Productivity - Sales Coaching Tips from Lance and Steve

The Secret to Putting-off Procrastination in Sales Productivity

2012-01-26T13:32:05Z

Over the last six months, I learned a very important lesson about procrastination. Since May of 2010, I have been writing a book. I could easily fill another book with the lessons that I learned about procrastination. The book went to print yesterday, only two days past the target date. The target launch date is March 13, 2010. This target launch date set into motion deadlines for over six people and organizations. If this target date is missed, I will lose several thousand dollars. The launch date was also tied to a trade show date.

The secret to overcoming procrastination is setting deadlines for everyone involved in reaching the goal.

In my case, the deadline of the trade show gave the entire team no wiggle room for missing the book launch date. Everyone on the team was responsible for certain tasks due by a certain date.

This firm deadline set into motion a sense of urgency and prioritization that would not have existed otherwise.

For you to hit your sales target, have you set a firm deadline for 2012 for the amount of money you want to earn each month? Who do you need to get involved in setting deadlines that will impact your goal? If you miss the deadline, how much will it cost you? Calculate this number, and all of a sudden, you will see the need to reprioritize your tasks.

By the way, the book is entitled Can They Sell - Learn to Recruit the Best Salespeople. You can order a copy after March 1, 2010 at http://www.CanTheySell.com

In the next post we will explore how our personality impacts sales productivity.

To set your income goal with activity targets, use the online sales funnel at SalesActivities.com.

Steve Suggs is a partner at Sales Manage Solutions, a sales consulting firm focused on coaching sales managers from good to great. You can also read Steve’s recruiting salespeople blog at http://www.CanTheySell.com

Four Character Traits that Impact Sales Productivity

2012-01-09T19:35:55Z

Sales productivity is impacted by the level of character that we exercise on a daily basis.

Every human alive will agree there is a standard of behavior. We all have a sense of right and wrong behavior. And, we all impose a greater standard of behavior on other people than we are willing to adhere to. This standard of behavior is what we call character.

Character traits are built in our past by the influence of parents, teachers, and mentors. The level of each character trait depends upon the level at which we were taught about or exposed to particular ways to behave.

Over my last twenty-nine years of sales, I have discovered four main character traits that all top salespeople possess. They are:

1. Honesty
2. Hard work ethic
3. Concern for other people
4. The willingness to accept responsibility for the outcomes of our actions

Although the foundation for these character traits are built as young children, exercising these traits on a regular basis requires a lifetime of commitment to high standards, regular influence from mentors, and continuous study.

The great motivational speaker and sales trainer Zig Ziglar said, "If you are not always in the process of ripening, you are headed in the other direction of rotting."

Continuously learning from great leaders like Zig is one way to improve these four character traits. Reading books and listening to wise people feeds our minds with positive affirmation on which to draw when we face difficult choices.

In your business, if it is true that people buy your product because of the salesperson behind the product, then strength of character is critical.

Every day a selfish root is working inside of us. We must suppress and not feed this selfish desire, but work hard to focus on serving the needs of others.

Focus on building each of these four character traits, and all areas of your life will improve.

In the next post we will explore how our personality impacts sales productivity.

To set your income goal with activity targets, use the online sales funnel at SalesActivities.com.

Sales Productivity: Four Questions to Help Understand What Motivates Us

2011-12-15T13:37:03Z

Sales productivity is connected to personal motivations. Knowing your specific short-term and specific long-term motivations will spur you on when you hit the “sweat zone” – the part of the day when your energy is low and you must push hard to do the important tasks rather than the easy tasks.

Motivations are tied to physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. Spending time identifying your needs in these three areas will help you understand what motivates you.

As your year comes to a close, you may want to spend some time looking back at the year and looking forward to next year. As you do this exercise, consider these questions:

What are two specific immediate needs that will cause you to work hard today?
What are two specific long-term needs that will cause you to put forth an extra effort today?
What are some unmet emotional needs, that if met, would give you an emotional boost?
What could you do on a daily basis that would improve your spiritual maturity?
After answering these questions, write down some goals that will help you meet these needs.

After this exercise, you should have your top motivating factors. Keep your written goals and motivating factors nearby and read them everyday. This focus on the things that are important to you will spur you on when life gets hard.

