Eat, Pray and Love?

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"Kites rise highest against the wind-not with it." - Winston S. Churchill

Sales is a funny business. No really - it's a really funny business. Why? Because there is no single "right way" of getting business and making people happy. This in turn drives a multitude of experts to hang up a shingle that says "Here is how you sell". Now naturally the next step is we need people to tune in and turn on to our message. So what do people that want to consult, or teach sales, do in order to get people to listen? We make it warm and fuzzy. People like to hear about soft skills, relationship building, inspirational stories and stuff that makes them feel good - it's human nature. Be good, sincere and caring is our message. Ask questions and think about what the client wants first. Be prepared and diligent and everything else will take care of itself. Then you will be able to just "Eat, Pray and Love". That's a really nice message - it resonates. It's warm and fuzzy. It's all true and it really sells. It sells because it's human nature - it's golden rule stuff. But here is the brutal, unadulterated truth ~ If you really want to be good at sales - You have to do stuff that most people don't want to do. You have to hear stuff that most people don't want to hear. You have to ask questions that most people don't ask. You have to have a sense of urgency that most people don't have. You need drive, courage and the character to keep going when most people give up. Want to be good at sales? Instead of Eat, Pray and Love. Try ~ Call, Listen and Drive.
Call more people than others do. Listen more intently and ask the tough questions that others don't. Drive your conversations to next actions and continue driving when you want to give up. Have an unrelenting sense of urgency. Be more dependable than anyone else and provide more value than anyone else - anywhere. That's what drives sales success first and foremost - then by all means...

Take a moment to Eat, Pray and Love.