and poke you when you are no making progress. These need to be people who will be direct and matter-of-fact with you, rather than those who will forgive you for backsliding and give comfort when you fail.
Another tactic is the "personal minimum standards" list - similar to an inspection checklist. This tool creates a procedure you can follow, checking off the items as you go. It makes sure you do everything you should, and having a written procedure that you follow consistently helps to to get into the habit. It also makes it easier to recognize what you haven't done, or modify the procedure to add new steps when needed. You should have a daily, weekly, and monthly list of things to do, as well as a checklist for each client or prospect.
The author cites a few case-studies that offer proof of the kind of results his system has achieved for others, and can achieve for the reader: the salesman who increased is personal income by 50% in six months, etc. Not everyone who takes his course experiences these results - the ones who are serious about improvement and are willing to undertake the effort do.
Why I Wrote This Book
Here at the end of it all, the author pauses to explain some of the reasons he wrote this book: it took a lot of time on top of his demanding schedule, time that could have been spent earning money by serving more clients, delivering more training courses, and the like.
However, as a 26-year professional, he is appalled by the amount of "garbage" out there in the sales training marketplace, and he's seen a lot of promising professionals who, in seeking to become better at their jobs, have been led astray. That's not to say his is the "last word" on salesmanship, and he acknowledges there are good trainers out there - but the tend to be few and far between. The "vast majority of what I see being passed off as solid sales training" is worthless, and sometimes it is even destructive.
He maintains that sales in not merely an honorable profession, but a critical component of the modern world: the lives and livelihood of the vast majority of people depends on making or providing some product or service to others, or assisting in some way in that activity. None of this happens unless things are sold.
And that's the incentive for this book: an effective salesman makes a difference for himself and his family, his own company and his customers, and the welfare of many.
And so, he's given the reader these tools, and asks "What are you going to do with it?" The challenge to the reader is to act on it - don't procrastinate, but start right now.