Formula For Success

1.  Be passionate about the profession of selling.

2.  Believe in your product.

3.  Believe in your company.

4.  Believe in being a good professional by practicing integrity.

5.  There is no substitute for hard work.

6.  Practice persistence, don't quit.

7.  Be a possibility thinker. 

8.  Always look at possibilities and potentials.

9.  Be optimistic.

10. Be knowledgeable about your product, service and industry.

11. Get on a continuous education program.

12. Evaluate your performance, daily, weekly, monthly and each evaluation, note three positive things you are doing and three things you need to improve until the next evaluation. 

13. Reinforce the positive and replace the negative.

14. Wish people learn from there mistakes but wisher people learn from other mistakes.

15. Be enthusiastic. It shows belief in your product and in your profession.

16. Empathize with your prospect. Put yourselt in the other person's shoes.

17. Become a high energy person. It shows you have a clear destination and the determination to acheive it. 

18. Avoid burn out.

19. Build self esteem.

20. Displace self confidence.

21. Don't procrastinate. 

22. Learn and practice the phrase "Do it now". 

23. Don't be an escapist.

24. Develop pride in performance. No matter what you do, do it with great pride.

25. Don't do anything halfheartedly. 

26. Let your work speak for you. 

27. When your work speaks for you, don't interrupts with words.

28. Stand by your principles of integrity. 

29. Your credibility determines your profitability in life. It is your goodwill more than money.

30. Do the right things. the first time and everytime. 

31. Associated with people of high moral character because positive people reinforce the positive.

Gorge Washington said, "Associate yourself with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation, its better to be alone then in bad company."

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There is no substitute to Hard Work

Athletes practice for 15 years for 15 second of performance. Success has no hard and fast rules. It has only hard and hard ones. In face, some people go into the profession of selling with a casual approach and treat it as a part-time job. A candidate went to a sales manager in the company and said, 'I am looking for a job where I can work half day only." The sales manager said, "We have the job, you have to decide which half day you want to work, the 12-hour-day or 12-hour-night, and the full day is 24 hours."

Evaluate if you have achieved competence in selling. Competence is the will and the skill to create a positive outcome leading to a win-win for ail parties. The burning desire to succeed is the will and the ability to persuade with integrity is the skill. There are many skillful people who are incompetent, because they lack the will. To a good salesman every sale is exciting; it gives a person an instant high of gratification. A career in sales opens an opportunity which is unlimited. It can mean a front line sales position or selling a high-ticket item, business to business.

Buyer Motivation

Many times a prospect is not aware of his needs. Hence, it is the responsibility of a good professional to bring it out. By bringing out the need, we can motivate the buyer to take action. For example, one in once told by a salesperson that he could save a lot of money by installing roofing insulation in my house to prevent heat loss. This motivated to him at that time. 

At the same time, just because you have a solution it does not mean that every potential prospect has a problem. When the need is identified, it must be recognized with equal intensity by both the buyer and seller in order to conclude the sale. Some people may not realize that they are sitting on a potential problem. Just because the problem does not manifest itself today, they feel sometimes, rather strongly, that there is nothing to fixed.

Hence, no matter how good your price is or value for money, it is perceived a waste. Some needs are visible, sitting on the surface, whereas others are hidden and need to be uncovered. Cars need regular maintenance to address both what we can see as well as what we can't. We seek to avoid future problems. The salesperson can motivate the buyer to act in his own best interests.

Discipline :

Discipline is doing what ought to be done, when it ought to be done, whether we like it or not. Life is like push and pull. Sometimes, we push ourselves and sometimes we have to pull ourselves. We need both, just like an automobile needs both the accelerator and the brake. One without the other will not work or will cause damage, just like an army without discipline is guaranteed to fail. Discipline is guaranteed to fail. Discipline is guaranteed to fail. Discipline is really the spirit that strengthens an army and gives courage and strength even to a small group to face big challenges.

The least a good professional can do it to do his best. Doing your best may always be good enough. It is important to do what it takes to succeed in life. That is why a good professional always believes in continuous improvement.

A common cold can be treated by medication, but a positive attitude has to be developed over a period of time.

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Motivation

Motivation is like a fire. Unless we keep adding fuel, it dies out, and fuel to a good professional is feeding the de-motivation creeps  in. A true professional is driven because they consider themselves self-employed. 

