Motivation is a Head Game

9 07 2009

motivation

Don’t ever tell me “you do what you want to do when you want to do it”…  It’s stupid!  It’s emotional and lacks the sustainability to take you to your goal line.

The best motivation is cognitive.  It is deeply rooted in the neuro-triggers that make every decision that we even start to think about.

Burn your vision into your brain and you will find the sustainability to see your way past any obstacle that gets in your way.

How to do that:

  1. Put in extra effort even when you don’t feel like it… you’ll teach yourself the art of “thinkable” discipline…
  2. Stop complaining about things that are out of your control… you’ll teach yourself how focus on current reality…
  3. Tell 50 people what you intend to do…  you’ll teach yourself how to be accountable…
  4. Create a mindmap of how you accomplish your goal…  you’ll teach yourself how to strategize around obstacles…
  5. Care deeply about your own success… you’ll teach yourself that putting in the effort is always worth it…

It’s amazing.  When you have finished training yourself (your mind really…) how to act, it all becomes a habit and you find yourself winning rather than losing, fighting rather than throwing in the towel.

You are motivated by how you have trained your mind to think, RATHER than a short term “energy drink” of emotional frantic-ism.

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Sales Mentoring Madness

8 07 2009

boySales mentoring without demanding accountability is like trying to dunk a basketball with an 80-pound backpack on — you might still be able to hit the goal, but it’s really tiring, somewhat painful, and quite a bit annoying…

Give help but demand follow-up!

Without accountability you’ll burn out on helping other people even if you are passionate about what you are doing…

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Just Do It Already…

7 07 2009

Your Effort Differentiates!

Your Effort Differentiates!

My CEO buddy Kriss Wilson posted a quote on Twitter from Buddha that fit right in to some of my recent thinking about selling and the differentiation between those who SELL and those who are “working on it.”

I return to my passion about effort and the idea of the PQ that creates All-Stars.

First — a quote from the mind of Kriss:

“Fools wait for a lucky day but every day is a lucky day for an industrious man.” ~Buddha

Quite a lot of selling is doing…

It’s about putting in the necessary effort to navigate your way around obstacles to be successful.  It’s about being indefatigable, unstoppable, completely motivated…

It’s NOT:

……saying,
…………thinking,
………………planning,
……………………preparing
…………………………debating,
………………………………creating,
……………………………………testing,
…………………………………………searching,
………………………………………………building,   or
……………………………………………………making calls!

It is about EFFORT and the art of EXECUTING!

It’s the age old principle of “making your own luck”!

No sooner had my mind stopping spinning when I got a call from Tom Searcy which led to another discussion with a CEO in need of “sales execution” — not any of the things listed above.

And I again questioned this.

WHY? Why is execution so hard for start-ups?

And it really comes to a handful of explanations:

  • You don’t know how…
  • You are too busy with less important details…
  • You underestimate the required amount of hard work…

I usually find in working with high performing CEO’s that the last reason is by far the most common reason for lack of sales.  The “sweat cost” of “always on” selling is easy to underestimate and it’s deadly if not fixed”

Entrepreneurs give up just before they become successful.  CEO’s quit long after they should have given up on poor selling ideas.  High-end “sellers” over promise results without understanding the resources they are being promised by the organization.

What to do?

  • Put in the effort!
  • Stay committed to putting in the effort!

You can change just about anything when you have the effort to back up your planning!

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Freedom from bad sales ideas

4 07 2009

The 4th of July stands as a tribute to taking action against oppression, bad philosophy, and a depressing future.  America’s foundation in being independent could serve as a lesson to many sales people who forget that most of what they will read in sales books WILL NOT work for them…

I am celebrating the great feedback that many of you sent to me about our webinar on how to achieve outrageous revenue growth this year.  Thanks for attending.  Only (2) people gave us less than 5 stars which means that almost everyone got something out of it — which is what I wanted to accomplish.

I have been asked if I would make the slides available and here they are below.

If viewing the slides is the first time you are looking at the content, then it may not make all that much sense to you.  You can view the finished product over here.

Celebrate your independence from everything that is holding you back from growing sales right now.

