Between qualifying leads and chasing half-interested clients, hitting your sales quota is hard enough to begin with. But, when you lack inspiration to even pick up the phone, is there an approach that can keep you on track?
In reality, it all comes down to commitment. If you sit around waiting for the mood to hit you, you’re never going to consistently fulfill your quota. Here’s why, and exactly what to do about it.
#1 Don’t Wait For External Motivation
Waiting for external motivation is like putting your success in the hands of fate. Not a good idea. If you wait to take action until someone or something comes along and inspires you, you’ll never get anything done. Period.
That may sound harsh, but it’s the truth. You can’t expect others to motivate you day in and day out, let alone light that fire within you that makes you get after your goals. They’re your goals, and ultimately they’re your responsibility.
The sooner you take ownership of that responsibility, the sooner you’ll be rising in the ranks on your sales team. This ties into being a self-driven and self-motivated sales exec. You have to dig deep, every day, if you want to succeed in this game. And those who do this are richly rewarded.
#2 Don’t Expect Internal Motivation
Don’t expect internal motivation? So wait… what was all that about digging deep within you? Well, it’s true that at times you really do need to step back, pause, give yourself a pep talk, and convince yourself to keep going.
But, getting in the mindset to hit your sales quota shouldn’t always be a slog. You shouldn’t have to psych yourself up for success every single day. You just need to sit down and get to it. And that’s why having a solid routine is critical to your success.
Your routine should be just that: routine. You start picking up the phone and dialing, or start knocking on doors, or circling back to your referral list, or whatever. Even when you don’t want to. No — especially when you don’t want to.
This is the winning mindset. The moment you make fulfilling your sales quota a habit, you won’t have time for excuses or a need for motivation.
#3 Make Success A Habit
What is a “successful day” for you? By answering that question, you’ll be able to come up with an actionable, step-by-step process of what you need to do each day to make every day a successful day.
For example, you might figure out that you need to make 100 calls per day to hit your numbers. If you show up each day knowing that, you won’t need to get revved up to make it happen. Instead, you can sit down at and start pounding it out, one call after another, until you’re closing deals.
Here’s the thing… the successful salesperson doesn’t need that bout of inspiration before they get to work. They know their goals, and they reverse engineer what must happen to achieve them. It’s that easy.
If you do that every day without procrastinating, you’ll soon find that it’s become a habit. You’ll no longer think twice about getting started and, once you do start, your resistance to work will gradually disappear.
Feel free to get in touch to learn about how C-Level Partners can put some serious firepower behind your sales process. And in the meantime, stop waiting for inspiration. You’ve got this!
Until next time…
Johnny-Lee Reinoso