Category Archives for Top Performance

TSE 1237: 10 High-Performance Habits That Lead To Success 

An article entitled 10 High-Performance Habits that Lead to Success by Justin Su’a is noteworthy. This isn’t a normal article.  It talks about 10 specific principles that, if practiced carefully, will help increase one’s performance and mental toughness. 

Justin Su’a is a former competitive baseball player and despite not having the physical prowess and physical ability like some other players, he was still able to gain success. His family trained him to face any adversity with a positive mindset. Their team also had a sports psychologist who spoke to the players about tools and strategies that were taught to Olympians. 

The principles taught by the sports psychologist resonated with Justin and ignited a desire for him to follow the same career path. These principles not only work for sports but can be applied by people of all walks to every aspect of life.  Here are the 10 high-performance habits that lead to success: 

• Win the morning
• Do hard things
• Embrace feedback
• Learn from failure
• Choose your attitude
• Do one more
• Have a purpose
• Recommit every single day
•  Be patient
• Fear no one

Win the morning

Winning the morning is all about starting strong. People complain they don’t have enough time in the day but the truth is, there’s not enough time because they’re not using the time they have. Instead, they’re wasting it.  All you need to do is to start the morning strong by getting up with purpose. Successful people and high-performers are able to do hard things. Sometimes one of these is to wake up early when nobody else does. 

Move towards your goal by telling your body to get up, even when it wants to sleep. This is you practicing to dominate your body. If you do that over and over again, you are going to be able to train yourself to do difficult things. When you don’t want to pick up the phone to make a sales call, train yourself by telling yourself to pick up the phone anyway. Make that first decision ad it will get easier. Winning the morning is important because it starts your day off with taking control. Tell yourself to do one thing and attack it. 

Regardless of whether you’re a night person or a morning person, your morning begins when you wake up. Wake up strong by doing it on purpose and with passion. Set up a routine, workout, eat right, fill your mind, and fill your heart. 

There are two things that people often underestimate when trying to achieve greatness: How long it’s going to take and how hard it’s going to be. Whether you set a personal goal or a professional goal, don’t underestimate how difficult it’s going to be or how long it’s going to take for you to achieve the goals. The danger in doing so is that you’re mentally unprepared when adversity comes. When problems strike, many would-be performers pull the plug and give up. High-performers, on the other hand, have the ability to do hard things because they have acknowledged beforehand that achieving their goals may be hard. They’ve prepared themselves mentally and physically for the hard things. 

Successful people didn’t realize their achievements overnight. Many hours, days, months, and sometimes years are spent working towards their goals. They win the morning and keep going.

Little things matter

People tend to seek out the hard actions and don’t realize the tedious detail-oriented things matter just as much. Examples are reading for on-going education and taking notes during training.  Great performers don’t take these details for granted. The details that need to be executed will be different from one person to the next. The key is to find the details that apply to your success and whatever they are, do them. 

Learn from failures

The inability to learn from failure is the number one factor that destroys would-be performers. Many professionals from various careers and industries are afraid of failure.  It’s not necessarily even the failure in itself, but their interpretation of failure. They perceive that failure means they’re not good enough. These negative phrases that play over and over in someone’s mind lead to feelings of failure but you can train yourself to understand these feelings don’t reflect the truth of the situation. Instead of viewing failure negatively, It can be looked at as an opportunity to learn. Every successful entrepreneur has seen failure and fought against it. They overcome these adversities by using failures as a means to learn from their mistakes and get better. 

Sarah Blakely, the CEO of Spanx, was asked why she’s so good at her job. She attributed her success to the training that got from her father. Sarah’s father would ask her, “How did you fail today and what did you learn from it?”  She grew up learning from failure. Those who are willing to learn from failure will fear it less and those who fear it less are more dangerous because they know how to use it.

