Author: Brent Widman

Have you ever asked yourself this question?

There’s this lie that we tell ourselves:

 

The lie that someone is smarter.

More educated.

Doing it longer.

Know more than we do.

Have it figured out.

On and on and on and on.

 

Why not me?

Why can’t I come in and set the standard? Why can’t I do more than everyone else? I may have to work a bit harder, I may have to put in more hours, make more calls, plan my day, get up earlier, stop making excuses, do the things I don’t want to, get uncomfortable, be accountable to someone, add to my vocation, take action or be a student of the game.

What do I want to achieve should be the real question.

There’s absolutely nothing holding me back except for me. Not where I live, not my market, not those around me, not my education, nothing.

The only thing truly holding me back is me.

Are you doing everything you can to accomplish the things that you want? Those things that are truly important to you. It might be making more money, vacation, car, house, kids, school, whatever your dreams are… are you doing everything you can to accomplish them?

What’s holding you back?

I can tell you.

It’s what’s between your ears. There is absolutely no reason why you can’t set the standard. Why you can’t do more than everyone else. There is no reason why you can’t have the life you want to live. It may take you more work. You might have to get out of your own way, lose sleep, forget to eat, work a 10, 12, 16 hour day, you might just have to own your own crap.

Put aside the fear of becoming successful.

You will have to make the choice in the moment. Instead of watching T.V., taking the day off, quitting early or just checking out. You might have to get up off the couch, out of bed and make that choice to work. It doesn’t just happen.

This is what successful people do differently, what top producer’s do. That person you are thinking of right now that you want to be like. You want to have what they have. They worked for it. Are you?

Those that accomplish more with their life. We just don’t see them doing it.

They aren’t better, they aren’t more gifted. They have put the work in. I’m not talking about the 9-5 work. I’m talking about the work that we don’t see. Those things you make time for. Those things you don’t put off because you don’t have time or you don’t know where to start.

If you are happy, be happy.

If you aren’t where you want to be, if you want to accomplish it, do it. But stop saying there is someone better than you. Let that person compare themselves to you. If you want it bad enough, you will go out and get it.

 

Brent Widman

Relentless Pursuit

Sales Coach

bwidman@southwesternconsulting.com

It was May and we just moved into a new house, not far from the old one, but across town. My son had to move away from some friends, go to a different school; just leave the life he has become so accustomed to. It was not easy.

Here comes summer. He’s sitting around the first week. Playing the iPad, iPod, watching some movies. Lazy days. “I’m bored dad.” If you have kids, you’ve heard this! The thing is, there are kids that live in the neighborhood; he just doesn’t know them yet. I asked him to go out and meet them.

Jack was 10.

He didn’t want to, he was scared he said. He was nervous. I let it be for a day.

The next day I knew he was still bored. See, my son is a go getter, he loves to be outside, he loves to do things. Doesn’t matter what it is, as long as he’s outside he’s happy. What he doesn’t like is to sit around.

The next day I told him it was time to go down there. He did. He needed the push.

He was back in about 5 minutes. I asked him: what happened?

He didn’t go to the door… he was scared. I sat down and talked to him. Asked him what he was scared of, why he was, how we could get past it.

His biggest thing, he doesn’t know what to say.

I told him it doesn’t matter. Say you are bored, say you just wanted to come say hi, say you wanted to see if he’d like to shoot baskets. We walked through all the different things he could say.

We sat down and developed a “script”.

I asked him to Do It Scared. He walked down again.

He spent the rest of the afternoon there. They kayaked on the pond, they had ice cream, they played Wii, they played outside, road bike and just had a fantastic day. When I went to get him he literally danced when he walked out. He jumped up and down. The joy on his face was something I will never forget.

He did it scared.

How many of us hold ourselves back from what will truly make us happy? We do what Jack did. We hide from it. We avoid it. We come back to what’s comfortable because that’s easier.

I learned from my 10 year old son that day that when we do it scared the life we are so used to might just change. It will get better. For you it may be money, friends, business, life, doesn’t matter.

Ask yourself in this very moment: what’s holding you back? What do you need to do that you have been putting off for days, weeks, months even years.

Knock on that door. Feel free to DANCE when it all works out.

This one is big. If you are in sales. EVERYONE struggles from it. Whether you want to admit it or not. We do… Here’s how you know.

