Author: David Matney

 It has been said that there are three types of people in life.

1. There are people that make it happen. 

2. There are people that watch it happen 

3. Then there are people who quite frankly, wonder what happened.

Tomorrow is the first day of February and perhaps you have lost your new years motivation, and you are in one of those categories that you do not want to be in. 

Perhaps like Groundhog Day you feel like your just living each day over and over and over. Let’s look at that one tomorrow.

Looking at your current situation, is there something missing?

Whether you’re lacking the motivation or the confidence to step out of your comfort zone, it is important to understand that every day is a new day and a new opportunity to go out and make it happen. 
Your past does not equal your future. Today is the beginning of your jumpstart to go out and make it happen. 

When someone is having difficulty getting motivated, it is something internal that is holding them back. The majority of the time, it is a lack

 of self confidence.

It is important to understand that you make the ultimate decision when it comes to making things happen. It is all about focus and state of mind. 

You have to believe in yourself and your abilities and realize that you alone control your own destiny. 

With the proper mindset, anything is possible.

Once you get into the mindset that you control your own destiny, you can begin to unlock your true potential. You must become a better version of yourself. 

You were designed with a purpose. You have to search for what truly motivates you and gives you a sense of meaning. This is how you dig deep into your inner motivation.

Break out a sheet of paper and start writing out your personal strengths. Put together a plan on how you can achieve short and long-term goals. Writing out your strengths will start to increase your overall confidence.

Going forward, refuse to get into the blame game. There are no more excuses. You must take responsibility for where you want to be in life. It is you and you alone that is in charge of your overall destiny.  Remember that this is a marathon, not a sprint. Start small. This is not going to happen overnight. Every day you must take small steps to get into a more positive frame of mind. You are building your self image and every small step that you take is building your confidence.

Write out your dreams and visualize them. Writing out your dreams will actually turn them into goals. Knowing what you really want out of life will inspire you and encourage you to take positive action. 

Stay focused and always believe in yourself. Never look back. You are not going that way.

Never let fear hold you back. Be afraid and do it anyway. Let go of the fear by listening to your positive inner self. It’s important to stay true to your commitment and you must surround yourself with others that will lift you up and inspire you.

It’s never too late to change your story and go out and make it happen. Continue to focus on the goals that excite you. This is your time!

Start building your positive routine today! 
This is the beginning of your amazing positive journey. When others ask what you are doing, you can now tell them that you are…..MAKING IT HAPPEN!

Happy Selling!

David 

If someone is successful, often the reason is attributed to their ability to “think outside the box.”

This adage seems to me to be greatly misunderstood!

So what IS the true meaning of this saying?

Today post contains three powerful truths to impact the way you think about your merchant services business.  Learn how to build a strong foundation for success.  And live the dream of every business owner – force yourself to make good decisions and protect yourself from making stupid ones.  I’ve learned this by making stupid decisions myself.  

Often, I have heard this statement, “Oh, that person is so successful
because he/she really thinks outside the box.”  Therefore, we are
encouraged to follow that example to ensure our success.

 Are successful people just living a life outside of all boundaries, rules, and constraints?  Is that the meaning of “thinking outside the box?” Nothing could be further from the truth!

In reality, the life of no rules or constraints, doing whatever you want
whenever you want is the definition of an unsuccessful, frustrated, and unhappy person.  Successful people do not think outside the box.  Successful people just make a bigger box.  

The most important ingredient to your success is the rules and constraints
you place upon yourself.  Those boundaries will force you to make good
decisions and protect you from making stupid ones.

Here are three boundaries which I think are vital for any business to be successful.

#1.  Make a conscious decision that your business is going to be profitable every single month, with one exception.  To be profitable every month means:

>You are going to make profitable decisions and give up a little bit of
long-term value to get short-term profit.

>You aren’t going to spend more money than you make.

>You won’t get investors who share your profit because they’re putting in
equity.  That will dilute your profit.

>You hire people who are gong to make you money.

>You sell people who are going to be profitable clients.

>Make profitable decisions every single day.

