The three things you need to go pro in 2020

I recently started working as head of sales for a company out of beautiful Victoria, British Columbia. As a sales leader, it's my responsibility to understand the sales cycle (how do we acquire and retain new customers) and how are our most successful reps being successful. If we can understand these two principles, we can drive greater success through the entire organization. Today, I'm going to focus primarily on what I've seen across the board to really go from being a hobbyist to being successful in the direct sales channel.

In my new role, I began calling those outliers who had recently promoted in their business. As I interviewed them, I started hearing some recurring themes--principles that lead to success in any area of our lives, principles that span brands and sales channels. This is what I learned.

UNDERSTAND DRIVERS

First, each of these individuals understood what the key activities were that would drive their businesses forward. In a sales environment, each individual must know how to acquire and retain customers to experience growth. If they engage in these activities, they get results. If they do more of them, they get more results. If they recruit others who are doing them, they see even more results. If, however, the sales process is mystery, progress will be slow at best.

As an example, I was recently working with a skincare business that decided they wanted to get rid of the party-planning model. They got rid of their host-rewards program and tried to push all of their reps to getting sales via social media. In a word, it was a DISASTER. Sale dropped. Volume was down. Reps' income dropped. The board was trying to figure out what went wrong. It didn't take a genius to see they stripped the company of a simple sales model--activities to acquire customers and retain them. Once that's gone, it's every man, woman and child for themselves. Sales training is worthless and the sales team ends up looking more like the Wild West.

That said, your job as a sales leader is to understand the sales model. Understand how your organization is acquiring customers and how they're retaining customers. If that model is broken, fix it. Dig into the sales team, find out what is working, and make it scalable to everyone. Know how you create awareness, interest, and convert customers. Know what mechanisms you have to retain those customers--is it an auto ship, is it a customer management system, or is it through routine face-to-face interactions. Once you have those cycles mapped out, scale it. Get the whole team involved. Train. Incent. Promote. Recognize those who are having success. Get that sales flywheel spinning. On that note, you might need some help. That leads us to our next point.

SEEK OUT THE BEST

Tony Robbins says to live your best life you need to focus on state, story and strategy. State is how you feel about yourself, about life, about your situation, about your environment. Story is the mental story you tell yourself about who you are, your capabilities and your limitations. Strategy is the method you use to become more successful in any aspect of your life--work, relationships, health, etc. Tony teaches if we can change your state, naturally you'll change your strategy. If you change your strategy, over time your story will naturally change to become more confident and powerful.

I don't want to focus on changing your state. We can save that for another post. Rather, let's focus on the strategy portion of Tony's principles.

There are recipes, methods, and ways to be successful in this world. They're not secret. There are people out there who know the strategies, who know the patterns in life to be successful. If you want to get in shape, go find those who are actually living the life. Learn from them. Understand their routines, what they eat, how they workout, and what they watch to keep motivated. If you want to become more financially independent, there are individuals out there who are doing it every day. You need to understand their theories, their principles, their routines, their strategies. If you're looking for success in business, you need to find those who are doing incredibly well in the channel their operating. Understand their methods, their tactics, their scripts, their targets, their marketing efforts. There are no secrets. The information is out there. It just requires you to seek it out, learn it, and apply the principles you learn to be successful in any aspect of your life.

FOCUS

Focus is not just beneficial, it's required. Each of these individuals who promoted in the last year recently went from a multi-tasking approach to a more focused approach. What do I mean by that? I've often heard about people "working their business in the nooks and crannies of their lives." Yes, you'll probably always be "on call," but chasing fire alarms and things that are urgent but not important will never take you to the next level. Becoming a professional requires real focus.

So how do you focus?

Get rid of the myth that you can get your best work out of multi-tasking. Yes, you can cross things off your to-do list that way, but your best thinking, your most creative ideas, your true genius will only be tapped during heads-down focus. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (positive psychologist and founder of flow-state theory) teaches us that those who are most successful, happiest, and fulfilled with their work are those who can get in the flow state on a regular basis. These are the individuals who understand the drivers of their business. They block out 30-60 minutes to focus relentlessly on those activities that really increase acquisition, retention and enrollments. They get into the "zone." What does the zone feel like? Those who really tap into this part of their brain know it's where one loses track of time (it either speeds up or slows down), peripheral vision and background noise meld away, and all senses are 100% aligned behind the task at hand. Only in this state, can we tap into the genius that each of us have inside of us.

SPRINT

At this point in life, are you tired of New Year's Resolutions? If you're like most Americans, you set a few goals. You work on them for the first month or two, but then they're forgotten for the next 10-11 months. In other words, those long-term goals never really get done. They just sit in the back of our minds, nagging us to be better and do better. Who likes the guilt kicking them in the butt ALL THE TIME? Not me.

Let me offer a solution. Don't set long-term goals. Set short-term sprints. We can all do something for 30-days. We can all do something for two weeks. We can endure the pain and discomfort, the sacrifice for a little while. That's all you have to do. Forget six months from now. Forget next year. Forget the big-picture goal. Focus on the activities that drive to that bigger goal and do those activities for 2-4 weeks at a time. Focus on them relentlessly. Focus your time and focus your activities, and you will see amazing things happen in your business.

It's not rocket science

So going pro in 2020 isn't rocket science, but it does require change. It requires focus both with your time and activities, and it requires ensuring you have the right coach/mentor to point you in the right direction. Decide today you're going pro. Carve out that precious time. Understand those simple activities that are essential to your success. Spend a bit of cash to get the mentor/coach. Get ready to hit it hard for 15-30 days. With those simple steps, you'll go from a hobbyist to a pro. It won't happen over night, but it will happen. I guarantee.