7 Steps to Action

Frequently during my sales workshops I get asked “what’s the biggest contribution to success?” Now that's a tough question to answer. There are so many things that determine whether you are destined for success. If I had to pick one, it would probably be taking ACTION. Without it, you will never get the results you want.

I'm reminded of the quote 'All know the way; few actually walk it' (Bodhidharma). We're all guilty of not doing the stuff we know we should be doing.

So if you’re procrastinating on ACTIONS that you know will better your results, this exercise could really get you moving.

7 Steps to ACTION

Get yourself a writing pad and a pen you like writing with! Take your time in answering the following questions as fully as you can.

1. Write down one thing that you are procrastinating with

2. Come up with 10 reasons why you must change this now

3. What will it cost you if you don’t make this change?

4. What will you gain from this change?

5. How do you know you can absolutely make this change?

6. Create a new association with this change

For example - If you’re not making enough calls you may have an association that not making calls equals less rejection…a new association might be that making more calls equals more chances to make sales and all the kudos and money that comes with that.

7. What is your first action that you can do immediately?

This exercise will really get you in touch with the motivation to take ACTION towards what you want.

It’s great to hear how you make these strategies work for you, so please do let us know how you get on.

Leigh Ashton
The Sales Consultancy

There's No Such Thing as Failure - ask Sepp Blatter

Has Sepp Blatter failed at FIFA - or just received some timely feedback? I'd love to ask him!

There’s no such thing as Failure...
Just results! Some results you'll like. Some results you don't like. The key thing is to learn from each of your experiences.

The world is full of people who endured several setbacks before ultimately achieving success on a massive scale. Walt Disney was fired by his local newspaper because 'he lacked imagination and had no good ideas', before suffering severe setbacks in several businesses. Eventually he found a recipe that worked.

Even Henry Ford's early business career floundered as he went broke five times trying to get a business model that worked.

What did Walt Disney, Henry Ford and thousands of others have in common?

They learned from their setbacks. They ultimately succeeded because they learned from each and every time things went wrong.

So 'There's no such thing as failure' stands the test of time because it’s true. We can learn from all our experiences...good and bad. So - no failure, just a result you didn’t want, a mere stepping stone to success!

Action?
If something goes fantastically well – bottle it! Learn what it was that contributed the most to that success. You need to identify the winning formulas and then replicate them.

What if something did not go well at all? Celebrate! You'll learn more here than when you succeed. Think about the steps you took, the use of resources, the timing and every other detail that made up the result. What could you have done differently that could have made a difference?

Get feedback
Where do you get your feedback from? Who tells you how you are doing? Do you plough a lone furrow, never really thinking about it? Or are you inundated with 'feedback' from well meaning but ultimately unhelpful would be business mentors?

Welcome feedback. Get it from wherever you can. Ask for it. Ask yourself and others ‘what could I have done better?’ When people give you feedback, take it graciously. Don’t try to justify your actions, just learn from these lovely people that are kind enough and care enough to be helping you this way.

It comes down to you though - what mechanisms have you got in place to take the learns from your successes? And how are you going to dig down and find out how to avoid replicating that poor meeting, that lost sale, that unsuccessful pitch?

Example
Think about a meeting or interaction that didn’t go well.

Ask yourself the following questions:

* Was I clear on my direction and focus throughout?
* How successful was I in opening the discussion?
* Was the client at ease and able to talk freely?
* Did I collect all the information needed?
* Did I impart all relevant information?
* Did I collect information in sufficient detail?
* Did I provide clear understandable information to the client?
* Did the discussion flow smoothly from one topic to another, without awkward pauses?
* Was I courteous, tactful, etc?
* How did I show I was listening?
* Did I ask open-ended questions and expand where necessary?
* Did I ask leading questions or answer my own questions?
* Did I talk too much?
* Did I listen?
* How successful was I in closing the discussion?
* Does the client know what is to happen next?
* Did I achieve my outcome?

This check list can be used equally as effectively for up and coming meetings. For each question above ask 'How can I...' before using the same points above. Prior thinking along these lines will definitely set your unconscious mind in action to make sure you meet your imagined objectives.

So - build up your personal feedback and monitoring skills and make sure that in years to come the feedback you learn now is the springboard to massive future success.

You deserve it!

Leigh Ashton

http://www.sales-consultancy.com/