Nothing Good Ever Comes Out of Being Comfortable
If you are a seasoned sales professional, you probably have reached what I call your “comfort zone.” You’ve established a way of doing your business right or wrong that works for you…or does it? There is an old rule in sales– 80 percent of the fish are caught by 20 percent of the fisherman. The question is: are you in the 20 percent that catch or the 80 percent that go home empty-handed? By Staying Comfortable, You’re Settling.
Being comfortable breeds mediocrity. A state of comfort will not motivate you to make changes. You may not be happy with your current financial situation, but you are comfortable enough to complain and do nothing about it. You know you need to make a change, but unless your situation gets dramatically worse– you won’t. And that’s settling for less than average. Without Challenges, You Won’t Grow.
Your comfort zone does not work in the world of pain; it works in the world of pleasure. You feel comfortable even if you question whether you can be better because the comfort zone is the safe zone. If we aren’t challenging ourselves, we will stay complacent and plateau in our skillset as we watch our peers surpass us. Don’t Wait for Outside Pressure.
The best salesperson I have ever worked with was when I was in the foodservice industry. This salesman could sell like no other I had ever met then, or now. However, he clearly had personal issues that created a very odd way of selling. Matt would secure sale after sale and then go dark. When I mean dark, I mean that he would disappear off the grid. This was before cell phones, so his landline was all we had to communicate. I would worry that something had happened to him so I would often stop by his house and ring his bell, only to find him in his pajamas in the middle of the day. His famous line was, “I put my bed sheets over my head again.” The only time he would remove that bed sheet was when he started to run out of money and was running behind on bills. At which point, it was like a fire under him to go out selling again. Pain caused need which caused desire and he became a selling machine. He was confident, organized, service-oriented, and he was the best salesperson for that brief moment in time when he found himself under serious pressure and pain. Your Potential Outweighs the Risk.
At Starboard, I make it a priority to train our agents and help them find ways to be organized, more focused, and improve their sales results. I’ve seen a lot of positive feedback, but only to see little or no change. Harness your fear of the unknown and set out for change. Yes, things could go wrong– but you can always go back to what you know. Take a chance – because you haven’t reached your full potential. -- Hans Hansson, Starboard Commercial/TCN Worldwide
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