When you can wake up every morning, not being afraid of failure, you take the pressure off yourself.  You’re able to go after your goals and take chances you might not have otherwise. You will experience failure but when you do, you’ll know how to face it, learn from it, and overcome. 

A laundry list of failures 

Prepare yourself mentally for failure by listing all the ways you could fail. List them all no matter how simple, unlikely, or outrageous these failures could be. Once you have identified them, think of ways to respond to each of these scenarios and have a plan of action. Having a bounce-back plan gives you the confidence to take care of these potential adversities because now you know you have a course of action. This will save you from reacting emotionally and negatively when failure strikes and you will be less likely to give up. 

Keeping the momentum

We can start a new venture well but it takes the right traits and qualities to keep the momentum going. Typically, the problem isn’t about the lack of motivation or the lack of competence.  Oftentimes, the problem lies in the size of the list. 

Sometimes we have too many actions on the list and we become overwhelmed. It’s important to start small. Start with one high-performance habit and when you achieve it, motivation will naturally fall into place.

There are many elements to having mental toughness. The most important thing is to identify the one thing that keeps you from excelling right now and take on a new habit to defeat that mindset or situation. Hone in and develop the behaviors around that. Once you’ve automated that one habit, go onto the next one. It’s a continuous learning process. It’s continual growth and development until you become the successful person you want to become. 

Do one more

You can also develop mental toughness by doing something even if it’s difficult to do. Your body will go where your mind takes you. The ‘do one more’ principle means telling your body what you want it to do. This is one of the important habits that lead to success If a typical salesperson has a goal of talking to 10 prospects in one day, then don’t be typical. Do one more. By making this decision, you’ve taken control.  Doing this over and over again will increase your motivation as you achieve your goals. This is one of the most powerful principles that you can develop.  

High performers don’t settle for average. They go up and beyond. They hit one more call, they read one more book, and they write one more email. That is the separating factor. 

Fear no one

Fear no one but be respectful to everyone. Treat everyone the same regardless of their social status and carry this mindset everywhere you go, regardless of who you’re talking to.  Everyone is important.  

Stop trying to read other people’s minds because that will plant seeds of doubts in your own brain and you defeat yourself.  You’re allowing other people to intimidate you because of the script you’ve created in your own mind. You may have a little trepidation but that’s normal. Everyone feels some fear but you still have the opportunity to be courageous by acting despite the fear. Remember, anyone can be beaten. 

“10 High-Performance Habits That Lead To Success” episode resources

Success is a choice. As a salesperson, always make the right choice. Follow these habits that lead to success. Contact Justin Su’a via Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. 

If you have more sales concerns, you can also talk to Donald about it via LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for any sales concerns. 

This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Certified Sales Training Program. It’s a course designed to help new and struggling sellers to master the fundamentals of sales and close more deals. Sign up now and get the first two modules for free! You can also call us at (561) 570-5077. 

We have a new semester beginning in January and we would love to have you and your team join us. Follow this link to apply to the program. 

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Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill. 

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TSE 482: What Separates The Top Performing Sellers From The Rest

You see them. You’re probably one of them. Call them the sales superheroes or whatever you want to call them. I’m actually referring to the top performing sellers who always seem to know how to deal with tough situations and pull through. No matter how challenging the task at hand, they always come out successful. How do they do that? Why are they performing so well? Today, I’m sharing with you my insights into how top performing sellers out-beat others each time.

Why top performers do so well: The Mindset to Win

Top performers have this attitude or drive that continues to push them. They persevere towards their goal even when others give up or fall behind the wayside. Don’t just quit even when you’re down to the last quarter. They put a strategy in place and make it happen. This goes beyond work since you also have to apply this to your personal life. Just perform. Just get back and do it.

How to Develop this Attitude to Win:

1. Get around with people that have the same attitude or mentality.

Be with like-minded people. Be with people around you who have that attitude to win.

2. Change your mindset.

Don’t let outside influencers hinder you from performing in your role. It doesn’t matter what or who, you’re going to get past it and succeed.

