A paradigm shift
Sales success is a goal that many salespeople pursue on a daily basis. For our look at being successful I want to examine a paradigm shift that needs to occur in selling. This same change can carry over to any area of your life in which you are looking to succeed.
Usually, when you’re hired for a sales position, you’re sold on a bunch of theories like this; “You have to have a positive mindset to be successful in sales, you need to cold call every day to be successful, you have to memorize this presentation, learn this sales script, talk to everyone about your product and if you do these things, you will have very successful in sales. He is then shown the top salespeople and told that he can be like them if he does the things they have taught him. Many salespeople believe this and most of them end up failing. Why?
Because what successful people do to be successful and what the new salesperson is taught to do are 2 different things. The evidence of this is when you question top salespeople and find that they are doing almost nothing that new salespeople are being trained to do. This total disconnection between activities that produce results and activities that produce activity are not the same thing.
There needs to be a paradigm shift in the way success is taught and the way it is modeled for those who want to be successful. In real estate, the focus on remodeling a home tends to lean heavily on repairs. You watch a lot of the flip shows and they spend most of their time checking out the demolition, choosing new countertops, kitchen tiles, etc. However, the real key to selling a property is to buy it at the right price so that you can sell it at the right price. Any experienced investor will tell you that “he makes his money when he buys real estate, not when he sells it.”
This is how change should happen;
• Analyze exactly how success comes into play: In sales, what does the successful person do that makes them successful? It’s not the fact that they make calls; Who are they calling? Successful agents don’t spend most of their time calling cold prospects. They focus on warm and hot leads. They target people who are likely to listen to a presentation of your product.
• Mimic for new salespeople what successful agents are doing: Once the real pattern is developed, let new people know how things like mindsets, introductions, scripts, etc. work. play on the successful agents. Having a skill set developed along with realistic expectations based on what the best agents are actually doing will have a profound effect on the performance of new agents.
The tendency is to cling to old ways, old thoughts, and old patterns. This is why the behavior of always doing the same things never takes us to the next level. To excel, you must not only change the way you think, but you must also change the model you are using to create success. Make sure you see where success really comes from so your steps to success are based on a factual model, not the lies many of us have been told in our careers and growth.