Sales Professionals... Those Who Double-Down On The Basics Will Soar To New Heights In 2022!

"The secret to renewal and true confidence is simple: Get back to the basics."

Tim Sanders

Are you confident in yourself? Are you disciplined enough to do the things necessary for you to soar to new sales heights in 2022?

Sit back and reflect upon the following question...

Could you enhance your sales results and become even more successful, if you consistently mastered the basics?

Vince Lombardi, the legendary Green Bay Packers coach, once said that football comes down to only two things: Blocking on offense and tackling on defense, and those are the basics his teams spent 80% of their time on in practice. 

How many of you spend 80% of your time practicing the basics?

Unfortunately, the sales world is full of impatient and short-sighted salespeople. Way too many of you are chasing shortcuts, automation magic, and excuses; before mastering the fundamentals.

Excuses stunt sales growth

The greatest skill you can master is simple... just do the work. And it is for this reason, most of you don't need more time, tips, or better strategies. You just need to do the real work and master the basics.

Are you willing to double down on the fundamentals and the basics that will ultimately lead you to sales success?

Sad but true, most salespeople will avoid the fundamentals just like the plague because they don't have the guts to become great at them.

Amazing things start to happen when you eliminate the unnecessary crapola and excuses.

"Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals."

Jim Rohn

Stop the magical mystery sales tour. Stop letting your ego and excuse-making get in the way of what must be done.

I know how hard it is for you to say, “I’m focusing on the basics, but guess what, I haven't made much progress on them yet.”

How many of you will commit to doing the basics in 2022?

BACK TO THE BASICS

Your success depends on how well you commit to mastering the basics. Are you willing to make the basics nonnegotiable?

Regardless of the sales language of your company, the company culture, the products, or the industry; mastering the basics becomes the key to your sales success.

Success is more than circumstance or coincidence. Success does not just happen. It begins with the basics.

"If you can't do the little things right, how can you do the big things right?"

Basics, the universal language of businesspeople and language many in sales must comprehend.

Basics provide the foundation for all sales success.

Think about this for a moment...

We are asked to give “basic ideas,” “basic info,” or “explain it to me like I’m in elementary school.” We break down things into basic, bite-size chunks, so wouldn't it make sense to train ourselves in the same manner?

I believe applying the basics in 2022, will allow ordinary salespeople to do extraordinary things. It paves the way for sales reps to become sales professionals.

Believe in the basics, execute the basics, and succeed with the basics.

Follow along with me as we get back to the sales basics.

READING

Imagine what you can learn through reading.

As you read, your mind becomes engaged. What you read may influence your conversations.

Think about how this can help you drive better business conversations with your clients and advance new opportunities.

Here is some simple math...

Let's say you read 20 pages of a book every day during the week, now follow along with me... This equates to...

100 pages per week - now imagine each book is 200 pages

This is two books per month and by the end of the year this is an astonishing 24 books!

Leaders are Readers

How well are you leading your clients?

Feed your brain to kick-start conversations. Think about reading what the people you want to communicate with reads.

An educated mind brings ideas to the forefront and thus gets invited to the business table

Where do sales professionals get these ideas? It comes from reading.

Sales reps sell products. Sales professionals deliver ideas. Ideas come from reading.

Imagine the conversations you could start with your clients... Imagine the knowledge you could impart to them... Imagine how they would view you.

Now think...

• Are you driving an engaging conversation?
• Are you reading to learn?
• Are you sharing what you're reading?

Reading provides sales professionals what they need to have competent conversations

Give your clients a gift in 2022. Give them your knowledge and insights based upon the books you read.

WRITING

I believe salespeople can write. We all have the capability of writing; it's how well we practice it and what we do with it.

Embrace your self-limiting beliefs when it comes to writing. Take the necessary action steps as it may open sales doors and business conversations. Isn't this what you want?

How well you communicate is critical to your sales success but how well you write about it will be catapult your success.

A few years ago, Josh Bernoff, author of "Writing Without Bullshit" published this article on the internet, "Bad Writing Costs Businesses Billions" -

"I emphasize the importance of writing by quantifying the annual cost of poor writing to U.S. businesses at $396 billion—and that could be an understatement of the effects of poor writing skills."

Writing opens conversations. Writing attracts prospects. Writing opens relationships.

Here's an idea... Gather the top questions you're asked or you hear from your clients during your meetings and answer them in short format social posts or create articles.

Potential opportunities could open as those doing research online could end up engaging with it.

There is power in video but when combined with writing, this becomes a 1-2 growth catalyst

Lastly, no one can write your sales story, so write it yourself. Rise above the noise.

ATTRACTION

Many of you might be wondering... Is attraction a basic? I believe you will see how this plays out.

Inside a digitally-driven, highly connected, and socially networked business world... How well are you leveraging attraction and influence to assist you in kick-starting business conversations?

What are you doing to attract people into conversations with you?

You must leverage content as conversation bait to help facilitate business conversations.

How well you reel in conversations will determine what happens to your sales funnel.

All this content comes from the ideas you get through reading, then sharing the ideas through writing.

What can you do with the law of attraction? How does this fit into your prospecting approach? Position yourself and leverage the power of social to kick start conversations.

Gandhi once said,

A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks he becomes."

As you connect and converse with your audience; share with them what you're reading, educate them, and help by guiding them in the right direction.

Point them to your LinkedIn profile. This is where you can promote your story, how you have helped your clients, and what your prospects can expect when they engage with you. 

The transition to fruitful conversations blossoms.

DO THE BASICS

Swallowing your pride, dedicating the time, and having the discipline to get the basics right is invaluable.

Practicing the basics, it is easier said than done. Quite often, the basics are, well basic.

Without the basic sustenance, how could you hope to do anything which requires greater attention and energy?

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

Bruce Lee

Chasing the shiny bullet and finding the shortcuts with the least amount of work, doesn't pan out in the long run.

Reframe your attention in 2022 and get back to the basics.

Shiny objects and tricky sales tactics may occasionally work, but tricky sales tactics are built upon a façade, not fundamentals. It is time to get “back to basics” and stick with what works.

My challenge to all of you... will you be willing to refocus your effort? There's work to do and it starts with sales 101.