The truth is, we live in a world that is constantly falling to pieces. If we are not growing, we are going to decay. We need to be driven to make our world better, no matter how good it gets. The state we are in today, left unattended, will get worse automatically; therefore, we have to make the things around us better, or weeds will grow. We must have the attitude, "If it is to be, it is up to me."

You will reach your maximum level of success by simply doing your best everyday for the benefit of others.

Doing your best begins with defining your motivations, then doing your best everyday to satisfy these motivating factors.

In the next post we will explore how our character impacts sales productivity.

To set your income goal with activity targets, use the online sales funnel at SalesActivities.com.

Sales Productivity and Attitudes of Top Salespeople

2011-11-28T20:52:09Z

Throughout my career, I have discovered two attitudes that impact sales productivity and make the difference between a mediocre salesperson and a top producing salesperson. They are:

• Top salespeople have a passion for solving people's problems using their products or services.
• Top salespeople have a positive image of themselves as a salesperson.

When I was a child, a man in a nice suite drove up in a Cadillac and sat at my kitchen table while my mother gave him money. I watched this scenario play out dozens of times over the years. I soon learned that he was a salesperson for a life insurance company that would take care of my mom and her five children if my dad died. I also had a successful uncle who was very successful in financial service sales. These two experiences impacted my attitudes toward financial services products and gave me a positive image of salespeople in general.

All of us have experienced bad salespeople, heard all the jokes about salespeople and hate it when telemarketers interrupt our dinner with the family. However, as a career salesperson, up to this point in your life, you have formed either a positive self-image or low self-image as a salesperson. Whether you are conscious of it or not, this self-image impacts how you react when you are rejected on a daily basis.

If you bounce back from rejection quickly, or if you see objections to your presentation as a simple lack of knowledge, you most likely see your job as a professional salesperson as an occupation worthy of praise.

If rejection and objections drain your energy, and you are regularly wishing for and/or looking for another career with more peer approval, your attitude toward the sale profession may be the number one barrier keeping you from reaching your income goal.

When prospects are telling you about their challenges, do you get excited, or is your energy drained because you have to listen to another person whine and complain about their problems?

Your emotional reaction, of excitement or boredom toward your prospects, is an indication of the passion you have about your product or service.

We are all beating a path to something. While you are walking down life's path, your level of success and your level of job satisfaction will be in direct proportion to the image you have of yourself as a salesperson and the passion you have for solving your customer's problems using the product you represent.

If you have just realized that one or both of these attitudes are holding you back from reaching your potential, you may be asking, "What should I do?" We all have our stories that make up who we have become. There is no magic pill or formula that will change these two attitudes.

My suggestion is to spend time reflecting on your dreams and passions. While you are doing this read these two books:

Drive by Daniel H. Pink. He will give you deep insights into the things that drive us. His book also suggests fifteen other books and advice from other great leaders.

The Book of Proverbs in The Bible by King Solomon. This is everything you need to know about gaining and applying wisdom in your life. Most of us are not succeeding due to a variety of challenges. There is plenty of great advice in this book.

In the next post we will explore ways that our motivations impact sales productivity. To impact your sales productivity and to set your income goal with activity targets, use the online sales funnel when you create an account at SalesActivities.com.

SalesActivities and LifeActivities - We Do Our Best for Family, Friends, Co-Workers and Customers!

2011-11-22T19:45:27Z

Sales productivity
customers and referrals
sales and income
new prospects
and repeat business

LIFE. What a gift.

Friends and family
love wrapped in people
or in a person

Good health
smiling faces
a great embrace
from someone special
or an old friend

Holiday food
turkey, dressing,
and sweat potato pie

College football on TV

Black Friday
and blue skies
red sunsets
and orange pumpkins ...

And for a moment
even in hard times
the festive spirit
heals our hearts

and for everyone
in need or in abundance
we remember to say

Happy Thanksgiving!
Feliz Día de Acción de Gracias!

.........................................

lance

Sales Productivity and a Thankful Spirit

2011-11-21T12:38:48Z

Our ability to perform at our best every day requires a positive disposition. Sales productivity is impacted when emotional levels are low due to any number of reasons.

Some of the best advice from one of my spiritual mentors said, "Every time you feel down, list all the things for which you are thankful." This is a great daily exercise. It helps keep all things in perspective.

