Earn Your Success, Pay the Price

A good friend of mine always said that success was earned, and that it's important to accept the fact that success normally carries a price.

When I work with my clients' sales teams I always inquire about their goals, actions and commitments that are aimed at achieving their objectives. What doesn't surprises me anymore is their inability to fully understand that there is a "price to pay." I am not suggesting that our lives should be so consumed with achieving success that all other facets of life are out of balance. Those of you who have taken my "Personal and Professional Pizza" assessment understand my focus on life balance; if you haven't take the assessment yet, view my "Gourmet Life" video here.

However, if you are leading a sales organization or are a professional salesperson, you must understand and accept that there is a price to be paid to achieve success. Instead, I see salespeople showing up on Monday simply to work. Sales leadership and sales roles demand more.

First, it's creative time. Taking the time on a quiet evening or on a Saturday to review each active sales opportunity and thinking through your sales tactics/strategies demands extra time. What else can you do to win?

Second, it's professional. Are you actively taking the extra time to review LinkedIn groups within your market to better understand what issues are being discussed? The Sales Association group in LinkedIn and its VP Sales Group are good groups to join. I am actually leading a series of monthly sales leadership webcasts for the VP Sales Group.

Third, it's your network. Paying the price to develop, nurture and expand your network pays results. This means taking the time to find the right individuals and making an effort to create an active campaign to build the network. As a professional, this effort will bring you additional levels of revenue -- at unexpected times.

Fourth, it's mental toughness. Just last week, a salesperson said he was 90 percent confident he was closing an opportunity -- and then he got hit with an objection and was flattened. He wasn't strong enough to counter-sell the objection, but at least he was strong enough to ask his fellow sales team members for advice. We will now see if he and his manager go in to win.

I always enjoy the comments everyone makes on my various blogs, but reading your thoughts on this particular post would be important. What are the actions or efforts you believe are necessary to achieve success? Leave a comment below.

Posted by Ken Thoreson on April 21, 2013