Then you will be profitable every single month.  This is not necessarily the way big businesses are built.  But it is the way you build a profitable business where your personal income is heavy six figures.

We read or hear stories of someone building a billion-dollar business.
The stories relate going into big debt to get capital and investors and money
to build the mega-business.

However, the stories often fail to relate that the mega-business owner was making $200,000 a year at his job or built a business making $300,000 a year as a consultant or was in sales making $150,000 a year before building the
billion-dollar business.  Most success stories were preceded by somebody making a heavy six-figure income.  That’s why they had the money and connections to build that mega-business.

The one exception I mentioned is borrowing money to spend more than you make IF using that money directly to purchase more recurring revenue with a proven marketing system.  Consider this example:  Reinvest the money into a Facebook marketing campaign.  Pay $1000 to someone like Fiverr or Modeo Media to make a nice video and $300 – $400 on the video.  Then run the math.  Perhaps for every $160 spent, you get a lead.  For every five leads, you get a
sale.  Thus, you pay $500 per sale.  Repeat this often enough to be
confident with the model.  Then borrow $10,000 so you can buy forty
customers.  So, the exception is only if you borrow money to buy customers using a proven marketing system.  In this example, the money will come in right away to pay that debt.  However, don’t borrow money to pay for payroll,
some new internet service you want, or new software that is cool.

#2.  Work a certain number of hours every week.  Work on certain things a certain number of hours every week.   This is a constraint that must be in
place!  If I ask what hours you work tomorrow or next week, you should be
able to answer that right away.  There are times when you may adjust your
schedule.  Some need to take that a step further and designate the number of hours spent on each activity which is crucial to your business.  For example, “I work these hours ____ in the field.  I spend ____  this amount of time on the phone prospecting. I work 25 hours a week walking into businesses I’ve never walked into before.”

Make your box and stay inside it!
To redefine the box is okay.  To get outside the box is NOT okay.
Learn to understand the difference.  The rules and constraints protect you from making stupid decisions, losing tons of money, and ruining your relationships.  Don’t think for a minute that successful people tear down all the walls and
constraints in life.  They just make their own rules.  They create their own box.

#3.  Pay yourself as an employee.   Even if you are the only person in your
company, create a company and pay yourself as an employee.  You will be
amazed what this does to your attitude!  This is also one key element in
knowing if your business is profitable.  Some of you think, “This year I’m
going to make $50,000.00 – $100,000.”  That’s a great dream, but make it a
goal by deciding how to accomplish it. Pick an amount of money and make that amount.  Then you can pay yourself a monthly profit distribution if you have extra.  If your business is very profitable, you can make the decision to pay yourself more money!

Talk to your CPA about the best way to structure that for tax  advantage.  If you are not an employee of your own company, you are making a huge mistake and are not believing in yourself enough.  Eventually if you want to hire more people and build a larger company, you’ve got to be set up to employ people.  Get a payroll processing service.  Have them pay your taxes.  To be an employee is so nice!

These are a sample of my rules which may benefit you.  Perhaps you say, “ David, I don’t know about those rules of yours.”  That’s fine; make your
own!   Just be sure you have rules, constraints, boundaries.  That, my friends, is the key to your success.

Happy Selling,

David

Have you found yourself being satisfied with just being average?

Unfortunately, a large majority of people have found themselves in the predicament of being unmotivated and just getting by. They are simply coasting along, stuck in neutral.

Let me remind you today that you are created for greatness. There is much more to life than just getting by being stuck in neutral. The amount of satisfaction that you get from life depends largely on your own self sufficiency and resourcefulness.

Those that wait around for life to supply their satisfaction usually find boredom instead.

The door of opportunity will not open unless you push it. Do not sit back and take what comes. It’s time for you to go after what you really want in life. There are plenty of opportunities around you. You must get aggressive and go after them. They usually will not find you, you must go out and find them.

The reason most people don’t go very far in life is they procrastinate. Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried. It’s time to seize your opportunities.

If you have found yourself in the trap of boredom, and being average, it’s time to shift out of neutral, and get motivated to get on the right track.

