Over the last four weeks, I’ve attended two events (NSCA’s Pivot to Profit in Chicago and PSA Convention in Hilton Head) and spent several days preparing for and cleaning up after Hurricane Ian (we live in Orlando). Combining dozens of conversations with other professionals and time hunkered down pondering the core of all things, I’ve concluded that there is one primary factor that separates good salespeople from great salespeople. There are a million things that separate the good and the bad, but this one thing truly dominates the reason great salespeople are great and good salespeople are not great. To be fair, some salespeople generating great results simply have a golden goose as one of their customers, but it only takes a year or two until they slip back to non-greatness because of this one type of action.
I think of all my conversations and pondering over the last few weeks, the one statement that sums up this missing ingredient was made by Brad Malone, VP of Consulting at Navigate Management Consulting, when we were chatting over a beer in Hilton Head. I’m paraphrasing, but as we were talking about delivering different ideas to our clients, he said: “But they’ve got to do it.”
And that’s it. The great ones are proactive and do the things that make them great.
The good ones don’t. They respond. They’re polite. They work hard. They do whatever their customers want them to do. They’re good, but they’re only good because the market is booming. The great ones are always great. They are proactive in creating ideas that will challenge their customers. The great ones find new customers through smart, consistent, and targeted prospecting efforts. The great ones spend time getting better – they read and attend professional development events. They’re great because they’re proactive. The others are good because they respond well. Period.
And by the way, that’s the biggest challenge we face at Vector Firm. My consulting and training peers (not Brad) advise me to not get too close. “All you can do is provide your insights and ideas, and teach them. If they don’t take your advice, that’s on them.” I think that’s bullshit, and I hope I will always think that’s bullshit. Our purpose is to positively impact professional lives, not deliver ideas and run. So … we get a bit wrapped around the axle about how to get our clients and members of Academy to use what we teach – to proactively do things that make them great. So, here you go: a five-part series on how to be more proactive in your week-to-week activity.
Idea #1: Start small and understand the value of consistency.
About 13 years ago, a coworker of mine was not hitting his numbers. I left the company shortly after he was put on the hot seat but kept up with many people that still worked there. Although I didn’t talk to this particular guy, I heard through my other conversations that he was steadily improving and out of the doghouse. Within a year, he was a superstar. When I saw him a year or two later at ISC West, I made a big deal out of his turnaround and asked him what he had done. His answer? “Nothing. I’ve been doing the same thing this year that I was doing in year one. The only difference is that it’s been another year.”
To become great, you don’t have to commit twenty hours per week to proactive actions. You just have to consistently do it. How about doing two hours? Seriously, commit two hours per week to prospecting or deep thinking about ideas for your customers or professional development. If you mix it up, do one hour of deep thinking, half hour of training and a half hour of prospecting. Whatever. But do it every single week. In a year, that’s 48 hours (assuming vacation and holidays) of deep thinking, 24 hours of prospecting and 24 hours of training. If you’re thinking “I can’t prospect 200 accounts in 30 minutes per week.” Ok, then identify the top thirty and do it right. Just do it because you’re probably doing zero now.
Here's the magic. Once you do these things for two hours per week, you’ll start to find more time and then you’re doing them for six hours and then committing Monday as your proactive day, etc. You’ll probably never get past eight or twelve hours per week of proactive work, but that’s ok. You can change the world with eight hours per week of proactive work!
Start small. Two hours per week.
