Half-Time Sales Pep Talk

This message contains 548 words and will take you just a few minutes to read.

Like it or not; believe it or not, today is June 30th. That's the halfway point for the year so it's the perfect time for a half-time Sales pep talk.

Are you ahead? Are you behind? Did you achieve your first-half goals or did you miss them? What did you do that worked? What did you do that didn't work? How is your pipeline? What did you do to get better at what you do? How much of your own time and money did you invest in yourself to get better at what you do? Were you able to clearly articulate your value proposition? Have you been a trusted advisor? Were you able to consistently hit your face-to-face appointment goals? Did you out-work and out-hustle your competitors? Did you ask great questions to uncover needs? Was your pre-call preparation and follow-up exceptional? Did you ask for the business? Did you close the business?

If you're winning, there's still another half to go so this is no time to relax and take your foot off the gas. You'll still need to out-work and out-hustle your competitors. You'll still need to put in the time and effort to continue to be successful. You'll still need to invest in yourself to get better and you'll need to be prepared in the event you lose some major business through no fault of your own. You'll need to pad your lead. This is not the time to be making excuses about how difficult it is to get appointments with decision makers because it's Summer. And don't forget the team in the other locker room - your competitors. Their coach is kicking their asses right now. Their coach is threatening their jobs so do you think they'll come strolling out for the second-half and just let them beat you?

If you're losing, there's still another half to go so this is when you get tough. This is when you make the commitment to do whatever it takes to turn things around, out-work and out-hustle your competitors. You'll need to rid yourself of all the bad habits, laziness and excuses that put you in this situation. You'll need to take a long, hard look at yourself in the mirror and you'll need to dig deep - really deep - to summon up everything you have to make an epic comeback.

Some of you may be familiar with the Christopher McDougall quote:

"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up knowing it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up knowing it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter if you're the lion or the gazelle - when the sun comes up, you'd better be running."

Let me tweak that for the purpose of this message.

Every morning in business, salespeople wake up knowing they must be better than their competitors or they will lose their jobs. Every morning in business, competitors wake up knowing that they must be better than their competitors or they will lose their jobs. It doesn't matter whether you're winning or losing at half-time. There's a whole second half to go to determine if you'll be the winner or the loser.

What's it going to be, folks? The choice is yours.

Good luck to you all even though winning is rarely about luck. Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. Are you prepared?