Sales Advice
Today, I have a simple message that will kick you in the ass and get you moving faster than marching orders from General George S. Patton Jr. himself. If it doesn’t, then you just don’t have the ‘Right Stuff’ and where you are is about as good as it is going to get for you.
I just finished reading George Haylings semi-autobiography published in 1983 called “A Lifetime of Homework: The Autobiography of An Entrepreneur and His Imaginative Enterprise.” (good luck finding it)
Haylings was a “small” direct-mail operator, who ran his business out of his home in the mountains of Northern California. He loved the lifestyle his business afforded him, especially the long walks through the cool, crisp mountain air of Big Bear Lake with his 3 Labrador Retrievers tagging along.
Haylings started selling information in 1935. He spent his lifetime, 48 years, selling information to “dreamers”. He didn’t make a “killing” doing it, but he made enough to live in a nice home up in the mountains where he spent a lot of time with his wife.
Haylings used small classified ads to generate leads to sell what he referred to as “treatises” or “Special Reports”. Most of his material uncovered a variety of ways for budding entrepreneurs to make money, describing different money-making ideas and schemes.
Essentially Haylings sold dreams… some hope… and a lot of inspiration.
But oddly enough he admits that few ever did anything with the information they bought from him.
Today, just as in Haylings’ time, there are opportunities, but so few people are willing to embrace them.
Why is this?
One: You’re afraid of taking risks.
When it comes down to it, you will NEVER make any SERIOUS money at all, unless you overcome fear.
A lot of people say they’re not “ready” to take a risk because they feel the “need” to do more research or be “better” prepared, but in reality this is their way of rationalizing their fear.
Two: You’re too cheap.
Sorry to be so blunt here, but most people are too cheap to see or too ignorant to see the value in investing in sales training for themselves. Instead, they squander their lifetime income on entertainment, vacations, liquor, boats and cars and a plethora of other pleasurable, depreciating assets and then wonder why they are broke at age 65.
Something’s is badly wrong with this picture.
Three: You’ve got scarcity thinking.
Most people suffer from this malady, as a result, of listening to the WRONG people for years and years. Of the three, this is the most devastating and difficult to change.
The reality is that the past is the past and what’s done is done. As Alan Watts said, “you can’t steer the boat by looking at the wake”. Don’t know Alan Watts, use that smart phone and Google him. Might learn something of value.
Truth is, life’s joystick is in your hands, and you can play the game however YOU want to – the choice truly is yours.
When I started this salestraining business 15 years ago, I was dead broke and owed $40,000 in credit cards. Not a great place to start a business, but that is where I was. For the first two years, I worked my ass off – still do that a lot. No vacations. No new cars. No nothing, except pay the bills and invest in myself and my new little enterprise. Within three years my income had topped $350,000 a year. Secret, I worked hard, then I worked harder and then when I was tired and wanted to quit I worked even harder still.
I am not gifted – I was a C+ student in high school – nor do I have any special talent, but what I do have that 95% of the people walking the planet don’t have is….
Big Brass Balls.
Most people are afraid of taking risks and making a leap of faith….or they are too cheap…. or too scared and are not willing to leave their comfort zone by taking action that will allow them to live a life of abundance. Ultimately, we all get in this life, not what we want, but what we deserve.
Go ahead and take the leap. Even if you fail, failure is not final unless you let it be.