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When People Don’t Understand You…

1 07 2009
Vision can be lonely

(I have had this article half-written for  more than 13 months but never finalized my thinking about it.  Today I present it to you as a work in progress…)

It is a certainty in life that not everyone will agree with you.  Further, no matter how hard you try, there will always be those that NEVER understand why you do what you do…

Let me tell you how that makes me feel: LONELY! (Frankly, I can also be pretty frustrated…)

You might feel a similar emotion… The feeling of “I should just give up” or “what I’m doing doesn’t matter”…  Sometimes anger or resentment become the flavor of the day in place of creativity and innovation…

All of these are fairly typical responses when peer pressure is applied to our value system…  Bear in mind that we are not discussing opinions or perspectives, we are talking about VALUES — the underlying core of our psychological being…

The fact that others do not understand that part of us can be damaging if not put into perspective…  Ralph Waldo Emerson made his case for sanity by noting that:

“Is it so bad to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh.”

Seems easy enough in a few lines of quotation…  In practicality, leading anything is very lonely.  I don’t say that to be discouraging.  I say that to make sure you are realistic.  I learned this lesson the hard way

If you are the type of person that needs other people to compliment, reward, and respect you to perform, then you might have a hard time performing  for more than two weeks.

When people don’t understand you, you need to understand yourself — your mission, your reason for leading.  To lead others you must first lead yourself… (DEWism)

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Sales Lessons I Learned Running

30 06 2009
Know you are running into

Which prospects are you running into?

I have been back into road running recently and since there are no sidewalks to use like I had in Virginia, I run on the edge of the road toward on-coming traffic.  It creates an interesting dynamic when encountering cars.

There are several ways that cars address a runner:

Some cars drive as close as they can to me.  It’s there lane and they drive with “the right” to be there…  Some cars completely move out of the lane to let me know that I am safe to keep running…  AND…  Some cars slow down or almost stop not sure whether to speed by or what I am doing…

There isn’t really another option.  Which is really kind of how it is in the sales world:

Some prospects drive you as hard as they can in the hopes that they will get a better deal…  Some prospects really want nothing to do with you in the hopes that you might go away…  AND…  Some prospects slow down the procurement process so that they can feel in control…

This is about your current prospects for a minute.  Can you think of another type missing?  This pretty much covers any prospect you will ever meet.

The fact is: if you know who you are running into, you can be better prepared to stay alive.  You don’t want to play chicken with a prospect who is determined to run you off the road…

———–

UPDATE:  If you have not already signed up for the BrightTALK webinar tomorrow (Wednesday) that I am hosting, you don’t want to miss out…

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Your customers are wrong! And you are too for believing them!

29 06 2009

LyingExplosive sales breakthough can only occur when you truly understand that your propect, customer, client, or whatever else you call the people that spend money with you are not your friends.

One of the biggest legends of sales mythdom is that “the customer is always right”…  You hear that quote everywhere.  It’s the golden rule for customer service training and RFP engagement.

And it’s dead wrong.

Especially when potential customers start getting shady over pricing.  They order services they don’t intend to pay for.  They try to renegotiate deals that are already under contract.  They lead you to believe that doing them a favor now means more deals down the road.

And they are LYING.  The customer is not RIGHT he is LYING!

Many thanks to my buddy, Kriss Wilson, for getting his hands on the following video that you need to see.  It’s preposterous!  It’s downright insane when you think about the man-handling you receive from prospects about your pricing.

As Shamus Brown would say, “Sell with pride!”

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Polarize not Paralyze…

26 06 2009

create a fire around youYou can’t change the world without polarizing the people you run into — your friends, your community, and even your “not so much” fans.  Polarization creates “sides”.  It’s the line in the sand that says “either you are with me or not”.

And it’s tough being the person who is polarizing.  Here is your guarantee:  someone will always hate you.  Not just dislike you.  Not even disagree with you.  Hate your guts!

And then you have some great friends who are the polar opposites…  They defend you to a fault.  They stand by you when no else does.  They are your brothers.  They are the people that help you change the world.

To change the world you need to polarize!

The opposite is to paralyze… It’s a middle-of-the-road-please-don’t-be-angry-at-me position that results only in drama.  So don’t be afraid to polarize (just don’t paralyze):

  1. Be obsessively passionate…   AND
  2. Avoid needing to compromise…

—

To hear more helpful “polarizing” topics, sign up to attend my FREE webcast on Wednesday, July 1, 2009, 11:00AM Pacific / 2:00PM Eastern.  It’s going to be fun.