Some people stop working the moment they meet their quota or target because they only want to keep their job, they are not internally motivated. They produce only enough, so that their supervisor has no reason to fire them. They do only enough to get by with. They are really not motivated, they would go beyond the call of duty. Is there anything known as beyond the call of duty is actually the duty! In face, how can duty stop when more can be done! If you've done your duty, how can there be anything left beyond?

Getting motivated is probably easier than staying motivated, especially, in the face of recieving rejection a lot of the time. Staying motivated is not easy and is the tyru test of a professional. Different people do is the trye test of a professional. Different people do different things for different reasons. SOme poeple run fast to win a marathon race or a medal at the Olympics. Otheres may run ecen fater if a god cahsing them on the street. SOme are motivated by positive sreatds; others are motivated to avoid negative consequences. Some people sleep out of relaxation, others sleep out of exhaustion.

As good sales professionals, our objective is to provide positive motivation to the prospect to purchase. Hence, not only should we show a benefit but also how we can prevent a loss, i.e. desire to succeed versus desire not to fail. Both pain and pleasure can be strongly motivating. Those who are insecure often buy things that they cannot even afford only to avoid the feeling of inferiority. Some buy expensive cars, jewels and paintings only for prestige reasons, whether they can afford it or not. They are satisfying a need of inadequate self-esteem. The needs convert into wants. The desire to avoid pain can be a very strong motivator. Just because an ineffective salesperson is not able to uncover a need ore a problem, it does not mean that the problem does not exist or that the client does not have a need.

Motivation is really the spirit in the person. It is the fuel in the car that starts the engine. Most people don't take the time to find out what motivates them. They have no goals to strive for, nor any benchmarks of values and ethics. Both goals and ethical standards drive behavior. Values such as integrity, respect, responsibility are the foundation of belief and commitments that drive behavior. You can only give what you have in life. If you do not practice integrity, respect and responsibility with yourself, how can you practice it with anyone else? If I cannot be honest to myself, how can I be honest to anyone else? If I am not responsible for my behavior, who is?

Is family Pride a Motivation?

I have seen athletes do exceptionally well on one particular day and when asked, "How did you perform so well? What was motivating you today?" Many times the answer is, "My family is watching me today" or "My family is in the audience and they have great expectations of and I cannot let them down" or "I must make them proud."

On the lighter side :

A business was running into problems because of very low sales and the deep deficit was marked in red color on the sales and the deep deficit was marked in red color on the sales chard. The manager called in a consultant and started showing the territory, all the red colors demarcations and the pins holding them up. With great hope, the manager asked the consultant what he should do. The consultant said, The first thing you do when the sales people walk in Monday morning, is take these pins off and stick it in their behinds. A carrot and a stick always work better than only a carrot.

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Formul for success

The profession of selling can be excited and rewarding both financially and emotionally, or it can be depressing and frustrating. A lot of it depends on a person's attitude and how he handles success and failure. When we make a sale we are on an emotional high. However, when we make no sales, we feel rejected and dejected. When a salesperson realizes that the profession is not only about making sales, but involves helping others and solving problems, he becomes a professional. 

To succeed in the profession of selling, one needs to develop proven and repeatable methods of selling which can give positive results consistently. One must qualify and lead the potential customers through an effective selling process in order to result in a positive outcome. In fact, there are no exceptions to this process.

While sales people go into the profession looking for independence and freedom, most good sales professionals realize that success comes from the commitment and self-discipline for continuous improvement. Those who become top performers realize that they need intellectual, moral and ethical support, sometimes a pat on the back and occasionally a kick on the bottom too. Just like an athlete needs a coach, a good sales professional also need a coach. The role of a good coach is no turn a group of people into a committed team where each person is star performer.

The profession of selling is rooted in understanding the problem and providing the right solution through the act of emphasizing and honest persuasion to result in a mutually profitable commercial transaction. The profession of selling is like playing chess. A good player pre-empts many moves of his opponents and plans his moves accordingly.

A good sales professional can be compared to an aircraft with an autopilot. There might be something that a auto-pilot brings humans back on track?

1. Values
2. Attitude
3. Ambition
4. Clarity of goals and purpose

Burning Desire :

Success dose not just happen automatically. It is the result of practicing the principles that lead to success. A young man asked Socrates about the secret to success. Socrates asked him to meet him at the riverside in the next morning. They met. Socrates asked the young man to walk into the water and he did. Socrates suddenly sucked the kid underwater and held him there till the kid started turning blue. Then, Socrates pulled him out. The first thing the kid did was to take a deep breath. Socrates asked him, "Son, when you were under water what did you want the most?" The young man said, "Air". 

