To have your BEST year ever, you gotta believe

To have your BEST year ever, you gotta believe

Written By Jeffrey Gitomer
@GITOMER

KING OF SALES, The author of seventeen best-selling books including The Sales Bible, The Little Red Book of Selling, and The Little Gold Book of Yes! Attitude. His live coaching program, Sales Mastery, is available at gitomer.me.

To have your BEST year ever, you gotta believe.

Two truths: You are looking to have your BEST year ever, and you have already broken all your New Year’s resolutions.

Last week I gave you the first two elements of how to have your BEST year ever:

  1. Define yourself.
  2. Develop a sales mission statement.

    Here are the next three elements to master:

  3. Have a deep belief in the three critical areas of selling. In order to make your message transferable, in order to engage your prospective buyer in a way that they want to do business with you, and before you develop your sales skills and your presentation skills, you must deepen your belief in your company, your product or service, and yourself.

    If you’re going to have your best year ever, you have to believe that you work for the greatest company in the world. You have to believe that you offer the greatest product or service(s) in the world, and you have to believe you’re the greatest salesperson in the world.

    I have often said in my live seminars that “mediocrity stems from lack of belief more than lack of skill.” I say it all the time, because it’s true. Most people blame their own inability, and their lack of belief, on a variety of external circumstances: pricing, the marketplace, the Internet, the competition, bidding, the economy, and a bunch of other conjured up excuses that prevent a belief system from anchoring in success.

    If you believe — all the excuses fade away. If you wanna have your best year ever, you have to BELIEVE that you’re going to have your best year ever.

  4. Develop greater pride in accomplishment. Personal pride is easily defined when you think about your child playing the piano, dancing in a recital, scoring a soccer goal, or hitting a home run for their little-league team. “That’s daddy’s little girl!” “That’s mommy’s boy!” “That’s my son!” That’s pride. Personal pride.

    I’m going to ask you to redefine pride as TAKING OWNERSHIP. When you buy a new car, and you take ownership, you ride around the neighborhood showing it off. Would you do the same thing if you rented a car? Would you drive around the neighborhood and say, “Hey everybody, look at my new rental!” Take it even further, if your kid spills a bag of potato chips in the back of a rental car, what do you do? Nothing, it’s a rental! Who cares? But if your kid spills a bag of potato chips in the back of your new BMW, you make them lick them up off the back seat. You have to take pride in your achievements and your accomplishments. That pride, that ownership, and that responsibility, will lead you to the next achievement.

    Ownership and pride are closely related. CAUTION: Be careful of pride’s evil twins cockiness and arrogance. Your ability to display pride will be contagious. You’ve all heard the expression, “pride of accomplishment.” In sales, oftentimes you have to pat yourself on the back because others don’t give you enough praise. Part of having your best year ever is building your own sense of pride, without others having to reinforce it.

  5. You are what you eat. Every person I know, including me, has ten pounds of weight on them that they wish they didn’t have. Wait! (weight!) There’s one exception. His name is Eric Taylor. Eric has tied physical fitness to mental fitness. Eric eats right, exercises right, and earns right. He’s certain there’s a connection, and so am I. Look around at the people you work with. Discover for yourself the correlation between fit and successful. Personally, this is my weakest area. I write about it, I pledge to do something about it, but progress is slow. Through the encouragement of my partner, I’m taking at least one brisk walk a day. Sometimes two. If you want to have your best year ever, you have to start someplace. And you have to work at it every day.

Now you have five of the 20.5 elements. I know it’s progressing slower then you want, but hey, it’s about having your BEST year ever, and I want to be certain you have all the information possible to make that happen. Yes, there will be several parts to this piece. Yes, the ENTIRE article will be available on my website AFTER the last part has run.

HERE’S YOUR MISSION: Return next week for part three of how to have your BEST year ever.

In the meantime, I’d love to know what you are doing to have your best year ever. Send an email to gitomer@gitomer.com and all ideas will be posted on my site.