We must always work to keep our minds focused on the things we have instead of the things we don't have so that the abundance of America doesen't turn a thankful heart into a greedy spirit.

As you begin this week and seek to have high productivity, pause for a moment and list 10 things for which you are grateful. Your spirit will be lifted.

Sales Productivity Improves When We Show a Concern for Others

2011-11-14T22:06:02Z

Long-term sales productivity is in direct correlation to our concern for others. Aristotle said, "We are born selfish. The only reason a baby doesn't strangle its mother for its milk is because its arms are too short and too uncoordinated. For a mother’s protection, slow growth and training in patience should coincide."

I prefer Zig Ziglar’s quote over Aristotle when he said, " You will get the things you want simply by helping enough other people get the things they want." A genuine desire to help others comes from suppressing the selfish root that lives in all of us and putting the desires of others first.

Top salespeople show a concern for others when they...
• Ask at the beginning of a phone call, "Is this a good time to talk".
• Ask, "To better understand your needs, may I ask you some questions?" Then, spend time asking open-ended questions around the prospect's needs for your product.
• Listen 80% of the time during the discovery process, letting the prospect express needs and concerns.
• Ask the prospect how solving this business challenge will affect them personally and make their life better.
• Tell the prospect about an alternative solution when they discover the product they sell is not right for them.
• Recommend the product/solution that is the best fit for the prospect instead of the most expensive, even when it is far below budget.
• Follow up after the sale with handwritten thank you cards and phone calls to confirm satisfaction.
• Keep the presentation limited to the time allotted by the prospect.
• Under-promise and over-deliver.

Many prospects will enjoy an unusually pleasant buying process as they experience your concern for them. They will tell their friends and family about you. Your sales productivity will grow, and you will enjoy the new level of sales and personal relationships developed from this approach.

In the next post we will explore ways that our attitudes toward or product and the sales profession impact sales productivity. To set your income goal with activity targets, use the online sales funnel when you create an account at SalesActivities.com.

The Hidden Secret behind Consistent Sales Production - A Critical Sales Ratio

2011-11-12T19:05:02Z

Have you ever panned for gold. Even today, there are people who know how to make a living wading in mountain streams and sifting all the lighter materials out of a pan leaving the heavier gold behind. Back and forth, left and right, the panner goes to a place hoped to be more concentrated in gold.

A few years ago, we were fishing on Little River in Townsend, TN when I saw a man panning for gold. He told me stories of nuggets found along the shore of the river and of gold mines upstream long ago. What was most interesting was watching him patiently search among lots of sand and sediment for a precious mineral. Oh yes, he did reach into a sack and pull out some vials of gold he had found on previous prospecting trips.

Prospecting for gold or fishing are very similar to prospecting in sales. Both require looking in the right places and sifting through some rocks to find things that pay off or make the trip worthwhile. You can do any of these activities well if you have the right levels of the right activities, and, in sales, with the right people.
……………………………………..

As a well-paid sales professional, you set aside a minimum amount of time each week to prospect leads and set 1st appointments. You want to set 1st appointments at the critical rate per month that you’ve calculated as necessary to meet activity management targets leading to your monthly sales and income goals.

Remember, 1st appointments lead to quotes - quotes lead to sales. The right amount of each with the right people (prospects) leads to sales goal achievement. Do you know the critical sales ratio you need to achieve your goals? Keep track. Discover these numbers and let them be your activity targets leading to a better lifestyle income.

IMPORTANT - Before beginning any sales period - day, week, or month - start that period with a Prospects-in-Progress List. This is a list of highest priority leads - a list that you will use to set your target number of 1st appointments. You might also call this your calling list for first appointments. The number of prospects on this list may need to be twice as great as the number of first appointments you must set each month.

Now pan some gold and stay consistent at it. Pan in the right places and keep yourself at activity levels that help you acheve the sales and income levels you want. Lance.

Sales Productivity Improves When We Accept Responsibility for the Outcome of Our Actions

2011-11-09T21:46:04Z

Changing your sales performance right now begins with accepting personal responsibility for taking the first step.

During one of my first jobs as a teenager, I faced some challenges while working for a small family owned business. Many times in family owned businesses there are too many leaders and too few followers.

I was frustrated and wanted to quit and find a more positive working environment.

After listening to my weeks of complaining, my patient mother finally gave me some of her greatest advice. She said, “We don't run from our troubles. If you don’t like the way things are, YOU work to change them.”