Do you ever put off calling someone?

Do you plan calling hours?

Do you plan calling hours and things get in the way? Hmmmmm

Do you creatively avoid making that phone call? (Checking e-mail, talking, bathroom, water, etc.)

Those are just a few examples. I’m going to give you A LOT of ways to overcome this. You pick yours.

1. Be planned – know the first 10/15 people, at least, you are going to call.
2. Set a number for calls – how many people are you going to call?
3. How many people do you want to talk to?
4. Tell someone how many of those calls and e-mails you are going to make: commit.
5. It’s just one call – to other people it’s just one call, to you it’s 10/20/40 – but it’s just one to them.
6. Look for no’s. What does this mean? How do we have a conversation that we can move them to say no, but at the same time “not right now”?
7. You can still contact them in the future, just might not be a good fit today.
8. Why do you do what you do? Do you want to help people? If we truly want to help people and we suffer from call reluctance, are we thinking about ourselves, or are we thinking about them? If we are thinking about them it doesn’t matter if they say no.
9. Use names. Names are power, but get permission. It opens up the conversation.
10. Use a script. Be smart enough to be dumb enough, not to have to think about it.
11. Commit to the call. What does that mean? It means when they answer you know the name, you use the script, you aren’t looking at other things, you aren’t distracted; they have your FULL attention.
12. Positive self-talk. What are you saying to yourself in the morning? Before you call? Even right before that call?
13. Motivational videos – go to YouTube. Google it. Do what you have to. Find it.
14. Read some testimonials. Even if they aren’t yours. This helps you understand how important you are to helping others.
15. Set a time to make your first call and an end. We can do anything for an hour.
16. Don’t overthink it. The more you think the more your mind will get in the way. Just dial.
17. Go out and get enough leads. It doesn’t matter if people say yes or no.
18. Realize this can change your whole life. You do it, and you can’t fail. Sales is a numbers game. Play that game.
19. Do you go look for people to talk to? Or are you hoping people don’t answer?
20. It’s practice: the more you do it, the better you will get.

These will help. Maybe you do all 20, maybe you do one of them. You’ve got this!

We get to do it once. That’s it.

Do you sell yourself short by just doing enough to get by?

I see so many people struggling just to get by. We may not be making the money we want. We don’t have the job or career we want. We don’t see or talk to family as much as we want. Maybe we want to be in shape. Maybe we just want to be a better version of ourselves.

What is that better to you? Not to me, not to anyone around you. But to you?

We look around and say “If I just had this, if I just had that” everything would be better. What is that for you? Maybe the bigger question is, what are you willing to do to get it?

That’s the question I ask. Why can’t you? Why do just enough?

Do you accomplish everything you want to accomplish?

I often wonder what the thought process is when you get up in the morning… Do you tell yourself today is going to be an “ok” day? Or do you say it’s going to be a GREAT day? Do you study just hard enough to pass? Do you work on that project just enough to pass it on to someone else? Do you make enough calls to just set the bare minimum of meetings? Do you just work hard enough to get by? Are you stuck? Do you “hope” and “pray” good things will happen to you or do you make them happen?

I want to help you be successful, I want you help you work a little harder, and there’s a few ways we can do this.

1. It starts when you wake up. Tell yourself it’s going to be a great day. It works, I promise.
2. Plan your day. Doesn’t have to be to the minute, but plan the big things you want to do. The things that will make you happy when you do them. Can be small, can be big.
3. Do those things! You’ll be amazed when good things start happening. You may even start getting “lucky” (you make your luck).
4. Create a routine – Do these things every day.
5. When you get good at these and get done, do a bit more. It won’t hurt, I promise!

Consistency. Every day. Don’t get away from it. Even if it’s hard.

It’s really that easy. It truly is. Everyone has the ability to be the best at what they do.

Consistency is the key. Every day. Whether you “feel” like it or not. Stop thinking and start doing.

I was having lunch the other day with an advisor. She’s one of those driven, “I’m going to make this work and I’m going to be the best….” type of people. She has what other people want. When I say that I mean the drive. The vision. The knowledge. The motivation.