Start right now with a pen and paper and write down the goals that you would like to accomplish for the rest of this year, next year, and the next five years. Be specific on exactly what you want out of life. Once you have these specific goals, put together a detailed success plan on what it’s going to take to achieve your dreams.

Get excited about what the benefits of fulfilling those goals will be. This will give you the motivation and determination to go out and achieve them. For the times that you do not feel motivated, go back and review your goals as a reminder of why you began in the first place.

Do not procrastinate any longer!

Today is your day, and now is your time. Do not wait for the right opportunity to appear. There will never be a right time or right opportunity.

It’s time to get to work and it’s time to take action. As you begin to take action, you’ll be amazed at how motivated you’ll feel to keep going. You will uncover new opportunities that you would never have thought would be available. This is called momentum. The only way you’re going to establish momentum is through consistency. Get to work and do it now!

It’s also important to get some accountability in your life. Take a look at your inner circle. If you are the smartest one in that circle, it’s time to get a new circle.

Remember, you are who you hang with. Surround yourself with winners who are going to encourage you and hold you accountable to your goals.

This is your time! You have incredible opportunities right at your fingertips. It’s time to shift out of neutral and go out and make it happen.

It doesn’t matter if you feel that you are ready or not. Do it anyway and do it right now!

Are you ready for greatness? Now go out and make it happen!

Happy Selling,

David

Most people can put on a smile, practice a firm handshake and put together a sales presentation. However, few people can stand out in the sea of 18 million salespeople and outsell their competition consistently. So, we want you to know what separates the average salesperson from the one’s meeting and exceeding quota, year after year. We’ve  compiled these week’s top 10 Sales Skills To Be An Effective Salesperson.

From the Home Office in Sale City, Georgia Here are The TOP 10 Sales Skills to Be An Outstanding Salesperson, 

10. Product Knowledge

Every salesperson should have an extensive understanding of their product – down to the smallest features. Nothing erodes trust more than a salesperson who doesn’t know how to answer a question. As a salesperson, be sure you do extensive research on the product or service you’re selling before reaching out to potential customers. However, if you are asked a question that you really don’t know the answer to, be honest and go find the answer. The only thing worse than having no knowledge is having incorrect knowledge!

9. Prospecting Skills

Finding the right person in your target account is half the battle. The key to meeting your sales quota is to find leads and prospects who are genuinely interested or in need of your product or service. Using platforms such as Staccato Pro can help your sales team navigate the prospecting process and more effectively connect with the right people in target accounts.  

8. Active Listening

Throw out the mentality of a one-size-fits-all sales pitch. Being an effective salesperson means listening to what your potential client needs and fully addressing their concerns – and adjusting messaging as needed. This is where knowing your product becomes instrumental. By listening to your prospect’s questions and needs, you avoid ‘pitching’ your product and instead, build the product/service solution that to addresses their specific challenges.

7. Communication

Whether you’re talking with your lead through email, via phone or in person, great communication is one of the primary skills a salesperson needs to succeed. A great salesperson is a great communicator. But it doesn’t just stop at verbal communication. You also need to take into account your overall speaking tone and body language. 

6. Time Management

Being wise with your time is one of the primary skills of a great salesperson. It’s important to manage your time with the right leads. Cold calling uninterested prospects can waste a substantial amount of time. Great salespeople are strategic in who they reach out to in addition to ending their first sales call with a call to action. Rather than waiting to seal the deal during a future meeting, it’s important to initiate the next steps during your first conversation to quicken the pace of conversion from lead to customer.

5. Objection Handling

No matter how great your value proposition is, encountering objections is a common occurrence. The best salespeople are experts at handling objections and can accommodate a potential client’s needs while still adding the urgency to move the sale forward. This skill requires extensive practice and sales training.

