Before You're A Good Salesperson, Be A Good Person

In our culture salespeople have been battling a bad wrap for decades.  It's a career and skill set that's assumed to hinge on lying, deceit, and quick-wit.  Like most thing's in life, there's more than meets the eye.  Unfortunately, the majority of people choose to not seek comprehension.  It's not their fault we all do it.  It's requires signicantly less work to assume.  However, this surface level assessment couldn't be farther from the truth (in quality salespeople.)  They believe first and foremost, BE A GOOD PERSON.

As salespeople it's our responsibility to understand this very real societal assumption exists. Yes, we have to take responsibility for it.  Otherwise, your lack of awareness will be your downfall. Sorry, it's what you signed up for.  We are fighting an uphill battle everyday.  Which means people, yes, even our customers are commonly looking for a way to pin that assumption on you. It's just easier for them, the association has been conditioned by society.  Don't let it happen, BE A GOOD PERSON.

I'd recommend, CHOOSING to view this positively, not as a victim.  It is an opportunity to stand out, showcase our character, provide unique value, and be an asset to our customers.  This set's you up for long term success rather than short term gain.  So before you're a good salesperson, BE A GOOD PERSON.

Happy Selling!

DV

The DV Weekend Pickup #22

Just Listen by Mark Goulston

What I like best:  Dr. Mark Goulston is a prominent present day psychiatrist who's had a ton of critical acclaim throughout the course of his career. This book has already made a substantial impact in my life and I just finished it two weeks ago, ha.  So much so, that I am adopting and doing further reading on a few of the strategies so I can confidently implement them into groundupSALES - that's how impactful. 

I don't typically suggest books until I let things sink in a bit. However, this book has to much value ($10 on Amazon) with actionable techniques, strategies, and tips to improve your communication skills.  A skill that ALWAYS requires refining and improving. We are almost never as good as we think we are at communicating. So let me repeat that, communication skills ALWAYS need to be refined and improved. Excellent communication skills are the foundation of diplomacy, problem solving, and comprehension - among many other things.

As Dr. Goulston says, "Do you ever feel like your talking to a brick wall?" If you want to be heard then you need to breakthrough - whether they are the cynical colleague, overwhelmed spouse, or a furious customer. This book tackles that plus much, much more.  Pick it up and let me know what you think!

Best Quote:  "Perceiving is believing. Misperceiving is deceiving. And worst yet, it prevent's achieving."

Crush the day!

DV

THANK YOU!

Yes, yes - today is my birthday. They tell me this one is a milestone, the big 3-0. Yup, 30. The funny thing is I don't feel much different than I did yesterday when I was 29. I did notice a few gray chest hairs this morning so that was a bit concerning. I noticed a few more wrinkles over the past year or two but I guess I have you to thank for that, making me laugh/smile all the time. Honestly, I was kind of happy I turned 30 because people don't listen to anyone in their 20's so I kind of needed it to happen quickly, ha.  On a more serious note...

I appreciate ALL of your support. I wanted to THANK every single person who has made the first 30 years of my life memorable and the rest of my life possible.  Whether it was heartache or jubilee - I am thankful for it all - everything has led me to this point. So here's to all of you.

I am eternally grateful, THANK YOU.

Crush the day!

DV

Relationships Require...

Relationships of any variety - romantic, business, or friendship - need to be built and are meant to be worked on. Yup, that's right construction and maintenance. The idea that a relationship just naturally happens or just naturally continues is ludicrous, ha. 

"Nothing worth having comes easy." - Anonymous

In all relationships either party expects to get something out of it, that fact is clear. We date people we like. We do business with people we like. We hangout with people we like. Somewhere lost in between intention and authenticity customers/prospects/people view relationship building as - gaming - which couldn't be farther from the truth. The point of a business relationship is to build trust and confidence so you can problem solve together NOT against each other. 

Crush the day!

DV

The DV Weekend Pickup #21

The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone

What I like best:  Grant has an in your face, my way or the highway style that he has owned throughout his career - not for the faint of heart, ha. For those of you who don't know Grant's story he is a former car salesman with a history of drug and alcohol abuse who has spent a lifetime on determined action and reform. He has made a career in sales training, motivation, and real estate with an estimate net worth of $400 million, it's fair to say he's come a long way in 30 years. "There is no shortage on success," says Cardone. Just because somebody else is having success in a particular industry, line of work, investment - whatever - that doesn't inhibit you in the least bit from doing the same. 

What I really enjoyed is this idea that if you want extreme success then you can't act like everybody else, in fact you need to be different, you need to take 10X the necessary action as the "normal" person. By doing this you remove common buzz words that follow extreme success like "luck" or "chance." He has an interesting take on action citing that most people only have three degree's of action - no action, retreat, or normal action. The uber successful all operate with a that fourth degree of action - MASSIVE action or 10X action. Get use to criticism though because as Grant contends it always precedes admiration. Fun read for already highly motivated individuals.  