Here’s the first glance at what we will be talking about:

  • Stupid Is The New Relevant: Generate sales by being genuinely memorable
  • Check It While You Wreck it: Effectively and efficiently manage your channel and business reputation worldwide and LIVE
  • Forget Your PDA Batteries: The tools you use to communicate matter!
  • Stop Selling Lemonade: Empathize with your target with your messaging
  • Drink Your Coffee Hot: Maximize your channel marketing to sales handoff

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Talking faster than our client can listen is really good if results are optional…

25 06 2009

I had a great conversation on Wednesday with Tom Searcy, CEO of Hunting Big Sales and we were talking about Sales Matters (which is on “delayed launch”) and how I kept turning down writing a book even though it keeps coming back up.

Tom really got “up in my business” when I used the excuse that writing a book was too “establishment”.  After telling me to get my head out of my ass he reminded me that people need to connect at their own speed and comfort-level — that my speed of sharing might actually be hurting me…

Tom Searcy

Very true!

In being extreme, I totally forgot why I do what I do.  Which is to motivate the top sales executives all over the world with no-nonsense talk about high-performance…

To connect you have to allow your audience to see your world through their eyes — and that always takes more time than if we were doing this ourselves (which makes senses).

It’s a great lesson to keep top of mind when you are connecting with a potential client.

Ask yourself:

  1. Does _______ understand why I am here?
  2. What does _______ think my intentions to be?
  3. Will _______ be better after purchasing from me?  (….why?)

Create your own filter for getting to the bottom of these questions.  Use your own style, BUT clearly understand that if you are not connecting with your prospects, you will NOT get the results that you are looking for.

It just doesn’t work out that way.

————

By the way: Tom is coming out with another book in the next 90 days that you don’t want to miss — especially if you have to land RFPs to generate revenue.  In the meantime, take a look here at some of Tom’s FREE e-books.

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Social Media is NOT crap

24 06 2009

social-media-waste-of-timeYES –  I do know that yesterday I wrote about how much I hate strongly dislike the whole social media menagerie that has been a bumper crop of marketing geniuses all over the world giving their over-baked opinions on how to be the next Ashton Kutcher with 2 squigillion over-twittered fans.

NO — I don’t really think that social media is crap.  It’s not.  It’s actually can be pretty useful.  I just think that most experts have no real clue how to use it in a MEANINGFUL (i.e. revenue generating) way.

My CEO buddy, Kriss Wilson, actually sent me a great email today about some great ways that Twitter is currently being used to manage a loyal group of followers.  It was a fantastic example (and all of you should direct message him and ask him for the content)

Here is teaser for anyone interested:  I am going to talk about it LIVE next week.

BrightTALK, the world leader in webstreamed content has asked me to lead a series of discussions targeting Channel Managers about how to grow their revenue and I am going to spend some considerable time debunking the nonsense of MOST of how I hear socmedia being utilized.

It should be a fun discussion and YES I do think you will be missing out if you can not make it to the LIVE event on JULY 1st…

I leave you with this:

ANY marketing that does not lead to REVENUE generation is a WASTE…(DEWism)

We can argue about when that revenue is realized.  We can disagree about what the best ROI might be.  We can even argue that I might be a complete idiot (there are a lot of people that might want to agree with you).

Just try to keep any business going on marketing rather than SALES and you are well on your way to Chapter 11.

No Thanks!!

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Social Media is Crap

23 06 2009

Sorry.  Can I just get that off my chest?  (of course I can, I write this thing)  :-)

Isn’t media by nature social?

  • a VHS tape when passed hand-to-hand is now social media….
  • a letter when delivered at the hand of the postman is suddenly social media….

Google wisdom says that media is: “the storage and transmission tools used to store and deliver information or data”.  Sounds pretty social to me.  How about you?

What do you think?

I know that we need to put a label on this interactive world we call life.  Why can’t we just call it a conversation.  Why can’t I have a conversation with you in a lot of different ways where Facebook, LinkedIn, BrightKite, Twitter, and WordPress are all channels to keep us talking — not labeled platforms.

Aren’t you tired of the labels?  Of the nonsense around how important this idea of social media is?

Why can’t we just talk and see where we fit together…  Maybe I am losing my mind, but it seems like having meaningful conversations makes the most sense.