4. Relationship Building

Sales isn’t just a series of numbers, graphics and speeches. Long-term sales success stems from a solid business relationship. It’s important to keep in contact with your customer even after the first sale is complete. You should strive to keep the relationship ongoing by checking in on their needs, seeing if they are satisfied with your product and finding out what their future plans are. Don’t be the salesperson who only checks in around renewal time! Another thing you can do is send personal, hand-written notes 

3. Storytelling

One skill that will make you stand out in a crowd of salespeople is being an adept storyteller. Many potential clients may have already been approached by multiple vendors that are similar to you. By telling a story about your product that relates to your audience, you’ll be able to make the benefits much more real and impactful.

2. Socially Active

If you’re not taking advantage of social selling on sites including LinkedIn and Twitter, you’re missing out on an enormous source for potential sales revenue. According to a study in Forbes, 78 percent of salespeople who use social media outperform their peers, and 98 out of 100 sales reps who have at least 5,000 contacts on LinkedIn meet or surpass their sales quotas.

And the #1 Top 10 Sales Skills To Be An Outstanding Salesperson is……….

1. Resilience

Rejection is an inevitable aspect of being a salesperson. It’s not for the faint of heart!  It takes a resilient attitude to accept the rejections, and simply move on to the next prospect. The most successful salespeople are the ones who developed a thick skin and persevered through the rejections.

There you have it. The Top 10 Sales Skills To Be An Outstanding Salesperson. What skills did I miss? Let me know.

Have a great weekend,

Ask yourself, If we can’t be passionate about helping others, how can we be passionate about sales?   

Sales is not about what we sell, sales is about helping the prospect/ customer see and achieve what they didn’t think was possible. 

Far too much time is spent by salespeople on product knowledge and far too little time spent on customer knowledge.  

Think about when you started your new sales job. I imagine the company spent far more time walking you through all of the details of the products or services than on how to sell.  

No wonder salespeople are product-centric, since from day one that’s where the focus has been.

Our customers don’t care what we’re selling.  What they’re looking for are solutions to their challenges. The problem is we don’t spend enough time with our customers to understand their challenge at a deeper level.

I once read about a car buying experience. The salesperson only had one thing in mind: telling this young lady about the 4-wheel drive and how the SUV would never get stuck.  The salesperson couldn’t stop talking about the size of the engine and its acceleration.  None of this mattered to the young lady, the only things she cared about was great heated seats and an awesome sound system.  Everything else was noise and ultimately a distraction. 

The salesperson lost the sale for one simple reason. He was caught up in the product and never took the time to listen to the young ladies needs.  If he had listened, he would have closed the sale quickly. The sale broke down for one simple reason: the salesperson failed to care and was not interested in asking questions or understanding the customer.   

Sales does not have to be as hard as it’s made out to be IF we’re passionate about the customer.

Imagine you get a phone call with a company looking to hire you, yes you,  to speak at their sales kickoff meeting.  They shared the date, the city, how long they wanted you to speak, how many people would be attending and then they asked what your fees are. 

How could you give them a fee when you don’t know the outcome they’re looking for?  How could you know if you’re even the right fit for them?  

What the company shared  was just facts, they didn’t share the reason why. 

The missing ingredient was the need for a conversation, the need to begin asking questions to get them to share more. If we  fail to engage them in a meaningful conversation,  we would have been doing them a disservice.  

This is what makes sales great, it’s not just our service being sold or bought, it’s conversation to understand the best solution. When we’re passionate about the customer they can see it, feel it, and hear it quickly in how we interact with them.  

Passion is huge in sales, it’s far more powerful than we realize.

When we have passion, the conversations change.  There’s an important shift from the salesperson doing all the talking to the customer doing most of the talking.

There’s a big reason why I say sales is not a job, it’s not even a profession but rather a lifestyle.  

When we are passionate about helping people it comes across in everything we do 24/7.  It’s not like we turn it on to sell and then turn it off. Being passionate is part of our DNA.  

Recently I was having lunch with another salesperson who, like me, sees sales as a lifestyle. Our conversation was incredibly engaging, so much so our waitperson even joined in. Think about that for a moment, the waitperson in a busy restaurant at noon suddenly stopping to engage with us.  

Sure we can all say the reason was simple; they were working for their tip— but it shows something else.  When you’re engaging, it brings out the best in others, changes how they see things, and what they say. Being passionate about serving others is contagious.