3. Turn your disadvantages towards your advantage in life.

Don’t let things in yourself which you see as detriments or weaknesses hinder you from doing well. Instead, use these towards your advantage. See it as an opportunity instead of a detriment.

A book to help inspire you to develop a “fighter” mindset:

The Martian is a book written by Andy Weir about a man who got stranded alone in Mars and struggled to survive.

Episode Resources:

The Martian by Andy Weir

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TSE 372: Raise Your Level of Expectation

Are you struggling with a weak pipeline? Do you tend to only close the smaller deals? How come some people are killing it?

I’ll show you what you can do to ensure you have a healthy pipeline because I too was in that same situation. I had a weak pipeline which was a really tough time for me as it affected my sales.

First off, here are a few things to remember:

1. Get outside your comfort zone.
2. Every once in awhile, go for a big deal on the side of your business.

Telling yourself you can’t do it is garbage. One thing I’ve realized is that the process that it takes to close a large deal is basically the same process that it takes to close the small deals. So I closed bigger deals and I found it to be fun and exciting.

3. The easiest things usually don’t work.

What you might even find is that a lot of those little deals are going to be really hard to close and give you more headaches. Whereas, bigger clients or organizations bring more money to the table with less headaches since they have the money and the ability so you can move quicker.

What you need to do:

1. Take a look at your pipeline.

Oftentimes, salespeople tend to go for the easiest. But in the end, it tends to be a little more work. Look at the product range you’re selling in your company and see if you’re playing on the lower end of the kiddie pool.

2. Get appointments set with bigger clients.

Make sure to set apart some time to call some bigger clients. The more shots you take at your goal, the more chances of you scoring.

3. Add bigger deals to your pipeline.

If you already have bigger deals in your pipeline, add to them. Don’t sell the way that you like to sell, sell the way the prospect would like to buy.

Today’s major takeaway:

Bigger deals means these organizations have the money. Deals tend to close quicker. And it’s fun! You’re creating a buying vision. You’re lining goals and bringing value to the table. Again, go for some bigger deals this week.

Episode Resources:

Please support us in our Indiegogo Campaign for the Do Big Things Conference by simply going to www.DoBigThings.net.

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TSE 251: How To Address Pareto’s Law With Your Sales Team

A CSO report suggests that 13% of salespeople produce 87% of corporate revenue. Let’s try to tackle this as we bring in the mad genius, Mike Kunkle, as he shares with us today some reasons for this widening gap, what you can do to close this gap as a seller, and how managers and executives can move this into the middle of the bell curve.

Mike is the Senior Director of Sales Enablement for Brainshark, a sales enablement software provider. His current focus is on the internal aspect of the company – onboarding, training sales reps and managers, ensuring that they have the knowledge, the skills, the processes in place, the systems and tools they need to find, sell, and serve buyers who are looking to improve sales readiness and sales productivity at their companies

Here are the highlights of my conversation with Mike:

The reasons for the large gap between top performing sellers and the rest:

1. The general human performance gap

Sales is like an Olympic sport that requires knowledge, skill, practice, dedication to hone your craft and to be the best. And there’s a smaller number of people who truly excel at anything who are on the far right side of the bell curve. So it’s not natural for everybody to be a great performer in a large organization.

2. We accept that the first reason is unchangeable.

Hence, we don’t work hard enough to move the middle of the pack or support the bulk of the middle performers in selling more effectively.

Strategies in Mike’s company to close the productivity gap through a multi-pronged approach:

1. Use of the Brainshark Sales Accelerator in their learning cloud:

• For onboarding and training to organize everything.
• To serve up the right content to their sellers at the right times of the buying and selling process

2. Solid work with buyer personas.

• They are able to better understand their market and the buyers they work with and incorporate that into the way they sell.

3. Reworking sales onboarding to be more effective.
4. They implemented a very buyer-oriented, consultative, and outcome-focused sales methodology.

