By Mark Hunter
First off, forget about the economy. The more you think about the economy, the more you will allow yourself to develop excuses as to why something won’t happen or can’t happen. Pretty soon, you’ll stumble upon all kinds of excuses as to why you can’t close a crucial sale, write an important policy or develop a new account.
Sales motivation is not about other people or outside circumstances. It is about you. The only agents who are truly motivated are those who have complete confidence in the service and benefits they provide their clients. Strategy for motivating yourself begins with the understanding that it is not up to somebody else to motivate you. Your level of motivation is totally a personal matter.
Motivating yourself begins with removing the clutter from your mind and your environment. This probably means saying good-bye to some of your friends who are nothing more than negative voices that drag you down. It may mean not communicating with select people in your office for the very same reason. A very interesting trait I have found regarding highly-motivated salespeople is you never see them alone 100% of the time. Sure, they can hang out with losers occasionally, but for the most part, you find highly-motivated salespeople surrounding themselves with other highly-motivated people. We’ve all heard the saying that “iron sharpens iron.” Last I looked, I didn’t see any NFL teams practicing against middle school football teams. No, an NFL team practices against itself because the players know it’s the only way to get better.
Ask yourself these questions: “If I view myself as a highly-motivated salesperson, then I’m in the same league as an NFL player. Therefore, which ‘players’ do I associate with who are not NFL quality? What do I need to do to avoid contact with these people? Likewise, who are the people who share my high motivation with whom I could be spending more time?”
The next strategy to boost your motivation is to take time each day to celebrate your successes. At the end of each day, spend five minutes writing down all of the successes you had that day. Write them in a journal of some type. It’s important that you write it all down, because it allows you to reflect more on what you accomplished. Writing things down also provides you with a benchmark to which you can refer back at a later date to see how far you’ve come. This will boost your motivation even further. I always advocate doing this at the end of the work day to allow you to quit on a positive note. You walk out on a positive, not a negative. When I explain this step to veteran agents, I almost always am met with the response, “Well, that’s fine for a new agent, but not for somebody as seasoned as me.” To this I say, “No, it’s for everyone.” Why? To prevent you from reaching an unmotivated point in your career. Don’t wait to start a strategy like this when you are discouraged and in a slump. Start it now, regardless of your current sales motivation, as a pro-active step to prevent yourself from reaching that low point.
A third strategy is to visualize success. With every client you call or visit, always expect to win and always expect to close something. You may not be able to write a policy on each phone call or visit, but you can certainly close on something in terms of agreeing to a next step or minimally agreeing with the customer on something either you said or they said. Again, the idea is to be viewing every activity as a positive. To give you a good example, think of professional baseball players. How many players of this caliber go to the plate expecting to strike out? Not too many (and certainly not the successful ones!) Ball players walk to the plate expecting to hit the ball. You are high caliber in your industry, so be sure your actions reflect an attitude of succeeding. Visualize success in all you do.
Implement even one of these strategies and I know you will see incremental progress in your sales motivation. Implement all three and I know you will be astounded at the big difference in your sales success. Email me today to let me know which of the strategies works best for you! mark@thesaleshunter.com.
Mark Hunter, “The Sales Hunter,” is a motivational sales speaker and industry expert who addresses thousands each year on how to increase their sales profitability. For more information on his sales training or to receive a free weekly sales tip via email, contact “The Sales Hunter” at www.TheSalesHunter.com. Reprinting of this article is welcomed as long as the following is included: Mark Hunter, "The Sales Hunter," www.TheSalesHunter.com, © 2009
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