Ok, you’re wondering if we left a bigger tip, of course we did.  Now, here’s where the difference becomes huge: I don’t remember a thing about our lunch conversation, I doubt the person I was eating with or the waitperson does either.  We forget the words spoken very quickly, but we don’t forget how the other person makes us feel.

Being passionate with others you meet will change dramatically how they feel about you after the conversation is over. 

Happy Selling,

David

Anyone can share information.

It’s the questions you ask—not the information you share—that is going to make the sale. Plus, the answers you get aren’t just going to educate you, but also your future prospects.

1. Engage with questions, not information. 

Prospects can get information. If you want to engage a prospect, engage them with questions. It’s the questions you ask that are going to get them talking about the information you need to hear. 

If all you do is share information, sure, you’re educating the prospect, but you’re not doing anything for yourself. 

Questions aren’t limited to discovery. I can even ask questions in the prospecting email, or a prospecting voicemail. 

2. Show your confidence and competence.

Asking questions more frequently is a way that I demonstrate two things: my confidence and my competence. 

Asking questions that are relative to your business, or your industry, set you apart as more qualified and more informed.

Example – Is there any specific aspect of your current credit card processing service that you like or actually find helpful?

You see what I did there? I asked a question relative to something of interest to their industry. I love leading off with something that connects to them. 

This is much better than saying, “Hi, I’m David Matney with Payment Lynx, we’ve been in business for 15 years and yada, yada, yada.” That’s just telling you information that’s not going to get you anywhere.

3. Questions help you qualify.

If I have the ability to get their attention, I’m going to ask you that question and depending on how they respond, I’m going to ask a follow-up question. I’ll keep asking them questions in order to truly understand if I can qualify them as a prospect. 

If all I’m doing is sharing information, I have no idea if you’re a qualified prospect. It just means you’re a lead, a suspect that responded. The sooner I ask questions, the sooner I save myself from wasting precious time on a prospect that won’t sign.

4. The more specific the questions the better.  

This is one of the reasons why prospecting always has to happen within an ICP. Your ideal customer profile has got to be tight, as then the questions I use for one prospect I can use for another. 

I begin to get Intel back. When I’m asking questions within the ICP, I’m not only educating myself, but I’m educating future prospects. 

You want to be able to write out 10 questions that you can ask a prospect. Then you only need to do a little research to create three to four company-specific questions.

Now I’ve linked the Top 10 Questions to Ask Merchants to Earn Their Trust here. I’m going to lead off with a question to start to establish interest and rapport, In other words, the tighter I can make the question, the more effective. Then I may add an industry question, and suddenly they begin to realize, whoa, this person’s pretty smart. 

The more times you ask these questions, you’re going to be able to refine them even better. 

5. Meaningful questions get you to the next step. 

If I’m asking you meaningful questions and you’re responding to me, I’m going to be much more likely to get that CTA , call to action. 

“Hey, great conversation. Tuesday, 10 o’clock if you’ve got time. Let’s put it on the calendar right now. I’ve got quite a bit more information to share with you.” 

Notice I’m creating a value-added ‘call to action’ based on the questions. 

Questions will drive the results you want to achieve in prospecting.

Here’s the link to Top 10 Questions to Ask Merchants to Earn Their Trust

Happy Selling,

David

What type of person inspires and motivates people? 

Usually, it’s a person who is very passionate about what he or she is doing. Usually, they’re on fire and you can tell right off the bat that they are the type of person that gives 100%!

We’ve all heard the term “giving it 100%” but what does it really mean? 

What makes 100%? 

What does it mean to give it 100%? 

What makes up 100% in life? 

Here’s a simple mathematical formula that might answer these questions for all of us:

If you take A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z

and represent each letter as a number like:

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20-21-22-23-24-25-26

then

H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98 percent

K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96 percent

but

A-T-T-I-T-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100 percent

The lesson for all of us is pretty clear. Hard work and knowledge are a prerequisite for success, but without a POSITIVE ATTITUDE you’ll never reach your FULL POTENTIAL and give your family, your business and your life 100 percent!
 
