We are cruising along in our series on the 8 Ways to Increase Your Sales Motivation.
So far we’ve talked about boosting your sales motivation by eliminating negative people from your life, celebrating your successes each day and leveraging your best customers.
Time to dig into number 4! Your strengths — not your weaknesses — are what have the power to propel you to the top of your career.
4. Play to your strengths.
It’s far better to leverage your strengths than it is to dwell on your weakness. Whatever your strengths are, feel good about them and find ways to leverage them even more. If you do, it will be reflected in your sales motivation.
Even the most positive people have weaknesses in their lives, but they don’t allow the weaknesses to slow them down.
On the other hand, negative people can do only one thing — they dwell on what they don’t do well and that just keeps them negative. How tragic! (And completely avoidable as well!)
I can’t help but think of the character in Mad Magazine, Alfred E Neuman, and his favorite line, “What me? Worry?” It’s a perfect line in sales and becomes that much more real when we focus on our strengths.
The best way to not worry about things is by focusing on your strengths and forgetting about your weaknesses.
Be the type of salesperson who focuses on your strengths and you will excel each day, week and month. Too many times people become obsessed with what they can’t do, and in so doing, they fail to see what they can do. In sales this can be fatal, because the most successful salespeople are those who have a high level of sales motivation. They’re able to achieve this high level because they focus on what they do well.
You might be a salesperson who does an incredible job of closing sales. If that’s the case, then focus on why you do so well.
Of course, I’m not advocating you forget about prospecting and the many other phases of the sales process. What I am saying is that you embrace your strength for what it is and you focus upon it the most. This will keep you from becoming negative and will actually help you do a better job of dealing with your weaknesses.
Take the time right now to make a list of your strengths. If you are having a hard time discerning what these are, here are some questions that may clarify it for you:
1. What comes naturally to you in the sales process? What feels the smoothest for you?
2. What does your manager and sales peers compliment you on when it comes to selling?
3. What in the sales process gets you most excited?
4. If your manager came to you tomorrow and said, “We’re going to allow you to do only one part of the sales process,” what would you choose without giving it much thought?
A person who has a high level of sales motivation is going to be in a much better position to spot opportunities when they arise. By focusing on your strengths, you will be in a much better frame of mind to excel.
The quickest way to the top? It’s found in your strengths.
Copyright 2011, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
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