• This seeks to align the buying and selling processes

5. 2016 initiatives to maximize and raise the level of effectiveness of the team and the sales leaders alike

How managers and executives can address this disparity:

1. Study top producers and the middle producers carefully.

Do your best to determine what differentiates the top from the rest. Not everything that the top producers do is scaleable across the entire salesforce.

2. Teach managers the content first.

Sales managers are sadly often ignored. Prepare them to do a more effective job in coaching and help them understand effective pipeline management practices and performance management.

The differentiating factors among top performers:

1. Great job at discovery

A great sales performer is able to quantify the negative implications of the current state or the way the buyer is measured. Then work with them over time to provide solutions that address those implications and then deliver compelling business outcome.

2. The ability communicate and create value.
3. The ability to hustle.
4. Positive attitude.
5. Being aggressive

Marinate in this Zig Ziglar quote which Mike cited:

“You get what you want in life by helping enough other people get what they want.”

Strategies for improving as an underperforming seller:

1. You need to commit to learning and to the discipline, the organizational skills and the mastery of the craft.

Maximize all the resources the company provides. Step up to the plate, do the work. Make the effort and ask for help.

2. Have the mindset of wanting to succeed, open to learning, and open to coaching.

How you can help an underperforming seller:

1. Get their commitment to be open to training and coaching.
2. Help them create a buyer-focused mindset.
3. Have a plan.

Where is your market? Who are your contacts? Are they the right ones? How do you plan to approach them?

4. Walk them through the process of approaching, lead generation, managing through the pipeline.

Mike’s Major Takeaway:

Focus on the buyers and their problems, the implications for not solving them, and the outcomes you can help them achieve. Then you will have a better chance not only in making a sale but also in differentiating yourself from the pack.

Episode Resources:

Connect with Mike on Twitter @mike_kunkle and on LinkedIn

Check out his blog at www.mikekunkle.com

Check out Mike’s SlideShare on Sales Onboarding

Brainshark website

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TSE 095: What Corporate and Startup Selling Has Taught Me About Sales

With the ever evolving technology we have today, there is no reason why you can’t capitalize on what the world is offering you to do today. No, it’s not just a matter of knowing what you’re selling and bringing it out to the market. Knowing who you’re up against is equally crucial. In this episode, John Burke talks about these points which are necessary to help keep you ahead in the game.

John Burke is the President of MSi, a LED-lighting company involved in the design and manufacture of their own LED light bulbs and specialized in commercial applications. Although a company president, John still remains a salesman at heart.

Having an extensive background in sales, working with huge corporations like Colgate and Reebok’s Avia International, John has taken the discipline and structure he has learned from Corporate America and incorporated them into developing his own business and gaining the success that he has today.

Here are the highlights of my conversation with John:

His career timeline:

• Worked with Colgate-Palmolive for almost 19 years (5 years overseas).
• Found himself burned out by his middle 30’s.
• Worked for Avia (A Reebok subsidiary).
• Learned about buying and selling companies with Avia.
• Starting his own company.

The major challenges affecting sales professionals on the corporate side:

• Rules have changed in the 70’s vs. today.
• A completely different business model.
• Sophistication in data gathering (how many units are sold per store, etc.).
• The buy-in game has changed.
• Stores are now more particular about the brands introduced.
• Products are now more global.

The game is more challenging and only the best at understanding what’s going on in the game will be successful.

What sales professionals are struggling with in these “new rules” in the game:

• Sales people only know half of the game.
• They don’t care about any of their competitors.
• Getting caught in the digital reporting.

What you need to do to up your game:

• Know who your competitors are.
• Know what their products do and don’t do.
• Know how your product is better.

The biggest challenge today: To provide thebuyer with what they need to have to make the sale.

• Why should they add your product to their portfolio?
• What does your product do that nobody else does?
• What is your product’s unique positioning?
• Are you fulfilling their needs and meeting their profit margin requirements?