She wondered why it wasn’t working. Why it wasn’t going the way she wanted it to. She wasn’t making the money she wanted, didn’t have the life she wanted. Wasn’t in the situation to be successful the way she wanted. It wasn’t moving forward.

She has it all. But doesn’t have anything at the same time.

She has one foot out the door. She isn’t fully invested in what she’s doing. What I mean by that is she’s looking at other companies to work for. Her husband has been working out of state for some time. She has a young daughter. She has a dog too, (and yes, this counts). She has a lot of things coming at her.

I see this so, so often. People aren’t happy with where they are. They are looking at other ways, other places, other things that will make them happy. It’s always a job, their life, someone at work, there’s always something. That’s the exact same conversation I had with her.

Here’s what I asked her and everyone else in her position… Have you done everything you can where you are? Have YOU put your all into it? You know why people get frustrated? They choose to. They choose to listen to others, to have a bad attitude, to not be focused, to let others pull them in different directions.

As the conversation went on, and I dug in a bit, you could see the light bulb go on. You could see it, catching herself making the excuses. Saying it was where she worked, who she worked with, her husband, having limited time. Each time she said it, she caught herself, knowing it was just an excuse.

As we walked out of there she looked at me and said, you know what I took away from this? I need to make a decision. I need to make that decision and put my all into it. I need to figure this out before another day, week, month or year has gone past and I’m not working towards it and getting to where I want to be.

The next thing she asked me is, “How can I help you?”

You don’t have to do anything. You just did. Sometimes we just do the right things for people and don’t expect anything in return.

Be that person for someone. That’s all the payback you will need.

When I first started my career I wanted to be the guy. I wanted to be the manager, the director, the person that’s always in charge. The go to person! I thought that’s who I was, what I wanted to do, who I should be. Not realizing the hard work it was going to take to get there. I thought I was owed something since I went to college and got a degree. I was owed something since I had an MBA. Someone has to pay me now!

Here’s the thing. You have to work for it. I knew I worked hard, or so I thought. I was at work on time, I showed up, I called people and sold some stuff. That was about it. That was my life. I was on my way. I was good at sales because I could call more people than anyone else.

A great trait to have.

What I didn’t have was the tools, tips and techniques. I didn’t ask for referrals, I didn’t know how to set goals, create emotion, plan my day, give a great presentation, get past any fear I had, use social media to build my business, practice my scripts, be a student of the game, read books, listen to people, be coachable, positive self-talk or even be that leader I strived for. I just didn’t know, and when you don’t know, you don’t know.

This is when things started to go differently. I then moved into a Sales Director role. I didn’t know how to manage people, but I thought I did. I went to be a District Manager. Again, I didn’t know how to manage people. Then I went on to being a Division Director with a global company. Still didn’t know how. And notice, I was a manager, NOT A LEADER. Not realizing I couldn’t just transfer my work ethic to others. I didn’t know how to meet people where they are.

I was a manager. I became a leader.

Then I came to Southwestern Consulting. I learned how to practice a script, and just how important that is. This can sometimes be a bad word in sales, but it makes you smart enough, to be dumb enough not to have to think about it. I also started asking for referrals. I practiced it. I started reading and listening to books. I worked on mind set. I read modules and watched videos on how to become a better sales person, a better leader and just an overall better person. When I called people I knew what I was going to say. I practiced. Every day. We all know; and a wise man once said:

“Success is never owned, it is only rented, and the rent is due every day.”

It means if you want to be successful it’s about the hard work. You have to understand what hard work is. If you aren’t practicing, learning, adding to your vocation, getting past those excuses, taking action and developing yourself you will always stay stagnant.

Do these three things:

1. Practice your scripts. If you don’t have them, find someone to help you
2. Watch videos. Get a coach, mentor or something to hold you accountable
3. Set goals. Personal and professional and do everything you can to achieve them

Give yourself permission to get better. The people that are successful aren’t lucky, they aren’t better than you. They gave themselves permission to keep going when it was tough; figure out what they can do more of, be better at. Give yourself permission.

Teach yourself and find those people to hold you accountable, and you’ll go from a Sales Boy to a Sales Man! Or a Sales Girl to a Sales Woman!

We all have the ability to make something of ourselves. We are all unique in some way. It doesn’t matter what that is. That’s YOUR uniqueness. It’s time to start owning it. It’s time to make a commitment to honing in on it and making yourself the best.