As I wrongly interpreted what she said, my solution was, “So, I’ll quit and find a job somewhere else.”

Her response taught me the most important lesson in my life, “No, stay where you are and work hard to change how YOU react to how YOU are being treated. YOU are not responsible for how YOU are being treated. YOU are only responsible for how YOU react to the way YOU are treated.

Until YOU grow past this experience and sand off some of YOUR rough edges, YOU will carry the same rough edges into YOUR next job, eventually creating the same situation that existed in your last job.”

This was my life lesson in the character trait “personal responsibility”.

Salespeople with mature levels of personal responsibility live by the motto, “If it is to be, it is up to me.” We can choose our actions and reactions. If we choose wrongly, we are responsible for the outcome of our wrong decisions and must continue to work to make things better.

We have the power to choose the way we think and feel about every word that is spoken to us. No other person has the power to "make me mad", "hurt my feelings", "tear me down". We choose to feel a certain way when things are said to us or when things happen to us. Emotionally mature people understand that you can choose to be happy or sad in your current circumstances. It takes work and discipline to reach this level of personal emotional control; however, it is possible.

To have the greatest impact on the outcome of our actions, we must work to grow from our mistakes by seeking wisdom and understanding.

Top salespeople don’t blame their boss, the economy, or the company for their lack of sales. They work to change those things about themselves that will create the best possible outcome given their situation. They control the controllables (yourself), and allow the uncontrollables to take care of themselves.

You can control how you spend your time. If you choose to open mail instead of phone for prospects, it is these types of choices that impact sales performance, not the economy. In this current economy, it may take twice as many calls and 50 hours in a week instead of 40, but we can choose how we react to economic circumstances. Do we work harder, or do we choose to believe working harder will not produce better results.

Whatever you believe, you chose that belief.

In the next post we will explore ways that the character trait of concern for others impacts sales productivity. To set your income goal with activity targets, use the online sales funnel when you create an account at SalesActivities.com.

Sales Productivity and Hard Work Ethic

2011-10-31T20:07:47Z

Given similar territories, the same product, and the same training, any group of salespeople will contain individuals with varing degrees of sales productivity. Why is there such wide differences in sales results among seemingly talented salespeople?

Performance levels in sports, academics, sales, or whatever is highly dependent on one's work ethic.

Work ethic is a character trait that is developed from our parents mentoring and training us to do our fair share to help take care of the family. This trait is imprinted on each child in varying degrees depending on the influence of the parent.

Here is an example of what must happen for work ethic to be strong in a person. A parent gives a task with a deadline. During the task, the parent instructs on whether or not the task is being completed correctly and encourages us to complete the task at the times when we want to quit. We listen to the encouragement, push through the hard work, and complete the task. We experience satisfaction and gratification for a job well done. We develop a sense of pride for having chosen to discipline ourselves to stick with it and not give up. This gratification and pride in accomplishment causes us to repeat the behavior.

We are then compelled to echo this behavior and even teach others.

When a parent continues this instruction over and over, we finally develop work habits and disciplines around work that we carry into our first job.

I clearly remember the patterns of work in my family. Every summer we planted and harvested a garden. Every Saturday we cleaned the house. Every evening we did our homework and helped with cooking dinner and cleaning the dishes. There were clear expectations and standards of quality.

Those who do not experience this training from parents, lack an understanding about work and must be trained by someone else. Unfortunately, their first boss is left with the task. That is, if they are willing to take on the challenge.

As you are reading this, you may be asking the question, "What is my level of work ethic?" If you are curious about this question and want to make sure you are taking advantage of life's opportunities by exercising hard work ethic, use these questions as an evaluation.

1. Do I set specific and measurable goals with a deadline around those things that are important to me?

2. Do I write the goals down along with measurable activities?

3. Do I look at the metrics on a weekly basis to measure my progress?

4. Have I shared my goals with a mentor who will help hold me accountable and celebrate my progress?

5. When I hit the hard parts of the tasks that will help me reach my goals, do I remind myself of the rewards of finishing rather than giving up?

6. Do I experience the gratification for having pushed through the challenges and enjoying the reward?

7. Do I work on hard tasks first or procrastinate by choosing to do the easy things first?

8. Do I have an internal clock that sounds an alarm when I am being unproductive during the most productive times of the day?