More Thoughts on Attitude

“Everything can be taken from a man but the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”  – Viktor Frankl

“The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.”  – Scott Peck

“The greatest part of our happiness depends on our dispositions, not our circumstances.” – Martha Washington

“Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.”

Happy Selling,

David

At the beginning of each year, many people start out with great intentions of making positive changes in their lives. They are motivated and inspired. All that is fantastic, but motivation alone is not enough. In order to have long term success, you must be able to discipline yourself.

Self-discipline is the ability to push yourself forward, stay motivated, and take action, regardless of how you are feeling. There will be days when you just don’t feel like making it happen. Being disciplined has nothing to do with your feelings. It is self-discipline that makes you take action each day.

Disciplining yourself is different from self motivation or willpower. Motivation and persistence are all part of it. However, self-discipline is what gets you to a high success level.

I’ve heard many people say “I’d like to be successful but I just don’t feel inspired or motivated.”

The first step is to put together a big WHY.

There has to be a specific reason why you want success. Begin by choosing a goal that you want to focus on to develop your self-discipline.

As we talked about last Wednesday on keeping thr prospecting muscle strong, self-discipline is much like a muscle. The more you work on using it, the stronger it becomes.

Start out with small goals and, as time goes on, increase the level of challenge. The more you work at it, the better you’ll become.

Like we discussed on last Thursday post about overcoming obstacles we need to understand that obstacles and challenges are part of the process. You have to expect that. You need to identify the obstacles that you’ll likely face when working towards your goal. Put together a strategy for overcoming each one. This will allow you to be prepared when those obstacles do show up.

Disciplining yourself also requires breaking some bad habits. Learn to replace bad habits with something more productive. As you are working on disciplining yourself, monitor your progress. It’s a great idea to even keep a journal to write out your self-discipline goals, and to track your progress. This will allow you to look back and see the progress that you have made.

If you ask anyone who has achieved high levels of success, they will stress the importance of disciplining yourself. It’s the self-discipline that helps you to stay focused and to maintain a strong consistent work ethic.

The truth is that the key to success is disciplining yourself. Self-discipline allows consistent effort, goalsetting, and the ability to overcome obstacles and challenges. It helps to keep focused and teaches you to build the success habits necessary for long-term achievement.

Get motivated and get inspired, but understand that it’s going to take disciplining yourself to get to the success levels that you really want to reach.

The question is “How bad do you want it?”

This is your time! This is the beginning of something big! Now go out and make it happen!

Happy Selling,

David

Top performers just do things differently.  They have a very succinct strategy because the only day we can truly impact is today.

Yesterday has passed, and tomorrow is yet to come.  Today is for making a difference. As always in true David Letterman form…. 

From the Home Office in Uncertain, Texas Here are The Top 10 Way’s Top Salespeople do to Win

10. Attitude

Top performers don’t moan and groan when Monday rolls around. They’re excited, and seek to make Mondays absolutely successful. 

Mondays is without a doubt, the best day of the week because it sets the tone for the week. Top performers have an attitude of success and expectation of being able to influence and impact other people.

9. Routine

Have a routine and stick with it. That means every day: this is what it looks like. 

I look at many, many top performers and as I’ve studied their calendars, it’s amazing how every day at 9:00 is the same thing.

Whatever time your day starts, those first few hours are crucial for setting the tone and expectations for the day. 

8. Goal focused

They don’t deviate from their goals. Every day might not move them closer to their goal, but they know that every day they’re going to work on their goal. 

I set goals, and I review them daily. And all my activities that I’m doing over the course of the day are geared to help me achieve those goals. 

Are there some days that just don’t work out? Yes. But you know what? I know if I just stay focused and stay consistent, I’ll get there.

7. The 10:00 AM rule

Set your alarm for 10:00 AM because when it goes off, I want you to ask yourself, “What have I achieved of significance already today?”

Now let’s say from 10:01 on, your day falls apart. You’ve still had a great day because you accomplished something significant before 10:00 AM. 

