Do What is Difficult

Today I'm posting some short excerpts from my new Book - Stop Selling Start Believing
https://a.co/d/4qyylyw

Rise to the Level of Greatness

To achieve greatness, you need to learn to not just endure the things that you don't like, but do them without hesitation and embrace the suck until you are stronger and more consistent. Trust me, 90 percent of the competition won't dive in head first with a great attitude here and this is your edge.

Willingness to do the hard parts over and over again until they become easy separates the top 10 percent from the bottom 90 percent in almost every industry

The margin of victory in sales is much like it is in sports. You win or you lose, and the margin of victory only matters if you lost. The margin is what you need to improve. The infinitesimally small flaw in your process that you need to polish until it's perfect. Only by doing this will you become the version of yourself that you are capable of becoming, instead of the version that you will settle for.

A lot of the work that is going to make you a great salesperson goes on when you aren't making a call, when you aren't in front of a client. Aren't even on the clock. Greatness is earned when nobody is watching, and you are taking a run in the morning before anyone else is awake, while listening to your last five phone call recordings to learn what you can do to cut off that next tenth of a second

Your job is to find the humor in that call. And quickly move on to your next one to find the audience member who can't wait to hear what you have to say.

In some industries, you're going to deal with 100 percent cold calls and your job is to pound the phones, bang your head against the wall, and then take the pain and abuse and find the needles in a very unfriendly haystack

If you want to rise to the level of greatness as a salesperson, you need to embrace a lot of unpleasant preparation and work that needs to be done.

There is almost always paperwork, compliance issues, quotas to be met, and phone calls to make. The top people track their metrics, get coaching, record themselves, poll their customers to find out why they lost a sale, tag along with other salespeople just to learn

Hey, if you like, love, or hate my videos, don't forget to hit share, like, or subscribe. And if you're interested in getting the book, it is available pretty much everywhere the books are sold. Half off now until January 1st. 📍 It's only 4. 99. It goes up to 9. 95 on January 1st.