9. Do I plan tomorrow today, by reviewing my day and making a To Do list for tomorrow?

10. If I am not meeting my goals because of poor work habits and low work ethic, am I seeking mentors, training courses, and humbly asking for help?

We all have the capacity to do our best every day for the benefit of others. If you were fortunate to get work ethic training from your parents, take advantage of the blessing. If you did not get the instruction in this area, seek help in breaking old habits and developing new ones. It only takes twenty-one days to develop a new habit.

Next week, we will explore ways the character trait of personal responsibility impacts sales productivity.

To set your income goal with activity targets, use the online sales funnel when you create an account at SalesActivities.com. Steve Suggs is a partner at Sales Manage Solutions, a sales consulting firm focused on coaching sales managers from good to great. You can also read Steve’s recruiting salespeople blog at http://www.CanTheySell.com

Sales Productivity is Impacted by Honesty, Really?

2011-10-24T19:33:18Z

Character traits are those behaviors that are learned at a very young age from parents and teachers. Honesty is learned in an environment where absolute truths of right and wrong have been taught. Modeling of honest behavior and punishment for lying is also critical to us bonding to this critical character trait.

One would think a blog post on honesty in sales would be too obvious to write about. However, honesty on the sales team is the most common conversation I have with sales managers. This character trait has the power to build a strong sales career as well as to destroy a reputation and career.

I remember the first lie I told my mother. It had to do with avoiding homework in order to play outside on the bueautiful fall day. I was misrable until finally coming clean. Even at a young age, I saw the impact it had on our relationship and the damage it did to a clean conscience.

Lying is one of those standards where we are more than willing to hold others to a higher standard than to which we hold ourselves. We have all seen the person who lies on a regular basis but gets fighting mad when someone lies to them.

Lying to a customer is the most obvious behavior to avoid. Here are some other behaviors that you may not consider to be dishonest, but that have a great impact on your relationship with your customers, your reputation, and your sales team moral:

Over promising and under delivering.
Undependable - cannot trust one will deliver on committments.
Gossiping - speaking negatively about another person when that person is not present to defend the things you are saying about them. There is always two sides to every story.
Working on unproductive tasks at a time when you should be working on more productive tasks; either appearing to be busy to others, or lying to yourself about your own productivity.
Exaggerating/embellishing strengths and down-playing weaknesses.

Remember, honesty has the greatest power to return the favor in abundance. Do you want favors returned from your honest or your dishonest behavior?

Next week, we will explore ways the character trait of hard work ethic impacts sales productivity.

To set your income goal with activity goals, use the online sales funnel when you create an account at SalesActivities.com. Steve Suggs is a partner at Sales Manage Solutions, a sales consulting firm focused on coaching sales managers from good to great. You can also read Steve’s recruiting salespeople blog at http://www.CanTheySell.com.

Get Your SalesActivities to Your Sales Plan Levels and Increase Your Income

2011-10-19T01:18:20Z

A sluggard or pure analytic doesn’t work fast. This person moves slowly. It could be the brain or genetics, or a highly-detailed personality. Or, it could be a character issue like laziness. Whatever the reason, some people don’t cram a lot of activity, especially social connectivity and face-to-face activity, into each day or week.

Certain industries require action-oriented, doing with minimal thinking, salespeople. In those selling cultures, lots of widgets or services are sold each month for a great ROI. And slow-moving salespeople who make it through the recruiting process into a high-activity selling environment don’t last long. It stresses them out. The pace is just too fast for them to maintain regular sales results above a minimum standard.

My wife says it’s the same with horses. Some race - some pull wagons. You don’t put a race horse behind a wagon. And, you don’t place a draft horse on a one mile track. Their genetic makeup allows each to excel in different working environments. Physically, they are made for certain tasks and pay loads delivered per hour.

By the way, we’ve got a couple of horses - pets that eat money, not grass .

They appear to eat grass. I assure you they eat money. One of them is so easy to care for - a real sweetheart. You can hug her and she will stand easily with minimal movement. But, not Azam, an Arabian with a personality that’s, well, spirited and mischevious. He sprints around the field, removes boards from the fence, and tests his limits all the time. He’s got to be moving. It’s in his nature.

