To Know Thyself Is To Value Thyself... Are You Willing To Invest In Yourself?

“Believing and investing in yourself is the best way to shift your thinking from a paradigm of excuses to one of the solutions.”

Farshad Asl

In a world of me-too, sales sameness and empty suits... excuses separate sales professionals from sales reps.

Do you believe in you?

Are you willing and committed to invest in yourself?

A great deal of your future success will emerge from your mindset.

The stories in our mind become the stories of our lives

The late American motivational speaker Jim Rohn knew something many people don’t, and quite frankly many in sales struggle with; success is an inside job.

“If you work on your job, you’ll make a living. If you work on yourself, you’ll make a fortune.”

Jim Rohn

Working harder on yourself than your job requires you to pay attention to your mindset, nurture your inner most thoughts, create massive amounts of self-discipline and lastly, master disciplined habits.

In Ancient Greece, the philosopher Socrates, would tell his students,

"He who lacks the will or the boldness to get to know himself will never be responsible for his own life." 

Socrates would declare that the unexamined life was not worth living. Asked to sum up what all the philosophical commandments could be reduced to, he replied, ‘Know yourself.’

I realize you all want to grow sales. You all want more clients. You all want to become your very best.

So... For this to happen...

You're going to have to self-invest if you would want to become the best.

To become the best, you must take control. You must learn to reach the point where your mind allows you to become the master and not the slave to your sales circumstances.

STARTS WITH MINDSET

High achieving sales professionals push themselves further and harder than anyone else ever will. They are continually developing and working on their mindset.

What say you?

These professionals are committed to reading books, listening to podcasts, attending workshops, working with the right coaches, they have mentors and are lifelong learners.

“The greatest gift you can give somebody is your own personal development. I used to say, “If you will take care of me, I will take care of you. Now I say, I will take care of me for you, if you will take care of you for me.”

Jim Rohn

Think about that quote and now start thinking about your client relationships.

How important are they to you? How would you feel if your clients started to abandon you for greener pastures and heartfelt sales professionals?

You see, the sales professional who works hard on themselves is a leader who helps others succeed before them.

They develop and hone in on a giving mindset.

They understand in giving, they receive greater abundance and prosperity. This is a universal law and principle that whatever you sow, you shall reap.

At Selling from the Heart, we call this "giving a rip".

As you upgrade your mindset, so too does your bottom line. In sales terms, this means more commission!

Your greatest sales fortunes are those developed over time. Success is a journey and requires staying the course. It requires patience, persistence, planning, preparation and practice.

“Whatever Your Mind Can Conceive and Believe, It Can Achieve.” Napoleon Hill

If you want to grow sales, you must be willing to dig in deep. You must be willing to get to know and grow yourself.

Think about this Tony Robbins quote,

“Quality questions create a quality life. Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.” 

Therefore, the quality of your sales life is tightly connected to the questions you are willing to ask yourself.

Better questions lead to better answers. Better answers lead to better actions. Better actions lead to better outcomes.

As salespeople, you ask questions to other people, you ask questions to your clients and future clients, therefore... how often do you take the time to look within and ask yourself questions?

WILL YOU BEGIN THE JOURNEY?

If asked what your strengths are, what would you say? You should be able to provide an immediate answer. With confidence and clarity, you should be able to give a detailed answer of exactly what you do best.

If you stumble and bumble needing paragraphs to explain, you may not clearly know your strengths. If you struggle to explain what you do best in a few sentences, then quite possibly you haven't taken the time to become conscious of your strengths.

Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus, renowned as one of the legendary Seven Wise Men once said,

"If you don’t take the time to clearly know yourself, you won’t be able to raise your influential value."

Therefore, if you want to grow your sales then raise your influential value. Raising your influential value will grow your client relationships. Growing your client relationships builds upon your community. Building upon your community grows your referral opportunities.

Are you starting to smell what I am cooking?

"When you're able to be honest with yourself about who you are and finally can present your authentic true self to the world, you feel so much better about yourself, and it makes it easier for everyone else to feel better about you."