What John does to motivate his team about knowing their products:

• Ongoing communications with people to teach and show them what to do.
• Take advantage of technology and tools we have today (Video demonstrations, email blasts, etc.).
• Capitalizing on what the world is offering for you to do today.

The power of knowing your competitor and their products:

• Helps you assess where you are and fashion your sales presentation.
• Helps you accentuate the “positive” about your products.
• Helps you become prepared for what might come your way from a buyer about your competitor to help your buyer make the right decision.

The biggest way to sell:  Relationship Selling

Focusing on the details of the prospects you’re working with:

• Write things down.
• Call people back.

Finding the ideal customers:

• Start with your product.
• Find who your target audience is.

Current projects John is working on:

• Going for fewer watts and continually trying to improve product performance while pulling cost down.

For more information on John Burke’s company, visit www.msissl.com or connect with John by sending him an email at johnb@msissl.com

Connect with John on Twitter: @MSiLighting @DonaldCKelly

John’s Major Takeaways:

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TSE 075: How To Stay Top Of Mind With Prospects Without Being Annoying!

Okay, so tell me if this has ever happened to you before. You are working with a prospect and for some reason they have to put the project on hold for six months. Whether there is some litigation reasoning, lack of sufficient budget or whatever (insert your own reason here). Whatever the reason is they say to contact them later on. However, when you do call they can’t remember who you are or what the project was or just put it on the back burner.

Well, say bye bye to those days. In this episode I share specific things you can do to always stay  top of mind with all of your prospects; even with those projects on hold for an extended period of time without being annoying.

Here are some of the major takeaways from the show:

1. Get Google Alerts and set it up for each prospect, their company and their industry.
2. Follow their company on LinkedIn and Twitter to keep on top of pertinent information.
3. Based on intel you gain from LinkedIn for special occasions such as work anniversary, birthdays etc., send them a personalized hand written card in the mail. This single activity alone will make sure that you are not forgotten.
4. Follow other employees in the company via social media as well.
5. Take advantage of their social media pages, company calendars, press releases etc. Go to their website to take advantage of the information that most don’t pay attention to.
6. Make a calendar reminder to yourself to send them relevant information to them monthly. Do this in a way that it is not spammy, but as a true friend.
7. Use social media avenues and emails to communicate interesting things you find about the prospect or the organization.

With any of these top of mind activities, make sure you do not pitch your product or service. As mentioned above, these activities are purely to allow your prospect to see you as a human being and to build a relationship. You want them to see you as a trusted resource or a friend. When these practices are successfully implemented, it doesn’t matter how long it has been sine you have spoken with a prospect, they will remember you because you stay on top of their minds in unique ways.

Do BIG Things:

Set up a couple Google Alerts for your company, your name and one of your top prospects.

Start here: Set up Google Alerts for FREE!

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TSE 035: Effectively Increasing Your Sales Performance with Chris Rollins Part 1!

Hey, hey, hey everyone, welcome to another great episode of “The Sales Evangelist Podcast”.  During this episode I had the opportunity of interviewing Chris Rollins. Chris is a dynamic sales trainer and professional speaker. Chris is known as “The Sales Train Conductor”, because of his belief that “revenue drives the train” of an organization.

Chris and I had a very lengthy discussion on leadership and sales. Our conversation was so rich with practical information that I had to break the episode into two parts. Here are some of the major takeaways from my conversation with Chris:

• It is important to have effective leadership and sales in order for an organization to grow. You should not focus on one over the other.
• Everyone in the organization is on the sales team because the whole organization needs revenue in order to accomplish it’s objectives.
• Unless you are willing to give credit to someone for your success, you should not pass on one word of blame to that person for your failure. You must take accountability for your actions and don’t seek to past blame.

Feel free to connect with Chris here:

Chris Rollins on LinkedIn

Rollins Performance Group Facebook 

RollinsPerformanceGroup.com 

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