I heard a quote once by George Zulacki and it went something like this, “Commitment is doing the thing you said you would do long after the mood you said it in has left you”.

So many of us commit to things in the heat of the moment. I’m going to sell this much, I’m going to make this many dials, I’m going to read this much, I’m going to set more appointments, bring in more apps, find a new job, write a book, spend more time with the family, be a better leader, lose this much weight, change my marriage, do a date night and so on and so on and so on.

Have you ever done that? I’m going to guess the answer is YES.

Have you ever had the “Law of Diminishing Intent” happen?

When you make a commitment to yourself it’s time to start going through with it. Those commitments are supposed to be hard, they’re supposed to make you sit there and wonder what the heck you were thinking. You are supposed to work for it. It will make you stronger. It will make you better. It will make you enjoy every little last piece of what comes of it. That’s the joy of accomplishing something!

This is part of the training you go through daily. It’s learning to love the grind. Not walking away or shying from it. Learning to embrace it. If success was easy, everyone would be successful. It’s supposed to be hard, because it’s worth working for. It’s truly not a grind if you enjoy it.

At first, you may feel the struggle. You may wonder what you got yourself into. You may wonder why you committed to something you weren’t sure you could do. Even if you don’t do it, aren’t you happy you went for it? We are all meant to have goals and commitments, and sometimes we don’t achieve them. Sometimes it’s just about the journey and the path we take to get there.

Commit to doing something every day. Commit to making more of yourself and to being positive no matter what. Commit to getting out of your comfort zone. Facing that “FEAR” head on and owning it. Showing it who’s boss.

Each and everyone of us has it in us. Do you have something you want to strive for? Commit and go get it. Stop letting yourself down.

Pick the one thing every day and commit to it. You’ve got this.

He woke up and worked out. Started off great. Went home, showered, got dressed, walked downstairs and had his breakfast. Kids and wife were sleeping upstairs, things were starting off great. Affirmations were said, positivity was flowing. Ready to get after it and ready to tackle the day. Appointments on the calendar, day planned from yesterday, make it happen!

Then he checked his e-mail.

For some time he had been struggling in his business. Doing enough to get by. As of January 1^st he decided he needed to hire a coach. He needed to do something different. The hard part is, he still didn’t have the funds to pay for it, but he decided to scrape it together.

He made it happen.

Up until now he didn’t do the activity. He wasn’t asking for referrals, making the calls, creating emotion in people. He wasn’t getting better. He just did. He thought he could do it all himself. He then realized, like so many people do on January 1^st, something had to change. Need less to say, that day in January was a tough day.

Don’t wait.

Things got worse. First meeting of the day was a phone meeting. He was prepped and planned. He was ready. The thing was, he hadn’t gotten back to this person right away and it had taken a few weeks. He didn’t have the follow up, processes and systems in place. That potential client let him have it. Even throwing some choice words at him. After all was said and done, John held his composure.

See, John has his ups and downs. What was important in this moment was his Positive Self-Talk and Confidence. Some of us need to work on our language, phoning skills, keeping track of numbers. For John, it was believing in himself.

Is this you? What is it for you?

This is the day it changed for John. He started to believe in himself.

He knew he was doing the calls. Paying his assistant would happen. He started asking for referrals. Paying his coach would happen. He knew he was reading and adding to his vocation. Paying his mortgage would happen. He knew he was 25 meetings ahead. Abundance was happening, because he was doing what he was supposed to. Putting his emotion into activity and not results.

You see, John is now doing the things that will make him successful. He took that one rough day and set 3 more meetings, had 3 more meetings. He also changed his mentality.  He got back to what will make him successful. He used the accountabily from his coach to change his business, his life. He became less stressed, made more money and took back control of that life.

John turned his rough day into a positive. Will power, doing the right things living in that abundance mentality.

Knowing it’s never as bad as it seems.  Also knowing it’s never as good as it seems.

We get told no every day—from the time we wake up until the time we go to bed. It may come in different forms. It may come out of nowhere. We probably don’t even recognize how many times we get told no or tell ourselves no. We do it so regularly that it becomes normal.