Gus Kenworthy

What you might be hiding from the sales world could be preventing you from monumental sales growth.

Let's pause for a moment, deeply reflect upon these questions...

• Are you living as the real you and not someone else?
• Do your thoughts match your actions?
• Does your walk match your talk?
• Are you leading a congruent sales lifestyle?

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Are you tracking with me so far?

Your self-worth will determine your net-worth

START TO BECOME SELF-AWARE

Spend any amount of time in sales, and you will have eaten a slice of humble pie or have been bitten by the reality bug. This bite injects salespeople with a dose of humility and awareness of their shortcomings.

If you’re willing to set aside your ego, become humble and go about your work; then you can radiate an attitude of "others-interest" and thus create a true client-focused experience.

In the poem, written by Charles C. Finn, Please Hear What I am Not Saying.

The opening lines read,

“Don’t be fooled by me. Don’t be fooled by the face I wear, for I wear a mask, a thousand masks, masks that I am afraid to take off and none of them is me.”

High achieving professionals are not self-centered. The best of the best incorporate self-reflection and are truly aware of who they are. They love eating humble pie for breakfast and look forward to a day full of learning as they serve their clients.

Back in the 1970's Psychologists Shelley Duval and Robert Wicklund proposed this definition:

"Self-awareness is the ability to focus on yourself and how your actions, thoughts, or emotions do or don't align with your internal standards. If you're highly self-aware, you can objectively evaluate yourself, manage your emotions, align your behavior with your values, and understand correctly how others perceive you."

Quite simply, those who are highly self-aware can interpret their actions, feelings, and thoughts objectively. 

How can this be applied to you?

Improving self-awareness...

• Gives you the power to influence outcomes
• It gives you more self-confidence resulting in communicating with clarity and intention
• It allows you to understand things from multiple perspectives
• It helps you to build better relationships, now think about your clients

START BUILDING THE REAL YOU

Believe me or not, you are front and center, the face of the business. You are the CEO. The development of the real you allows you to establish a reputation and an identity while still maintaining a personal level of trust.

Creating, cultivating and connecting with the real you can dramatically improve your sales conversion rates, while skyrocketing client retention.

How do you become more recognizable? How do you build your authority? How do you build becoming the subject matter expert? How do you create your following?

If you want to exponentially grow your sales, you must bring the real version of yourself to the business table!

Are you willing to ditch the sales facade and the mask?

"Be real, because a mask only fools people on the outside. Pretending to be someone you're not takes a toll on the real you, and the real you is more important than anyone else."

Alex Gaskarth

Masks may protect us, however; if you're not bringing the true version of yourself to the business table then I'm here to inform you that you'll get exposed.

You may not believe me just yet, but I promise at some point it will happen.

Mask wearing is a huge drain on your mind. It's a hard act to constantly pretend to be, or feel like you need to be, someone else. Similarly, it's very draining to regularly act like you feel one way when you really feel another.

We admire those who bring their heart to the forefront. We admire those who are honest and transparent and stand up for what they believe in. Conversely, we poke holes and see right through those we see as fake or phony.

BEING NON-SALESY DRIVES SALES

How hard is it to be an authentic human being?

I'm here to tell you, there will come a point in your sales life, when you're sick and completely exhausted of all the masks your juggling and the people you're trying to impress.

Sales masks are sign of weakness and stunts your sales growth

Your clients can tell when they're in the presence of an authentic human being, one who isn't "putting on a sales show," they're just true to their humanness.

One can they are Selling from the Heart!

This comfort is heartfelt because in their presence everyone can sense it. This authenticity brings out in the best in conversations.

Lao Tzu, the famous Chinese philosopher said,

 "Whoever knows others is wise; whoever knows themself is enlightened"

Are you willing to travel down the road called betterment?

Are you willing to do the work to become the best version of you?

The inner work you do on yourself fuels the outer success you will have in sales.

Originally published on Larry Levine's LinkedIn.