——-

By the way, check out this incredible discusion by Fred Wilson at #140Conf about Twitter and the monetization of social media:

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FREE is the new “black”

22 06 2009

Price of FREEIf you have not thought about the competitive power of a new currency I am now calling “smart FREE” (as opposed to “dumb FREE”) you should seriously it.

By the way, “smart FREE” means you have a purpose to creating a FREE version as opposed to just not having the discipline to think through your strategy (which I then call “dumb FREE”)…

I got to be a part of the following content and I wanted to share this with The DEW View! community — especially if you are in sales or an entrepreneur.

I have long been an advocate of GIVING away the most popular offering that you use to attract website traffic and I was absolutely pleased that Chris Anderson brought it up in his presentation below from Wired:

Here is the core thesis that Alan Murray (of the Wall Street Journal) made which Chris really drives home:

FREE

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Stopped listening…

22 06 2009

If the average conversation lasts 2.3 minutes and the average sales pitch is 23 minutes…. something tells me our prospects stopped listening more than 20 minutes ago.

Might be time to change something?

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Breakthrough

19 06 2009
Edison applied "mass production" to ...

"Breakthrough" after 10K tries

Experiencing success is not so much about getting to the goal line as it is about getting past the point of breakthrough.

Thomas Edison took more than 10,000 tries to experience his breakthrough. The breakthrough was the precursor to success – to the overall goal of building electric lighting.

“Success” can be daunting.  And many times executives aim for the moon but quickly fall into a malaise when they don’t get there fast enough.

Aim for the breakthrough. Success (whatever that means to you) always follows.

What is the breakthrough?

It’s that one thing you need to “figure out” that you keep pushing to the back-burner.

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Focus on priorities

17 06 2009

What would you be doing if today were the last day for you to be alive?

Would you work harder, take the day off, or just spend the day with regrets?

For the vast majority of us, there will be more days than today, but there won’t be a way to get back the time you spent today NOT focusing on your priorities.

Focus on your priorities for today like tomorrow might never come.  It’s amazing what you can accomplish with the proper perspective…

P.S  Don’t worry about getting it wrong as long as you are willing to keep trying…


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How far would you go?

16 06 2009
What's stopping you?

What's stopping you?

What would you do to accomplish your goals? More telling is what you wouldn’t do in your quest to accomplish your goals…. Have you thought about this? Have you had to?

Would you lie? Would you steal? Would you take unfair advantage of an innocent by-stander?

Most people when asked this question say that there is “nothing they wouldn’t do” to hit their goals.

Really?

Then why aren’t most people hitting their goals. What is it?

Fatigue? Disallusion? Ignorance?

What makes a great idea a complete failure only a few months later?

I have to believe that “WE” are the great differentiator and as far as “WE” can push ourselves is as far as “WE” will ever go to realizing our goals…

How far would you push yourself? Answer that question and you’ll be well on your way to hitting your goals.

(apologies for the typos… thoughts from the phone)


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What’s not being said….

15 06 2009

I get asked all the time to take a look at a business plan or review a sales process (which I usually find intriguing).  There is something about a new idea with plenty of potential that gets me pumped up.

Not every investor is worth “getting in bed with” just because they have a bankroll.

I ran into this presentation poking fun at VC investors a few weeks ago and wanted to share.  It is pretty humorous how many of these are right on…

Here is what a VC would never say to you:  :-)

Here is something else they wouldn’t say:

  1. Investors have to believe in you executing (not your product magically becoming the next Google).
  2. Investors are too busy  to hold your hand every day and make sure you meet all the other people in their portfolio.
  3. Investors expect you to have the answers not to have to answer the same questions every meeting…

Just be informed!

Like your mom used to tell you, “Don’t believe everything you don’t hear…”


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Wrong, stupid, and half as bright as you

12 06 2009

DanThat’s me by the way (the topic and scary pic)…

Some of my recent blog posts seem to have touched a raw nerve in the business world.  Besides the stupid comments I deleted from this blog about how stupid I am and ego-maniacal (I might actually be that one), I got a whole series of personal attacks (i.e. threats) that made me pause for a moment and reconsider…

And then I thought: WHO CARES!!!!

Can I share a little secret with you?  A huge part of long-term high-performance is understanding who you are….