Socrates said, "Son, there is no secret to success. When you want success, as badly as you wanted air when you were in the water you will have it. Nobody will be able to stop you that day." This is called a burning desire. This is the difference between preferences and convictions in life; preferences are negotiable, convictions are not; and under pressure, preferences always become weak whereas convictions become stronger.

Success does not happen and a reward doesn't come without action. Just as you cannot reap without sowing. similarly, dividends do not come without investing. Sales do not happen by sitting back. They are the result of tremendous hard work, effort and conscious action.

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Attitude in Sales

A good sales professional is like a driver who steers his way to his destination, rather than a passenger who is at the mercy of the driver, Failures, on the other hand, are living through hell. Their spirits are dead. They stop making efforts and they wait for things to happen. They feel helpless.

The easiest way to overcome insecurity is to rise above mediocrity has no power to move the soul. Mediocrity gives a mediocre living, a mediocre income and nothing beyond. Millions of people die in obscurity without any achievement in life. They are the ones who are half-heated, who keep thinking, hoping and planning to do something but they never actually do anything. They are the ones that watch the world go by. They are the ones that watch the world go by. They talk more and do less. They have only intentions and no action.

To the mediocre, life is about passing time, making it from birth to death safely. To them life is an existence not living. The mediocre take every day as one more day. Their biggest challenge is to find a way to get through the day. They do nothing to make their today better then yesterday. Self-improvement is not on their agenda.


Don't settle for mediocrity. If you set high standards, very soon you will build the reputation of being a good professional with commitment and credibility. On closer analysis, one discovers that the top sales people do not have any advantages such as higher education or a powerful or charming personality. What really separates a successful salesperson from a mediocre one are three important attributes :




Attitude : Mental toughness

Ambition : Burning desire with clarity of goals

Action : Translating dreams into realities or potential into profits.




Each person has unique way of selling. Uniqueness basically means lack of duplicity and presence of originality.  A good professional engraves a lasting impression on others regardless of the product he is selling. Winners have an unending desire to achieve their goals, but a very important one.




Positive Mental Attitude :

If you study the life of successful professionals who have achieved financial independence ethically, you will find they all have one thing in common - they are all positive thinkers and positive doers. There is a tremendous relationship between thinking and success or failure. Good professionals feed their mind with positive thoughts on a daily basis to remain positive. 

Do you know the difference between winners and losers?


Winners form the habit of doing things that losers don't like to do. What are the things losers don't like to do? Well, they are the same things winners don't like to either, but they do them anyway. Losers either, but they work hard anyway. Losers don't like to get up in the morning, winners don't like to get up in the morning either, but they get up anyway.


This is like an athlete who trains and practices everyday. Does he like to practice everyday of does he want to practice everyday? The answer is no. But he does it anyway. That's what makes him a champion.

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Attitude determines success

A Positive Attitude Determines Success

Sales depend more upon the attitude of the sales professional than that of the prospect. A good sales professional is never ashamed of his profession. In face, he is proud of his profession. The only thing he is ashamed of is non-performance.

There is a very commonly used story by many sales managers - two salesmen went to Africa, both went to sell shoes in different parts of the same country. They both saw villagers without shoes. One immediately sent a message back to his manager saying- "There is no market here. Nobody wears shoes and hence I am coming back". The other sent a message saying- "Get ready for big sales - there is a huge market here. Nobody wears shoes and we can make everyone wear them. Gear up production." The difference is the attitude.

 Vaccum Cleaner Salesman in a snowstorm

Winners turn a negative into a positive. Winners do it in spite of problems, not in absence of , and losers permanently rationalize and make excuses in life. Most people who call themselves salesmen are really order-takers and in face, are not even good order-takers. Some sales people harely make a living while there are some in the same profession who make a killing. How can a sales professional who sells identical products in the same market, for the same company, make 10, 20 or a 100 times more money than others?

