Chapter 18

Getting and Staying Motivated

Much of this book focuses on the mechanics of prospecting: what to do and how to do it. Really, though, none of that matters unless you possess the most important part: the mental ability. This is the desire to work and succeed, the self-motivation that drives you, confidence in yourself, and a positive attitude.

We could hand this book to people off the street to equip them with the processes and techniques for sales success. However, most would fail, since they probably could not handle the head part of the game. Conversely, I’ve seen some people who weren’t necessarily blessed with the highest levels of intelligence and communication skills, yet were wildly successful salespeople. But they all shared one even more important characteristic: the desire to succeed, which translated into doing whatever it took to reach their goals.

The mental aspect of selling—and of life, for that matter—is a choice. You decide what type of results you will get each and every day based on your outlook on life, what you believe. According to my friend, motivation and achievement expert Dr. Alan Zimmerman (www.drzimmerman.com):

Beliefs are like filters. When you observe life through a particular filter, you can only receive certain information. The rest is unavailable. It’s like having your TV tuned to NBC. You’re not going to see any shows on CBS, no matter how hard you try. If you don’t like how things are going, if you don’t like how you’re feeling, change the channel.

(By the way—one of the best books on motivation and attitude I have ever read is Alan’s Pivot: How One Turn in Attitude Can Lead to Success.)

I must admit that I am a motivational information junkie. I’ve got shelves of books, tapes (yes, I still have those dinosaurs), CDs, and videos, and have been—and still go—to the seminars and rallies. And when I fall into a slump or a rut, the way we humans all do occasionally, I drag my butt to the bookstore and grab more motivational and inspirational books and dive into them. It’s almost magical how filling your mind with this information can quickly pull you up.

What I find sad, however, are what I call the cynicals and skepticals—the people who make fun of motivational speakers. They also usually roll their eyes when there’s an opportunity for any type of training or investment in themselves. They’ve seen it all before. And there’s one more word used to describe most of them: miserable.

Just like their negativity toward self-improvement, that feeling bleeds into every area of their lives. They find fault with just about everything and everyone they view through their mud-colored glasses.

If you have more than a few people in your office, you probably work with one or more of these cynicals and skepticals. My advice: Avoid them. Their joy comes from making others depressed, and they’ll try to pull you into their pity party—which can be fatal for your attitude and Smart Calling achievement.

To be truly successful in your Smart Calling, you do need to possess the proper mental mind-set, and because of all the potential negativity you will encounter on the phone, you must be proactive about it. I can’t motivate you. Your boss can’t motivate you. Only you can motivate you. To help you do that, I’ll share some useful information on motivation, attitude, and achievement. In more than 30 years of studying successful salespeople—and people in general—I have found definite patterns and behaviors. I’m confident you will find some ideas in this chapter that will positively affect your attitude—that is, if you want it to.

Never Get Rejected Again

We’ve already discussed how to never be rejected again in Chapter 5: to always have a secondary objective. Since fear of rejection is probably the largest issue hindering prospecting success, let’s dive into it a bit deeper.

Those of us who have endured and prospered in the sales and prospecting game have undoubtedly taken our share of beatings. But we have always found a way to insulate ourselves from the endless barrage of no’s and bounce back. As we’ve already discussed, you are rejected only if you think you are. Here are instances of how I’ve seen rejected reps handle everyday situations and taint them with self-defeating thoughts and actions, contrasted with what the successful reps—the achievers—do to constantly reach new heights and avoid what most people call rejection.

Rejected Rep: Burns through calls, hearing no after no, and slams the phone down after each—ending each call negatively.

Successful Rep: Accomplishes something on every call, even if it’s not the primary objective. Even if she fails to make a sale or appointment, she always has a fallback position, something she can accomplish on every call, even if it’s as minor as getting agreement to leave the door open for the future or just questioning the objection. A success, regardless how minor, means no rejection.

Rejected Rep: Lets the no answers pull his attitude down.

Successful Rep: Accepts the fact that he will get no’s. Many of them, and then more. If this is a surprise to you, read no further and consider changing careers. Judge success based on your attempts, not just the yes answers.

Rejected Rep: Associates a no with who she is as a person.

Successful Rep: Doesn’t take it personally. Realizes that it is not her they are rejecting, just the ideas she presented. Recognizes that the prospect or customer simply did not have an immediate perceived need at that very moment and that this could change in the future.

Rejected Rep: Mopes around after a no call or, worse, avoids the next call. I’ve seen reps who couldn’t recall their best friend’s phone number but could relive every no of the day.

Successful Rep: Realizes the last call she made has absolutely no bearing on the next one. The fact that she did not meet her primary objective on the previous call does not affect her attitude or presentation on the ensuing one. After she has dissected the previous call, she moves on and doesn’t dwell on it. Instead, she wipes any negative thoughts from memory. She realizes her biggest sale ever could take place the next time she punches the keypad—and is always prepared.

