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In the movie Knocked Up, Pete and Ben are sitting in a park watching some young children play with bubbles and Pete, reflecting on his life, says to Ben, “Look at how passionate the kids are playing with bubbles. Bubbles. I don’t have anything in my life I’m excited about as much as these kids are excited about bubbles.”
Pete is unhappy and can’t figure out what happened to his passion. Things aren’t working out the way he thought they would in his marriage and work, he’s lost his zest and excitement for life; work isn’t interesting anymore, life isn’t exciting anymore; he’s lost and wants to recapture the thrill and joy of living.
Many people we meet in the GFS program are often like Pete. Things have changed for them and while they don’t necessarily understand what changed or why they changed, they know they are unhappy with the way things are going, particularly at work, specifically with their sales. They know it’s got to be better than it is now. How does one relight the fire? How do you regain your passion for selling ?
Take Control
Stress is most often caused by feeling out of control, a sense of helpless and being unable to impact your situation. Ready for some hard news? There are no victims in Sales; we get what we expect, we get what we allow . You must take control and begin to assert your Salesperson’s Bill of Rights. Buyer’s School or Guess Free Selling? Qualifying for them or making them qualify for you? You get to pick, but make it a conscious decision, not by default. If you’re not going to admit it to anyone else, at least be honest with yourself.
Have a Plan, Have Goals
OK, now that you’re back in Control, what is the end you seek and how do you intend to hit your goals and achieve the Plan? If “sales are a by-product of activity” what are the high impact, high value activities you need to do and in what volumes? Now, here’s a tough one: how are you going to do that? What are the things you must let go in order to pick up what you want? Simplify, Eliminate, Delegate, and Outsource. These are your friends, use them.
Related: How Are You Doing With the Relationship You Have With Yourself?
Measure
That which gets measured gets done. Set up some success traps for yourself to make sure you hit your Goals, the first of which is to record what you’re doing, when, and in what volumes. Write it down. Score it. Put it in a place where you and anyone else who needs to can see it. If it more painful to look at the chart than to do the activities you’ll do the activities. If it is more painful to do the activities you’ll live with the poor results you record…until you stop writing them down. Why bother, right? Live with what you’ve got. And that is the worst part of it, living with what you’ve got when you want something more.
This is America. You can have what you want if you are willing to step up and do the things necessary to get them. Find your Bubbles, make selling fun again , and get what you want.