While I was doing the demos of vacuum cleaners, where most sales people quit out of frustration because they couldn't make a sale,, there was one employee who was one of the top salespersons in the country. He narrated an incident where on one day alone he made 24 sales, something many sales people don't do even in a few months. One day, there was major snowstorm and there was close to 12 inches of snow. In Toronto, during the winter season there are a few days like this every year, Schools and offices are closed because it becomes too risky to go out in such weather. Most sales people look at this as great opportunity to stay at home and watch TV, but this person saw a great opportunity, for two reasons "

1. He realized that everyone would be at home that day. So, his chances of getting people through cold calls would be close to 100%.
2. Normally, vacuum cleaner demonstrations are in the evening or on weekends because if one person sees it they don't take a decision till they have consulted their spouse, and many times, it may just be an excuse, but chances of making the sales become higher. But that day both decision-makers would be there. If the client is serious then it would save him a second trip to give another demonstration. Hence, he saves time.

He also realizes that all his neighbors were prospects. They all had the same need. They were buying the same thing from somewhere else and he too was driving 10-30 miles away on apppoinments for demos. Why not sell in his own neighborhood?

He put on his snow snow shoes, clad himself well to walk in the snowstorm and carried his cacuum cleaner. He knocked on his neighbor's door and said "Hello, I am John your neighbor. It's a shame that we haven't met earlier. We help families like yours live in a good healthy environment. Would you mind if I came in and shared some ideas with you or gave youa short demonstration?"

9 out of 10 invited him in and since they were not doing much and were indoors anyway, they said go ahead. Then, he did his full demo without being rushed and since both partners were there, decision-making was easy.

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What is Selling?

Selling is nothing but the transfer of enthusiasm from the seller to the buyer. Supposing you became as enthusiastic about my product as I am, you would end up buying it, wouldn't you? If I am not enthusiastic abut my own product, I have no right to sell it. Which means, if I am not passionate about my own product, why should anyone else be? How can I sell it? Do I have a right to sell it?

A salesperson while selling grocery was referring to everyting he sold as one, 2 or 3 pounds of enthusiasm etc. Thy buyer asked 'When I buy 2 pounds of carrots why fo you refer to it as 2 pounds of enthusiasm?' The salesperson replied, 'Whenever anyone buys anything from the store I always put in 200% of enthusiasm behind it.'

What this illustrates is that a good salesperson should have strong belied in his product. Strong belief means that under the same set of circumstances, if the salesperson would not buy his own product, he certainly has no right to sell it to anyone. If under the same circumstances, a doctor would not prescribe a medicine to his own children, he has no right to prescribe it to other people. If he does, he is cheating people,, If yousell something that you  don't believe in :

1. You are bot a good professional.
2. You are cheating people.
3. People sense it instinctively and get a feeling of discomfort.

Selling is 90% conviction and 10% communication of the conviction :

Suppose,
You joined "American Life Insurance". You have to sell small policies of face values of $5000 or $10000. You have to hear the top producers in the industry talking big sales. And such a professional is like this -

"You can never convince a client to buy a million dollar policy unless you own one. Supposing you died, how much insurance would your family need for food, clothing, shelter, children education etc. in order to survive?"

If your answer is - 50 million dollars,

"Then why don't you own a million dollar policy yourself? If you don't own it yourself, you have no right to sell it to anyone, because you have no conviction."

It might be happened that after sometimes you started selling policies of face values of $500,000 to $1 million with as much comfort and wase as I used to sell $10,000 policies.

Success is not measured by how we do as compared to others, but how we do as compared to what we are capable of doing. Winners compete against themselves; they better their own records constantly.

Pride in performance and the profession if selling can only come when we internalize and merge character and competence together, to create something called a great sales professional. For that we need to understand the principles of selling and he process involved. They are as follows:

1. Commitment.
2. Focus on goals
3. Acquiring competencies n selling skills
4. Creating and following a selling system
5. Putting in an organized effort
6. Giving and getting respect
7. Learning to relate to people
8. Lead generation and prospecting
9. Qualifying prospects
10. Learning to approach to build rapport
11. Building trust
12. Identifying the decision-making process and key decision-makers
13. Fac-Finding and making presentations
14. Learning to ask questions to direct the sales call
15. Uncovering the need of the customer
16. Providing solutions
17. Overcoming resistance
18. Closing a sale
19. Keeping post-sales commitments and sevice
20. Building the post-sale relationship
21. Avoiding mistakes and learning from experience
22. Learning how to stay motivated and how to handle rejections

All of the above can be classified into 3 distinct activities -

the pre-sale, the actual sale and the post-sale, and all are necessary in order to be a good professional.

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