I have always been a fitness fanatic, from gym memberships and ClassPass, to Soul Cycle, pilates, Yoga yacht days and more.
This year, besides schools completely shutting down, offices closing and the whole world being turned upside down given the Pandemic, I had yet another challenge: How to exercise when everything had closed.
For anyone like me who doesn’t just LIKE exercise, but NEEDS it in order to mentally function at their best, you will understand that going without exercise was NOT an option for me.
At first, I started putting on Yoga and other fitness classes on Youtube, and that worked for a few days, until I realized I didn’t like sweating inside the same house I was supposed to conduct my office duties!
I had always seen people running outside, but it never intrigued me. The reasons ranged from always feeling I wasn’t good enough for being a runner, to not having the stamina to go longer than a mile, to worrying what others thought when they saw me running.
As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of many inventions. In this case, I obviously didn’t invent running, but it became an invention to my fitness routine.
Little did I know, my running was to become so effective, that it was actually covered by the Wall Street Journal!
In this article, I want to discuss 5 action steps that took me from being a lousy runner to what I consider a pretty darn good athlete now. More importantly, I want to show how those same steps I took to become a good athlete can be applied to anyone’s Sales Activities in order to help them optimize their steps and become great salespeople.
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As many may imagine, sales has much in common with athletics. Both recognize the importance of key performance moments, and both are highly competitive. This “Athlete Centered Model” can help anyone improve their own sales skills and goals.
1) No one can force you to do it
Running - and sports in general - require an internal self-talk to keep you going. While it’s important to have a coach show you the steps you need to take, at the end of the day, it’s you who’s going to need to talk yourself into that extra mile, when you truly feel you’ve outdid yourself and don’t have it in you to keep going.
Similarly, when it comes to sales, your managers can put all the activity quota they want in place. Your coach can give you the guidelines you need. But it’s going to require YOU to want to do them so they will come from a place of desire rather than force. Because anything forced will be watered down.
Therefore, don’t be waiting for that silver-bullet answer to how to get more sales and bring in new revenue. There’s only one person who’s going to be able to do it, and that person is you. What is your mission statement? What is that motto that’s going to help you send that extra inmail on Linkedin or create that extra video to promote your services and offerings? I wrote about this “Cup O Noodles mindset” in my Sales Manual.
2) The best thing to look at is your own shadow
Many time, when going up a steep hill, it’s so easy to look around and see everyone walking leisurely or the cars passing by. Those hills are SO tough! However, I’ve learned that when you just look down, right at your own shadow, your speed picks up and you can go much faster. You block out the noise and the distractions, and just focus on beating your own shadow.
Similarly, when looking to improve your sales results, the best benchmark you can review is your own. Stop comparing yourself to industry standards, stop looking around you. Just look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself if you’re doing the best you can. Are you going at your potential? If not, YOU are the only person you need to answer to and look at. Stop looking around, because that will just slow you down.
3) Stop being intimated by the person in front of you
This was one of those things that in the past made me keep stopping and hate running all together. Looking in front of me, if I ever saw anyone going too fast, I would give up. “There’s no way I will ever keep up with them; let me just give up and quit. I’m not cut out for running.” And I’d just pay my $50 fitness class and call it a workout.
Ever since keeping my own pace, and running out of necessity, I’ve started just looking down and going, even when I see someone sprinting past me. Why? Because I know either 1) That pace is not sustainable for that person, who typically gives up 20 seconds after they pass me and they start walking or 2) That they are professional sprinters, which is great, but that’s not what I’m going for. I have my own goals, which is my health and fitness.
When looking to improve your sales, it may get overwhelming and seem impossible to keep going when you see some people are doing a billion dollars in sales or they have such a wider network than you. Always remember, either they may stop soon, or they may not. Maybe they were handed their book of business, maybe they inherited it, maybe they worked hard for it. You don’t know…and really shouldn’t care. It does not take away from your goals. You keep going at your own pace!
4) Practice, Rain or Shine because Repetition is Key
Not only did 2020 give us the Pandemic, but we were experiencing some of the biggest natural disasters in modern history. We had more fires in Southern California than many other years. We had a heat wave, with temperatures rising to 110 degrees. We had so many opportunities to say “Not Today. Maybe we should go back to the Youtube Yoga.”
But I realized it was those days that made me a true runner. No matter what the situation around me, unless a complete emergency when going out was illegal, I still went for my runs. It actually forced me to mentally AND physically block out the challenges and push through with my goals.
When in sales, it doesn’t matter if it’s Monday morning or you feel others may get annoyed because it’s a holiday. Your goals remain the same. Don’t take your foot off the pedal when looking to achieve your goals. Consistency is key and sales should become a lifestyle, not something you do when the perfect opportunity arises.
5) Do what you can to find the inner motivation
I’ve noticed a main difference in people who like fitness and those who don’t. OF COURSE the easy thing is to find any excuse possible to NOT work out. Then what keeps me going? For me, it’s the ability to listen to music and feel great afterwards. For others, it’s the physical changes. Others have that whisper from a parent who told them they weren’t good enough. Or someone got bullied. Everyone has their own inner reasons for pushing themselves beyond their limits.
What is it about sales that will mentally encourage you to do what’s necessary, even when you don’t FEEL like it? Is it the financial benefits? The cause behind growing a practice? The autonomy? The creativity? The recognition for being rewarded as the top producer at your firm? Whatever does it for you, make sure you stay true to that. Because that’s what’s to help you keep going…rain or shine!
Everyone has an inner trait that needs to be met through sales. If you want to find out yours, our sales personality test, administered by my colleague, Anne Sandberg, can assess what trait will be your biggest reason for more sales. This test is taken by everyone going through our sales coaching, or anyone who purchases our manual.
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