to my program to say hello. In a few minutes, the spouse says, “My husband [or wife] sounds just like you.”
But it really isn’t that way. They aren’t hearing their spouses imitate my words and manner of speaking: they’re hearing their spouses express themselves with the language of achievement that’s common to both of us. We have been using the same techniques. Now we voice the similar experiences of success that have grown out of the shared knowledge we’ve both internalized.
Internalization is the next-to-last step to completing any learning. When the day comes that you can truly say you’ve internalized all the concepts of this book, or have internalized all the concepts of any other body of learning you aspire to, then and only then are you capable of greatness with that learning. In the case of the learning we’re primarily concerned with here, you’ll be capable of going on to greatness in sales—and you’ll also be in great danger of sliding back into average performance. That’s where step 5 comes in to play.
5. Reinforcement. When you achieve the status of super professional salesperson, you’ll be tempted to despise the very labors and methods that put you there. When you’re still struggling upward, you’ll find it easy to say, “Oh, no, not me. When I get there, I won’t forget how I did it.” But you will, and some of that is good. You don’t want to dwell on past difficulties except to laugh about them.
Still, the toughest task I have as a trainer always is with the super professionals who are slipping. They don’t want to believe the explanation for their troubles is that they’ve stopped doing what made them super professional in the first place.
Can there be any other reason for them to slip back into average performance? You might say, Maxie Kwotabuster’s sales are down because of his three-martini lunches, because of his three-hour handball games during the golden hours, or because of the manner he’s adopted since becoming successful. But when old Max was fighting his way clear of being average, his lunches were businesslike and left him refreshed for an effective afternoon; he guarded his golden hours jealously and used them effectively; he treated people cordially. And you can be sure that when Max was making his first run at success, he found the time necessary to effectively perform all the basic functions of sales work.
When you entered the profession of selling, you learned your product. You learned some sales techniques, you got out there among your potential clients and put your knowledge to work, and you started to make some money. Then all of a sudden, you got smart. You quit doing what your company asked you to do. And you started to slip.
You might finish reading these words, put this book down, and in six months double your income. Then you’ll stop doing what I’ve asked you to do. You’ll stop doing the things that caused your income to double. Your income will begin to fall, and you’ll wonder why. There’s a way to keep that from happening.
Don’t stop.
Instead, do what professional athletes do. There’s a lot of similarity between the professional athlete and a professional salesperson.
You know that high school teams practice. That doesn’t surprise you—the kids have to learn the game. You know that college teams practice. Okay, they’re still quite young. But before every season starts, the pros are out there sweating it up. The first string is out there. The star quarterback is out there. He’s making a chunk of money but he’s running. He’s perspiring. He’s spending some of his time on new plays, certainly, but most of the time he’s drilling on fundamentals. Reviewing the basics. In fact, what’s interesting is that the more professional and talented an athlete is, the more that athlete—man or woman—practices and trains. This comes back to that neat little thing called discipline. It calls into play that business of making yourself do what you know you should do.
Jump ahead in your calendar. Put a note there to review this book a year from now. When the time comes, I know there’s a good chance you’ll say, “I’m not going through that stuff again. I know it. I’ve milked it for everything it’s worth.”
I hope you won’t say that. I hope you won’t limit the effectiveness of your learning. I hope you won’t put a ceiling on your income-earning potential. I hope you won’t decide to slip back into the quagmire of mediocrity. Reinforce your learning. Do it at least annually. Preserve your hard-won skills. Enhance your knowledge. Add to it.
Reinforce.
Keep your greatness.
Instead of letting your greatness wither, fertilize it regularly to make it grow. You’ll find this true of all learning that’s important to you: Every time you review the material in depth, you’ll see things you never saw before and discover concepts you weren’t ready to use before. Whenever you review effective knowledge, you reinforce your previous insights with richer insights.
Your Primary Tool
Let me ask you a question. If the professional golfer uses a club, the tennis player a racquet, and the carpenter a hammer, what do we professional salespeople use? We use something that’s gotten us in lots of trouble, don’t we?
But is there a pro on the golfing circuit who hasn’t used a club to drive the ball into a sand trap? Is there a tennis player who hasn’t used the racquet to feed an opponent a sure winner? Is there a carpenter out there who hasn’t used a hammer to smack a thumb? Is there a salesperson who’s never used his primary tool to say something that lost an account?
Your primary tool—the opening in your face called a mouth—must be used with confidence. But it can malfunction. The words you speak can destroy sales as well as create them. That’s why you should think of your mouth as a sharp-edged tool that has to be used intelligently if it’s going to do you more good than harm. But set reasonable goals. You can’t reasonably expect to never say the wrong thing to prospects and clients.
Hitting the ball wrong in tennis is much like saying the wrong thing in sales. Every year at Wimbledon, the eventual winners use their racquets to feed a few easy shots to their opponents, and they lose the point every time they do. But far more often, they use their racquets to hit winning shots for themselves.
In both activities, you can learn to avoid making the common mistakes. But in the profession of sales, you’re constantly involved in new and unique situations which means that you’re faced with a steady stream of opportunities to make new and unique mistakes—usually by saying the wrong thing.
The good news is that if you learn enough right things to say, and if you concentrate on warmly saying them to your prospects and clients, there’ll be very little time left for saying things you’ll regret. And there’ll also be less chance that you’ll lose any vital point if you do happen to let out an unfortunate remark. Work toward having the relaxed, cheerful, and confident manner that comes from dwelling on what you know you’ll say right rather than worrying yourself into a tense, gloomy, and fearful attitude because you’ve occasionally blundered in your choice of words or topics. Accept the fact that what you say will sometimes come out badly. Then cultivate an honest respect for all people, and learn all the right statements to make. Do that and you’ll never cut yourself with the sharp edge of your tongue.
Accentuate the positive through knowledge. That’s my program for developing your primary tool into a reliable instrument for winning success in the profession of sales.
My life is working with people who have the desire but not the skills to earn more. Usually I work from a seminar stage—just now I’m working in a quiet room on this book—but the object is the same: to deliver that needed training. After I’ve done that, it’s up to you.
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