Overcoming the Fear of Calling

Have you ever scrolled through your contacts while planning your day, stopped at one particular lead or account, got that sinking thud in your heart, and then . . . bypassed it?

And did you continue doing the same thing for weeks, maybe months, maybe even longer?

If so, you’re not alone. Many of us can trace this reluctance to fear: fear we’ll get blown off the phone, that we’ll sound like a jabbering fool to this intimidating prospect, that we won’t know the answers to his questions—fear of anything, for that matter. And if we do manage to muster just enough courage to place the call while in this state of mind—isn’t it interesting how often our fears become reality?

Lee Boyan and Rosalind Enright’s book High Performance Sales Training explains a fascinating psychological phenomenon: The more we dwell on what we fear, the more difficult it is to forget it, and the longer it stays in our minds, embedding its visual manifestation and ultimately turning into negative behavior. (This quite often happens to some golfers when approaching a hole requiring a carry-shot over a lake.)

Austrian psychiatrist Dr. Victor Frankl suggests that to overcome fear, you must turn it into a ridiculous, absurd event in your mind and then allow the natural human reaction to absurdities turn it off completely. For example, when you hear of something that is totally off-the-wall, you shrug it off, saying, “No way.”

Try this: Consider what is hindering your success, and exaggerate it to the extreme. For example, “I am scared silly of calling the Big Fish Company because my contact, Mr. Mackerel, is actually a demon with supernatural powers. He has, on occasion, actually transformed himself into digital signals and sent himself back through the phone lines, through the headsets of sales reps, jumped into their ears and attacked their brains, turning their minds into useless jelly, leaving their bodies slumped at their desks. In some cases, their managers couldn’t tell anything was wrong for hours before they were discovered.”

Absurdities like these are so ridiculous the human mind immediately rejects them. And once we can ridicule our fears, these problems lose their power over us. Harvard psychologist Gordon Allport wrote that any person who can figure out a way to laugh at his problems is well on his way to solving them.

So, what’s anchoring your ability to excel? Create an absurdity through which to view it, and you’ll see how truly ridiculous it was to begin with!

Say “So What?” to Your Fears

Call avoidance is often caused by fear of hearing no. A newsletter subscriber of mine e-mailed a very simple, yet effective way to deal with that. She said, “Whenever I fear something, I go into ‘so what? mode.’ I just put ‘so what?’ in front of anything I fear. For example, ‘So what if I get a no. Big deal.’ It’s a way of saying, what’s the worst thing that can happen to me if I do it? It helps me realize that our fears are usually ridiculous and never realized anyway, yet they cause us to miss so much.”

Size Does Matter as It Relates to Your Thinking

Why do some people consistently produce at high levels, get bigger results, and make more money? Because that’s what they expect of themselves, and this translates into bigger action.

The magnitude of your success is directly proportional to the size of your thinking. Big thinkers don’t want to perform just well enough to meet quota; they anticipate blowing their numbers away and consistently earning more money and exceeding results like never before. It’s quite simple, really. Think large, and actions and success follow, and the same is true with small thinking. The good news is that you’re in control. As former British prime minister Disraeli said, “Life is too short to be little.” Let’s look at specific ways that big thinking translates into action and big results in your Smart Calling.

Calling Big Opportunities

Given the choice, would you call IBM or I.M. Little Enterprises Computer and Small Engine Repair? Big thinkers get stars in their eyes imagining the opportunities within a larger company: multiple contacts and departments, all potential buyers, the potential of huge orders and larger commissions. Small thinkers don’t even consider approaching the Fortune 1000. They think, “Oh, they’ll never want to buy from little ol’ me.” And with that attitude, they’re right. Consequently, they are mired in follow-up calls to small prospects with little revenue potential, and they waste time catering to the demands of tiny accounts that probably shouldn’t have been opened in the first place.

Action Item: Look at the top 10 to 20 percent of your company’s customers. Analyze their defining characteristics, such as size and industry, and find similar prospects to go after.

Calling High within an Organization

Most sales reps have a level of comfort regarding the titles of prospects and customers with whom they speak. Some start low, and then they wonder why they feel like they’re stuck in a molasses and Super Glue mixture when they’re trying to move a sale forward. Maybe you’ve felt similar frustration. Starting low and staying there means you run into self-important middle managers who are overworked and underpaid and inundated with calls from other salespeople. Some are so afraid to make decisions that they make none at all, while the notes in your contact management system shows a series of entries like “Not ready yet, still in committee, CB in two weeks.”