If, on the other hand, you accomplish something significant and it doesn’t fall apart, guess what? You’re empowered. You’re feeling good, and it’s amazing how much more you do that day. 

Now, I get up around 4:30 in the morning, so if you’re an early riser like me, try an 8:00 AM rule. 

6. Clear objectives

I set my week, or my day with the objectives I’m going to accomplish. But what about those times that I may get to 5:00 p.m. or 6:00 p.m. and I haven’t achieved those objectives? I’m going to stay focused and get those objectives accomplished–even if that means staying up late. Sure, life happens. But when you set up daily objectives and you fail to achieve them, you’ve actually cheated yourself.

5. Expectation to win

There’s a reason why top performing teams win the close games, because they just have an expectation to win. Average people settle for average. “It is what it is…” 

Sure, the sun will come up in the morning, but I’m still going to figure out a way to win.

4. Gratitude

Absolute gratitude, thankful. One of the things that I do every morning is take a moment to be thankful. I have a quiet time where I’m reflecting on those who have impacted me. 

I’m thinking of those who I’ll be talking to over the course of the day, and I have a sense of gratitude.  Yes, I’m a very spiritual person. I love my faith and I spend time in gratitude for what I’ve been given.

3. Respect for others

You can’t demonstrate gratitude without having respect for others. When I have a respect for others, it’s amazing how doors just seem to open up. I can’t tell you the number of times when I’ve done some of the simplest things for others, and I don’t even do it with an expectation of anything in return. Stuff just happens!  

Just spend time listening to somebody and it’s amazing what you’ll hear. Respect changes what you think of yourself, and you realize that you can learn from every other person out there.

2. No flinching 

There are curve balls that are thrown at you, but no flinching. You just put it aside, and keep going. 

Look at a top performing athlete. They may miss a shot, or do something unexpected, but they put it aside and they power back up. I may have a call that doesn’t go the way I want it to, or something breaks or my computer dies, but I’m not going to allow it to take time away 

And the #1 Way Top Salespeople Win the Day is …..

1. They have unbelievable commitment

They are committed to their success, and that means soaking up all learning possible. Are you going to read this blog today and do nothing? Or will you find a golden nugget (or two) to apply this week, month, year? My all time favorite quote is from Tom Hopkins ” You are your greatest asset. Put your time, effort and money into training, grooming, and encouraging your greatest asset.”

So follow these 10 tips and apply them today, as I’ve said before, your future self will thank you. 

Have a awesome weekend,

David 

The number one obstacle to prospecting is not what you think it is. 

People always think they don’t have the right leads, or don’t have the right script. That’s not the number one obstacle. The number one obstacle with prospecting really comes down to your time and your mindset. Okay, that’s two. But they go hand in hand.

I find that people are using the lack of leads, CRM system, or time as an excuse because they can’t get their head wrapped around what they need to do.

Instead of excuses, try these three things:

1. Stop worrying, start doing.

We psych ourselves up that we can’t make these two, five or ten cold calls, whatever it might be. 

If every cold call takes perhaps 5-15 minutes and your goal is 2-3 call in that hour, But if you sit in your car and allow your mindset to go wonky on you, and spend all this time fretting, you’ll actually spend three, four times the amount of time it should take to make those calls 

That mindset impedes our time.

Break down the prospecting activity you need to do into very granular activities. The conversation might be only three minutes, four minutes, that’s it. 

2. Time block.

Set yourself up to say, I’m going to do this at an exact time. 

One of the things that highly motivated people do is regulate how they use their time. They time block everything.  The mindset drives the time set, and the time set drives the mindset. 

Create the dedicated time, and it will get done. 

3. It’s only a conversation. 

I’ve yet to see a headline where a salesperson making a sales call got maimed, stabbed, or lost an arm.

It’s just a cold call. And if you can’t make that, then maybe you should not be in sales. 

Instead, remember why you are in sales. Because you want to be able to help people! You want to be able to help people, and you know that you can. 

This is what drives me every day.

Happy Selling,

David