Seriously.  Let me share my own personal story with you:

Concepts like discipline, hard work, goal mastery, and passion were drilled into me from an early age.  I was raised by Christian parents who were very moral people (still are) who set the bar very high for performance and personal endeavor.  I was trained in the musical arts (piano and trombone) and in public speaking.  I started my first business before I was a teenager.  I had no access to television for 18 years of my life.  In fact our house was not even wired for cable — my dad told the builder to skip it altogether.  During the summers, I had to read books for at least 2 hours per day and during school “season” I was fined if my bed was not made, shoes lined up in the closet, or (God forbid) I left the window open.  Silly or not, I was trained to be efficient and effective.

I also picked up some bad habits.  I worked so hard to be “perfect” that I spent a lot of “Dan PR” time trying to make sure everyone around me was happy with me.  Was I wearing the right thing to go the right place to see and do the right things……..  It became an internal guessing games of “am I doing everything right”.  That trickled over into my college choices, my business habits, and my selling style.  I was out to prove everything to anyone within earshot, eyeshot, or “texting range”.

And then I hit a few rough patches…  And all the critics that I was working so hard to please were no where around to help me.  They were happy to throw their mental “sucker punch” and run.  Everyone I was trying so hard to please was pleased that I was failing.  I was pushed myself to “be better” and they were providing enough criticism to feed my addiction.

It took a great coach, a great wife, therapy, and lot of experience for me to come to grips with me being me.  And guess what?  I am more successful than ever — in every sense, style, and shape of the word…  Lesson learned!

When you try to be who you are not, you waste enormous energy being someone that who is not effective.  I may be wrong.  I may be stupid.  I probably am half as bright as you are.  But I am cool with that.  Being me is pretty surreal…

But I also have a secret that you should know: Long after you give up, sit down, and throw in the towel, I will be achieving excellence because the “me” that was trained to be effective and efficient  is a warrior — and warriors conquer.

Do not apologize for greatness, achieve it.

–

P.S.  I had the best parents a child could ever ask for.  Thanks Mom and Dad for being rockstars!

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De-Crippling Fear

10 06 2009
Fear Cripples...
Fear Cripples…

Because I only fear what I have not already conquered, I must conquer all to fear nothing.*

We don’t ask “how much longer” on a trip we have already taken…  We don’t agonize over puzzles we have already solved…  We don’t worry about an enemy we have already defeated…

We fear what we have not already conquered.  We fear our reaction to failure, to pain, to the unknown.

To be fearless, you must have the courage to fail often, to lose viciously, and to battle fiercely….

Selling is no different.

*yeah that is a DEWism compliments of “yours truly”…

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Selling Susan Boyle!

8 06 2009
Selling the First Impression

Selling the First Impression

So I am out of the Susan Boyle fan club!

I really loved her.  I did. I wrote about the effects of her “Unexpected Inspiration”…

Susan’s first performance will go down in “social media” history as one of the most powerfully viral videos of all time.

She was the essence of the underdog that we all root for: unattractive, seemingly naive, confident in her abstraction, singing about a “lost dream”, and apparently enthusiastic to fail.

But instead of failing she won.  Powerfully….  Overwhelmingly….

I was genuinely moved to tears watching as she stunned the world with her performance.

Talk about “SELLING” a first-impression.

She dropped jaws on millions of people watching her performance all over the world.  She might make as much as $10 million over the next few years because of her single compelling performance.  (FYI, there are over 22 million links to Susan on Google right now)

She shocked us with her “my life has killed the dream…”:

She built up so much hype for Britain’s Got Talent, that 72% of the entire country tuned into the show to watch the final episode with her performing.  It was the single biggest performance of any musical artist ever in Britain.

And here she is at the finals:

Perhaps a good performance.  Perhaps a great performance.  Perhaps a terrific performance.

Just for anyone other than Susan Boyle.

This is Susan Boyle and I just didn’t like the fact that I am left underwhelmed.

……….and uninspired…

………………..and disappointed…

…………………………and a smidge cranky.

My second impression leaves me wanting inspiration.  I want more!

You challenged me, Susan, you did!  But now it’s time to move on.

Your first impression was powerful.  It sold me on investing in another performance — a performance that “let me down”…

MOTTO: Selling a first impression is an amazing way to get a buyer to invest in a second look.  Just make sure you give them something to look at while you have their attention…  The pain of being “let down” works much worse against you than the pleasure of being inspired by a single performance….


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