https://a.co/d/4qyylyw

Transcript

John: 0:00

rise to the level of greatness. The quarterback doesn't wake up one day and win a playoff game on talent alone. LeBron, Kobe, and MJ weren't just great talents, but great students of the game, there are hundreds or even thousands of people with the same physical gifts as them, but only a few are ever disciplined enough to put in the hard work and make their physical gifts reach their true potential. If you want to rise to the level of greatness as a salesperson, you need to embrace a lot of unpleasant preparation and work that needs to be done. There is almost always paperwork, compliance issues, quotas to be met, and phone calls to make. The top people track their metrics, get coaching, record themselves, poll their customers to find out why they lost a sale, tag along with other salespeople just to learn. A lot of the work that is going to make you a great salesperson goes on when you aren't making a call, when you aren't in front of a client. Aren't even on the clock. Greatness is earned when nobody is watching, and you are taking a run in the morning before anyone else is awake, while listening to your last five phone call recordings to learn what you can do to cut off that next tenth of a second. The margin of victory in sales is much like it is in sports. You win or you lose, and the margin of victory only matters if you lost. The margin is what you need to improve. The infinitesimally small flaw in your process that you need to polish until it's perfect. Only by doing this will you become the version of yourself that you are capable of becoming, instead of the version that you will settle for. A lot of salespeople were drawn into the industry specifically because we don't like details. We hate paperwork and we want to have freedom and flexibility while still making the kind of money that makes our accountant and engineering friends green with envy. However, part of almost every sales job includes a lot of very emotionally draining and unpleasant parts that hold many of us back from ever reaching our potential. Many times have you taken a sales job confident that you were going to be the number one top dog in the company? Heck, number one in the industry. You come in chomping at the bit and get in front of a customer and show everyone what a real salesperson can do. These amateurs you work with, they are not going to know what hit them when they see your numbers. Product knowledge, who needs it? Work overtime to get used to new products, industry challenges, etc. No time for that. And then when you get in front of a customer and close your first deal, back to the trenches you strut. Purchase order in hand only for your sales manager to say you messed up and left money on the table. Or worse. You don't follow up that early success with any consistency, and now you're soon finding yourself in the middle of the pack, pushing harder, more desperate with your clients on every single call, and then that success that you were so confident in is pulling farther and farther away from your grasp. This is because you neglected the unpleasant hard stuff to go for the glory. What kind of hard stuff are you avoiding? To achieve greatness, you need to learn to not just endure the things that you don't like, but do them without hesitation and embrace the suck until you are stronger and more consistent. Trust me, 90 percent of the competition won't dive in head first with a great attitude here and this is your edge. Willingness to do the hard parts over and over again until they become easy separates the top 10 percent from the bottom 90 percent in almost every industry. Taking the suck out of phone calls. One of the most common complaints salespeople in all industries have, and one of the most common procrastinated tasks that we all face, is making or taking phone calls. How many days have you gone to the office with a fantastic attitude, ready to conquer the entire world with your wit and charm, knowing that today is the day that you will make some serious bank, only to find out that your phone is suddenly heavier than Thor's hammer? You try everything to pick it up, a crane, a forklift, browsing Reddit, Facebook, and Google News. Look for answers in your email and investigate some new marketing methods that let you avoid making outbound calls altogether. Meanwhile, the phone hasn't moved, and even though it's not scientifically possible, it has actually gained mass. The weight has increased from impossible to pick up to what the heck is wrong with me. And why can't I just pick up the damn phone and make one call? I hate myself and I can't believe I did this again, pounds. And the curious thing is why your work phone is heavier. Then, the core of a neutron star, your cell phone is as light as a feather unless you're using it to make calls, and then it's only usable for things like Facebook and catching up with the latest TikTok trends. But as soon as you switch to the phone app, the mass instantly increases to infinity pounds times ten, and the green call button stops working, and at this point you realize it's lunchtime and resolve to do better this afternoon. Why do we hate making calls so much when our entire livelihood is literally dependent upon them? As a wise old man once said, because it be like that sometimes. Now the key to overcoming phone reluctance is to basically man the F up and make your first phone call as quickly as possible on your first available calling block in the morning. The key is do not procrastinate. Make that first call before you have a chance to psych yourself out and hold yourself accountable. In my outbound cold calling career, I always found it best to schedule time that was dedicated to cold calling. In business to business sales, I started promptly at 8 a. m. and would not let myself stop no matter how badly or how great it was going until I had a scheduled break. Also, by scheduling my most hated task first thing in the morning, everything else after that seemed easy, like running downhill with the wind at your back. For many of us, simply scheduling the time doesn't mean we'll actually do it on that schedule. And this is where a combination of creating tracking systems, a reward system, and an accountability system comes into play. Another thing that helps to take the pain out of calls is simply understanding that once you're in the middle of a call, you're usually at your happiest. Salespeople love to talk. And we love to talk to people. We love to close deals. The phone is our stage and the tool of our trade. And the only way to connect to your audience is to pick up the damn phone and connect to your audience. They're out there waiting to talk to you. Why are you keeping them waiting? What? Your customers aren't happy to hear you call? You're the 37th car salesman, recruiter, realtor they call that they've had today? And they're not happy? And you should go what yourself? And what? And huh, too? Wow, that didn't go exactly as I'd planned. Well, the thing to remember is the greatest actor in the world had a critic, and the greatest comedian a heckler. And the top rated movie of all time had at least some people who just freaking hated it. Your job is to find the humor in that call. And quickly move on to your next one to find the audience member who can't wait to hear what you have to say. In some industries, you're going to deal with 100 percent cold calls and your job is to pound the phones, bang your head against the wall, and then take the pain and abuse and find the needles in a very unfriendly haystack. In others, such as inbound call centers, you're going to be flooded with inbound calls because your employer spends insane amounts of money on marketing and lead partnerships, and your biggest challenge is just keeping up with the sheer never ending volume of people who are waiting for their turn to talk to you. Both of these situations have their ups and their downs, and if you're in a position to turn the outbound cold calling into more of a hybrid situation by doing marketing, purchasing leads, or hiring an ISA to do the cold calling and transfer only the interested leads over to you, It's going to make your job a lot easier. Cold calls are difficult. Warm calls are difficult. But a highly targeted, motivated customer is the most fun you're going to have all day. Put in the work or effort and investment to find them and do it with consistency and you're going to find the phone will become your best friend.

Mixcast 4-6: 6:44

Hey, if you like, love, or hate my videos, don't forget to hit share, like, or subscribe. And if you're interested in getting the book, it is available pretty much everywhere the books are sold. Half off now until January 1st. It's only 4. 99. It goes up to 9. 95 on January 1st. see you in the next video, guys.