According to author David Peoples’s book Selling to the Top, calling at a higher level is an easier and faster sell, less work, provides more value to your product or service, produces less competition, and allows you to charge a higher price. Anthony Parinello created a name for these higher level people: VITO, meaning Very Important Top Officer. In his book Selling to VITO, Parinello explains that VITOs are different from most buyers. Some lower-level contacts might worry about protecting their turf, impressing others, or holding on to their own shaky position. A VITO is straightforward and wants to improve the company’s bottom line by raising revenue, lowering expenses, or improving efficiency. They won’t waste your time if you don’t waste theirs, and your potential rewards are huge.

Action Item: Call several levels above where most people start. A word of caution: Be thoroughly prepared to discuss how your product or service will favorably impact the big picture within the organization.

Setting Bigger Call Objectives

We’ve covered this in the section on objectives, but it’s worth a revisit. What expectations do you have as you prepare your sales calls? Some sales reps approach each call “just to see if there might be any interest there.” And maybe there is, so they quickly jump off the phone after saying, “Well lemme send you out some information, and I’ll call back again.”

High achievers, however, expect to take calls as far as they possibly can, so they do. They begin calls with a specific, ambitious objective, whether it’s the sale itself or an appointment. A few points to consider: if anyone has ever made a sale at your company on a prospecting call, it therefore is possible. So why not make that your ultimate objective? Even if you don’t reach it most of the time, you’ll consistently achieve higher levels than you would have otherwise. And think about how much time you can save by moving others to a decision more quickly, regardless of what that decision ultimately is.

Action Item: Approach every call expecting to accomplish the best conceivable end result. You won’t get there every call, but you know what? Your results over time will be much higher than with low—or no—expectations.

What’s the difference between high- and low-performing sales reps? Self-confidence, belief in themselves, and expectations; in other words, the size of their thinking. But what about skill? While it’s important, I’ve seen plenty of reps who had the tools to succeed without the desire or expectation. I’ve seen many more who would never be called naturals when first starting, but they expected to do well and found ways to make it happen. In his Law of Success, author Napoleon Hill said, “If you demand success of yourself and back up this demand with intelligent action, you are sure to win. There is a difference, though, between demanding success and merely wishing for it.” Similarly, The Psychology of Winning author Dr. Denis Waitley maintains, “Every individual tends to receive what he or she expects. You may or may not get what’s coming to you, but you will always get what you expect.”

Losers typically anticipate little and get it. Worse, losers expect bad things to happen, and they do! You’ve seen these people before, the ones who can darken a room merely by entering it. They’re the ones who consistently complain about everything from the softness of their chairs to the crumminess of their territory. All the while, the action-oriented expectant rep is doing what the other says can’t be done.

How do you know what you can’t do? I’m not talking about what you think you can’t do; those are the self-imposed limitations you’ve believed up until now. When you analyze it, there’s very little you’re not capable of if you really try. So set a larger target for yourself and say, “Why not?” You realize what you’ve been missing, and you’ll be more motivated as you go after your goal.

I challenge you right now, fellow Smart Caller, to burst out of your comfort zone in each of the areas we’ve discussed here. Think and act large—and your sales, compensation, and happiness will flourish in direct proportion to your thinking.

Your Assumptions Usually Come True

Nancy Zerg. You probably don’t know the name, but she’s the Jeopardy! contestant who beat Ken Jennings in 2004, thereby ending his unprecedented-at-the-time 74-game winning streak. She probably wasn’t any better or smarter than him—she lost the very next game, leaving her own personal streak at one—but she managed to stay close during the main part of the game, then knew the last answer when Ken didn’t. Game—and streak—over.

Nancy had something else going for her that certainly didn’t hurt: confidence. In interviews after her victory, she said she knew that Jennings would have to lose to someone eventually, and it should just as well be her. In contrast, she spoke to other contestants who, before their games with Ken, were already resigned to the fact that they would lose. They said things like, “Coming in second to Ken Jennings isn’t bad.” And sure enough, they came in second. Or third.

For myself, I am an optimist—it does not seem to be much use being anything else.

—Winston Churchill

So what is your mind-set before your calls? Do you pick up the phone feeling that you’re going to succeed? Or are you expecting the worst? We tend to look for, create, and get what we expect. Don’t go into a call expecting resistance. If you must expect anything, expect success. And if you need to doubt anything, doubt your limitations.

Will You Go for the Big Jump?

At the 2002 Winter Olympics, Eric Bergoust, an American, was the defending Olympic champion and the odds-on favorite in the freestyle aerial ski jumping. He seemed to have it clinched—except for the fact that Ales Valenta of the Czech Republic crashed the party by nailing an unheard-of quintuple-twisting, triple backflip on his last jump.

Ouch.