Best quote: "As long as you are alive, you will live to accomplish your own goals and dreams or be used as a resource to accomplish somebody else's."

Crush the day!

DV

An Investment That Will Change Your Life

Without a doubt this is the most underappreciated, underfunded, and least talked about investment of your hard earned capital yet it is hands down the most important. It has a direct correlation to the future of you and your family yet it is continually neglected. You ABSOLUTELY need to...

INVEST IN YOURSELF

Take more online courses. Read more books. Learn new skills. Become better. Commit actual money to the improvement of YOU. It's the best investment you will ever make - I promise.

Crush the day!

DV

3 BIG Reasons to Be Nice to Salespeople

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a great weekend. So it's the start of the week and that pesky salesperson comes knocking, ringing, or emailing - what do you do? Lay into him/her? Ignore?  Despite contrary belief here's 3 reason why you should be nicer to the salesperson:

1. It's probably your friend or family member (1 out of every 9 Americans are in some form of sales.)

2. They are trying to help you - their goal is more than likely to make you happy. (*Disclaimer - If they are good.)

3. They are keeping the economy afloat, without sales you don't have a businesses, without businesses you don't a jobs.

Crush the day!

DV

The DV Weekend Pickup #20

Since this is the first ever documentary to be featured on the DV Weekend Pickup series the "best quote" section has been temporarily subbed out with "best idea." Read on...

(Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies by Yael Melamede

What I like best: The documentary is centered around the work of Dan Ariely, Duke professor of pyschology and behavioral economics who has dedicated his life to irrationality, more specifically why people are so irrational.  Ariely makes you laugh while talking about such a taboo subject - lying - one we all seem to engage in one way or another.  C'mon don't lie to yourself, ha. "It's human nature to lie, we all do it," says Ariely.  Him and a team of scientists uncover our propensity to be dishonest - sometimes unknowingly with years of experience, decades of groundbreaking experiments, and real life examples.

You'll hear from people like Tim Donaghy (the NBA ref who bet on his own games), Ryan Holiday (the PR guru who deceived millions to drive ticket sales for books and movies), Marilee Jones (the Dean of MIT admissions who was forced to resign from her role after 30 years), and many more interesting people as they tell their stories of lying. I would consider this the more sensational part of the documentary which keep's it balanced and fun to watch as opposed to just a data report on lying experiments. Highly entertaining and informative - strong 90 minutes of your time. The documentary can be found on Netflix. As always let me know what you think!

Best Idea: The ability to rationalize dishonesty has a great impact on our overall capability to lie and be dishonest. Additionally, the farther we distance ourselves from the lie, the easier it is to rationalize, hence increasing our propensity to lie.

*I find this really interesting. This could explain the modern phenomenon of social media lying, yes I mean we are so far from the people we are engaging with that dishonesty becomes easy for many.

Crush the day!

DV

A Critical Skill of The Sales Elite

Being average, above average, and good are obtainable without mastering this all important skill.  However if we want to be great or elite salespeople - which is our goal, right? - then we NEED to be able to do this skill without hesitation.  I don't care what our personality type's are or aren't and I definitely don't care if we're uncomfortable doing it, ha. 

That is we NEED to be able to have difficult conversations.  The conversations we don't want to have but have anyway.  The conversations where objections, rejections, and challenges are plentiful.  The questions we don't want to ask because we fear the answers but we ask anyway. 

Quite simply if we cannot have these conversations with our customers and prospects then "good" is our ceiling.  Sorry, it just is. All elite salespeople have difficult conversations, most have them daily, and none put this task on somebody else's shoulders.  We don't have to like having them, heck nobody does, we just have to have them.

Crush the day!

DV

Top 10 Tony Robbins Quotes

Happy Monday! Smile, it could be worse, ha. As promised here are ten more quotes from Tony Robbins legendary book, Awaken the Giant Within. Don't just read them, act on them!

1. The quality of your life is in direct proportion to the quality of your relationships.
2. The past does not equal the future.
3. It's your decisions, not your conditions, that determine your destiny.
4. It's not what we do once in awhile that shapes our lives, it's what we do consistently.
5. People who fail focus on what they will have to go through, people who succeed focus on what it will feel like in the end.
6. Stay committed to your decisions, but flexible in your approach.
7. The secret to success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you're in control of you're life, if you don't, life controls you.
8. Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year - and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade.
9. Successful people ask better questions, as a result, they get better answers.
10. A real decision is measured by the fact that you have taken a new action. If there is no action, then you haven't truly decided.

The theories and strategies that back quote #7 are worth their weight in gold. I would highly suggest doing a quick google search at very least - impactful stuff. 

Crush the day!

DV