I’m in sales. I not only sell, but I help people sell. There is a lot of “Suck it up” that goes into that! Not only getting past it, but helping others get past it. Let me count the ways:

• There is never enough time.
• Your prospect says, “Not right now. Can you get back to me?”
• You don’t have anyone to call.
• You’ve been calling the same people over and over.
• You’re holding onto that false sense of hope that someone might do business with you.
• You compare yourself to others.
• You’re not hitting your goals.
• Your prospect says, “Call me back in six months.”
• You’re not present in the moment, always thinking about more.
• You’re not reaching your potential.
• You have dreams but aren’t accomplishing them.
• You’re calling people, and they aren’t interested.
• You’ don’t have enough money.
• You don’t want to practice.
• Your prospect says, “I need to think about it. “
• You go on useless appointments.
• You have call reluctance.
• You shut it off at the end of the day. I’ll start tomorrow.

These are just a few things salespeople go through each and every day. What exactly does it mean to suck it up and drive on?

As a salesperson, we got into this profession for a reason. Not because we had to, but when it’s all said and done, because we chose to. We chose to get beat up, shot down, put down, argued with, get told no, have a thick skin.

We did it for so many reasons.

Maybe we are driven by guilt? We are in student loan debt, credit card debt, house debt, car debt. We may get home at night and our kids or family want us to be home on time or not take those calls. We are driven by doing more because all that is depending on us.

Some of us are driven by money. We just want to make as much darn money as humanly possible. That’s only going to get us so far. Eventually we have to find a new reason.

We may be driven to fill a void. This is our way to win. We want to win that sale, that appointment. We want to get that person to say yes and ride that high.

Then there’s where most of us fall under—what most of us are driven by:

We are driven by dreams. Things we want to have. Things we want to achieve. Places we want to go. Things we want to do. We want to provide for our family, kids, spouse, or those around us. Things we want to accomplish. We want to do all those things we never got to do.

This is exactly why we need to embrace the suck. We are in the number-one profession in the world in that we can make an unlimited amount of money if we do what we are supposed to. If we see past our excuses, take action, work at it, hire a coach and be a student of the game. We need to realize we will never be perfect and, you know what? that’s okay.

You may miss a goal. You may miss a deadline. You may miss that big sale. Suck it up and drive on. The best part about sales is we always get to start over. Whether it’s the next day, month, or year. We get to do it again; it resets. Go out and do the things you need to do to hit those goals.

The only person standing in your way is you. Suck it up and love it! It’s worth every second. You will be better at what you do, inside and outside of work. Life happens. Embrace it.

We’ve all been there. The days that you wake up and you just feel “off”.  The times that you just don’t feel like doing it that day. The opportunities that may be lost because we decide we don’t have it that day.

What goes by the way side? Maybe we don’t make calls. Maybe we just surf the internet. We are at work, but we aren’t really doing anything. We tell ourselves it’s just one day, a couple hours, an hour. Whatever it is, it’s okay, because we just don’t have it. We will have it again and be motivated tomorrow.

Part of being great at what you do is being great at the hard parts, the non-motivated days, the days it gets hard. The days we need to embrace the pain. You’ve worked for it, you’ve worked through it. It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t, everyone would be great at it.

I hear so many sales people, literally everyday talk about how hard it is. That they are the only ones going through it. They’ve lost their confidence. They may have struggled at some point in the last month, few months, even a year and now they want to quit. They aren’t pushing through the hard parts. They are trying to find the easy way to do things. The easier way to get appointments, make calls and be successful. Their definition of successful.

There are no overnight successes. There aren’t people that just have “it”. They’ve worked at it, so it seems easier. They’ve put in the hours, that time and the effort. Instead of worrying about how to make it easier. Start to be great at the hard stuff.

1. Be great at dialing
2. Be great at asking for referrals
3. Be great at planning your day
4. Be great at being disciplined
5. Be great at asking for business
6. Be great at getting out of your comfort zone
7. Be great and positive self-talk
8. Be great at reading and adding to your vocation
9. Be great at not making excuses

This is your list. This is it. Do you notice anything here? Every single one of these YOU can control. The best part, you do these things over and over again and you will become your definition of success. Go out and do all that you can to be great at these 9 things and everything that you want will happen. I promise you that.

At the base of this it’s pretty easy. Stop looking for the easy way out. Find it. Don’t get away from what will and has made you successful in the first place.