Bergoust was the final jumper. His jump would determine gold, silver, and bronze in the Olympic freestyle aerials, and it had to be as good as or better than Valenta’s. In his mind, his options were win or lose. First or last. All or nothing.

Staring down the hill, Bergoust knew he had to go for it in order to win. He glided down the mountain, raising his left hand as he approached the ramp for takeoff. To the untrained eye, the jump looked good. But the excess speed made him fly too high and rotate too fast. When he stuck his arms out to his side to slow down the twists, he didn’t slow as fast as he needed. He fell back upon landing. In an instant, snow sprayed like it was shooting from a snowblower in your driveway . . . and the defending Olympic champion finished 12th out of 12.

Dead last.

But Bergoust had no regrets. “I really had to risk it,” he said. “I’m glad I didn’t go out there and go conservative and finish fourth. I wanted to get the gold or last, and I got last. And sometimes when you risk it, it doesn’t work.”

Wow!

Just think of how many times salespeople have opportunities to speed down the hill, laugh at danger, and go for the triple-flip twist. Now think of how many times they take the safe, easy route by not making the tough call, not going after the big prospect, or not calling at a high enough level within a company.

Are you willing to take risks and go for the big jump? You will always be glad you did because the risks you regret the most are the ones you don’t take.

Sell More by Being a Kid

I’ll finish up this section with perhaps the easiest way to be motivated and show success in your Smart Calling: Regress a few years, and be a kid again. All kids are born salespeople, but what happens when they grow up is that many lose the attitudes and behaviors that make kids great salespeople. Here’s why we should be more like them.

No’s Don’t Bother (or Easily Deter) Them

When my kids were little (they’re both in their 20s now), they’d react to my no responses as if they were hearing-impaired, ignoring the no part and relentlessly firing off their next batch of requests. They weren’t always successful, but sometimes they were. They certainly got more than if they’d buckled to the initial no the way many adults do. And most kids aren’t afraid to go to different levels within the decision-making hierarchy to get what they want. My kids especially knew where to go to ask for money. (They haven’t grown out of that, actually.)

Kids Take Risks

I was mortified when, at eight years old, my son Eric roller-bladed up and off a plywood ramp!

“Oh, that’s nothing, Dad,” was the response when I asked if he was afraid of crashing. In retrospect, most grown-ups are too risk-averse, traveling the warm, safe, beaten path. What’s the last risk you took?

If you’re reluctant to live on the edge, consider one thing: Do you regret more of the risks in life that you took, or those that you didn’t take? So why not throw caution to the wind once in a while?

Their Imaginations Run Wild

I remember when my daughter, Amy—about five at the time—handed me an abstract explosion-of-colors-on-paper. I smiled and sheepishly asked, “What exactly do you call this, sweetie?”

She replied matter-of-factly, “Well, of course, it’s a city, Daddy.”

Of course. Many of us fence in our imaginations by saying (and therefore believing), “I’m just not creative.” Bull. Release your imagination, and let your ideas run wild. You’ll be surprised at the results.

Kids Have High Ambitions

I know a six-year-old who’s facing a tough career decision. He isn’t sure whether he’s going to play in the American League or the National League when he becomes a major league baseball player.

Ask any kids what they want to be when they grow up, and they’ll probably tell you of their aspirations to be something great. Sadly, many lose this desire as they become adults and are content if they can cover this month’s bills.

Do you have written goals that you are working toward? If not, begin today and determine what you want to pursue. And regardless of where you are right now, aim higher. You can get there.

They Have Great Attitudes

A trivia question on the radio the other day asked, “What do kids do about 400 times a day that adults do less than 20 on average?

The answer: laugh. (I’ve seen some adults who have really contributed to pulling that number down to about 20!) The moral: We should lighten up more. Who would you rather be around: the person wearing the scowl or the smile?

Kids Are Constantly Active

The word walk isn’t in most kids’ vocabularies; they dart wherever they go. Yet somehow they grow into adults whose sedentary lifestyle and attitudes contribute to a poor self-image and lack of ambition, not to mention health issues. You can spot the people in your organization with the poor attitudes; normally, they’re the ones who shuffle from place to place. Put a spring in your step, move more quickly like a kid, get off your butt and exercise more, and you’ll experience a better attitude.

They’re Naturally Curious

As a trainer with more than 1,300 presentations under my belt, I’ve faced tough questions. But none ever exasperated me more than trying to explain the things my kids used to ask me when they were young, things I always took for granted, like “Why is there frost on the grass when you wake up in the morning?”

In sales, we need to have that childlike curiosity because it helps us understand everything we should know before we make a presentation.

So, don’t grow up. Think young. You’ll have more fun and be more successful.

Smart Calling Action Step

What will you commit to do as a result of this chapter?