Commitment > Consequences

Success is only possible when you have a greater commitment to achieve the goal than the consequences you will experience if you fail.  Do you know the consequences if you fail?  Are you willing to accept them?  If you cannot live with them, your commitment is the means of overcoming them.

Commitment is transferable in all roles of your life.  Commitment to play the role of a husband or wife, mother or father, salesperson or sales manager.  And there are consequences of failure in every role.

Here are three areas to apply your commitment

1) Goals.  What is the goal of every activity? If your activity supports the goal, it is productivity.  If it doesn't, it is a distraction.  Every step in the sales process has a goal.  If you don't know the goal, any result is acceptable.  If you are calling on prospects, what is the goal of a phone call?  Make an appointment; find out the decision making process; identify the current provider?  Having more than one goal of an activity will give you a greater chance of achieving one when others fail.  Success will be defined by achieving the goal.

2) Engagement.  What are the different ways you can engage with prospects?  Now that you met them, how do you stay in touch, with a purpose?  It is never acceptable to call on a prospect and say, "I'm just touching base."  You are telling them, "I have no goal in our conversation.  I'm just here to disrupt your day, so I can tell my boss I called on you."  By this action, you are telling the prospect what kind of service they can expect from you.  Is that the message you want to be known for?  Think of the different ways to engage your prospects, like inviting them to an association meeting, forwarding them a link to an article, sending them a book that made you think of them.  I have done all of these and can tell you, it has been very beneficial to the relationship.

3) Tracking.  What are you keeping track of?  You cannot manage what you do not measure.  Knowing your numbers means you know how much time you are wasting on unqualified prospects, you know what types of prospects are a perfect fit and ones that are misfits, you know what the steps are in the sales process and you know where each prospect is in the sales process.  Track and measure everything.

Build a reputation of "doing it for real" - "being all in" - and "what have I got to lose."  Your actions are based on the risks.  When the risks are low, you will have a greater chance to succeed.  However, the risk of your own inaction are severe.  You cannot win by not taking risks.  You control your future by what you trade your time for.  Consider the goal, different ways to engage and track the results.  The greatest contributor to success is knowledge, action and commitment.

Filed Under: Change, Commitment, Failure, News, Prospecting, Role
__________________________________________________________________Scott Scott Plum is the President of the Minnesota Sales Institute. He delivers weekly sales training classes, on-site workshops, classes, seminars and sales management. Recently published the book; "Taking Off Into the Wind - Creating Lift Out of Life."  Learn more at https://www.mnsales.com or call 612-345-7251 today.  Click HERE to learn more about the Keystone Club class.