“There’s always a good reason and there’s always a real reason.” – James Altucher

We like to be lied to. We like to make up reasons justifying why we do things.

Most of the time they are good reasons. I would say very good reasons. But not real reasons.

There are good reasons and real reasons for everything.

Here are a few examples of good reasons and real reasons:

Good reason: Prospect says “I am not interested at this time.”

Real reason: Your priority is not my priority. You did not show me enough value to make your product urgent.

Good reason: I don’t have time to do “X”.

Real reason: “X” is not important enough to make a priority.

Good reason: You’re price is too high.

Real reason: You did not convey your value, therefore I view your product as a commodity. Thus, I want commodity pricing.

A good reason may disguise itself as the real reason. Most likely, we want it to be. Until we identify the real reason, we cannot change or improve.

What are your real reasons?

Good luck and good selling!

“We overestimate what we can accomplish in a day, and underestimate what we can accomplish in a year.” – Tony Robbins, I am not your Guru

If we consistently try to fit too much into a day in order to be “productive”, we are likely to burn out. It may not be today, tomorrow or next month, but it’s inevitable. I know from experience.

Trying to do less each day and thinking about what can be accomplished in a year, might allow us to be more productive. Working to do everything in one day is failing to plan. It is short term thinking. It is the curse of the Type A personality.

Accomplishing less in a day allows time for rest and reflection. Both of which are essential to being productive.

One reason we do not think in terms of a year is that it is difficult. It means planning and prioritizing. It means maintaining consistency and motivation.

One way to view success is in accomplishing long term goals.

To accomplish long term goals, we can think of the long term goal and work backwards. Consistently taking small, actionable steps.

We do this in planning our business, so why not with other goals.

For example:

If I know my sales revenue needs to be $900,000 a year to make quota, I can work backwards to know exactly what I need to do daily to achieve that number.

Let’s break it down further.

$900,000 a year is $225,000 a quarter and $75,000 a month. The next step is to ask what specific activities, if done daily, will produce the desired sales revenue.

This means how many calls, meetings and product trials I need in order to make that number.

The same can be done for our personal goals. Developing a daily process, distributed sustainably, can provide adequate planning to successfully reach our goals. Sustainable activities performed consistently can help avoid burnout.

We need to think about our long term goals and work backwards.

We cannot assume something of value is created in a day.

Good luck and good selling!

Learning is difficult.

Learning is the result of making mistakes. 

To move forward, learning is necessary. 

Being a fast learner isn’t nearly as important as a desire and willingness to learn.

The reason being, learning causes mistakes. Making mistakes causes the learning process to get difficult and slow. That is when the real learning begins.

Unfortunately, if your desire is to learn fast, when the difficult learning process becomes slow, as it surely will, you may quit.

Desire and willingness to make mistakes and endure the slow process of learning will help you make progress each day.

When a 1% change can be the difference in making quota or not, learning a new approach may be worth it.

Being willing to learn a new approach is a unique skill. It means you’re willing to admit your current approach doesn’t work. It takes being able to admit that you’re wrong.

Learning is a skill. A skill of desire, willingness and being unconcerned that it is slow.

Good luck and good selling!

Mistakes happen.

It is how we learn.

I once asked a clients competitor to help him out. This was a mistake.

After the incident, it was requested that I come to a meeting with my manager to be berated. Then, he asked me never to come back to his office. I was thrown out.

A mistake that resulted in losing a customer.

Was it the end of the world? No.

I consider a mistake a small failure. Something that didn’t work.

The benefit of making mistakes is learning. The more you make, the more you learn.

Making mistakes usually occurs because you crossed a line. The problem is, we typically don’t know where the line is until we’ve already crossed it.

Don’t be afraid to find the line.

Let’s face it, you’re learning.

Good luck and good selling!