Now, be real. Do high-paced work load environments, especially when social skills are to be employed with multiple personalities and people, stress you out? Can you do this type of work month after month, year after year? As an entrepreneur, you might be able to sell enough until you can hire a more suitable salesperson than yourself. Just realize that this stress is fundamental to producing a healthy cash flow. It’s in the nature of a high-activity sales professional.

High-activity salespeople manage multiple selling tasks - with an emphasis on doing the right levels of the right activities. They race through the day and work in a flurry of activities and controlled emotions to achieve monthly sales goals - 3-5 sales per day, week, or month depending upon the company they work for and its market. This means continuous prospecting activity and face-to-face selling situations.

CRMs are not designed to help you keep the right activities at the right levels so that you achieve your income goals. SalesActivites.com helps you get this done and we want to help you as your productivity coaches with an easy to learn on-line sales funnel. Now, click through and get started and we'll help you ... Lance.

Gaining Wisdom – The Most Important Step in Sales Productivity

2011-10-17T11:54:23Z

I was twenty-two beginning my sales career when I met Joe Thompson. He had a quiet peace about him. He mostly listened, but when he spoke, I hung on every word. Over the years, I learned of his spirituality, service during World War II, his long marriage, happy children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, successful career, and community service. It was obvious that education was not the contributing factor to this abundance of success in so many areas of Joe’s life.

Joe was not perfect. The way he responded to his lack of perfection was actually his secret to success. It has taken me many years to understand the difference between Joe, the man of great wisdom, and other people in my life who seem to always be working their way out of the ditch.

What is the difference between people who seem to have many of the answers to life, and others who live from one crisis to the other?

The difference is wisdom. I love the way Eugene Peterson defines wisdom. He says, “Wisdom is the art of living skillfully in whatever actual conditions we find ourselves. It has virtually nothing to do with information as such, with knowledge as such. A college degree is no certification of wisdom – nor is it primarily concerned with keeping us out of moral mud puddles, although it does have a profound moral effect upon us. Wisdom has to do with becoming skillful in honoring our parents and raising our children, handling our money and conducting our sexual lives, going to work and exercising leadership, using words well and treating friends kindly, eating and drinking healthily, cultivating emotions within ourselves and attitudes toward others that make for peace. Threaded through all these items is the insistence that the way we think of and respond to God is the most practical thing we do. In matters of everyday practicality, nothing, absolutely nothing, takes precedence over God.“

Wisdom begins with not relying on our own understanding of the complexities of life. We are all tainted with selfishness and pride. This handicap challenges us and makes it difficult to be successful in all areas of life.

Joe Thompson was the wise, weathered and seasoned business man because he chose to gain wisdom by seeking the wise advice of others and not relying on his own understanding to make decisions. He made good and bad decisions in his life. His life of success came from applying a set of principals and values to good and bad situations. Without these principals and values, Joe would have been a different man. It was a blessing to have known him.

Next week, we will explore ways that character traits impact sales productivity.

To set your income goal with activity goals, use the online sales funnel when you create an account at SalesActivities.com.

Sales Productivity and a Holistic Approach to Work

2011-10-11T15:27:58Z

I can remember the feeling of toiling since the age of five, when my mom made me pitch in and do my share of the work. From the simple tasks of picking up my room to being responsible for businesses and employees, work has always been toiling. It is always a balance of joy and stress.

In my forty-five years of creative efforts to find more efficient ways to complete work, I have come to the conclusion that in this life, toiling will never cease. I have discovered that one must gain a truthful understanding about work.

On this journey, I have looked at what three sources have to say about work: King Solomon, Confucius, and the American Marketer.

This post will summarize these views and my conclusions of productive work. Subsequent posts will expand these thoughts.

King Solomon is considered by many to be the wisest and richest ruler to have ever lived. He was the king of Israel 971-931 BC. He pursued everything to the extreme - sex, money, possessions, power, recognition, education, knowledge, wisdom, and the act of labor.

Through his life long study of life’s pleasures, he came to many conclusions. His pursuit of wisdom left him somewhat bitter about life, but it also gave him a plain and simple truth about work that is important to examine.

His conclusion about work was this:
Work has been the same since the fall of man. You work, you sweat, you die. You are forgotten. The next generation gets it all. We will never understand it all. God holds the secrets. Fear God with a holy reverence. Wisdom of man is mindless and witless, spitting in the wind.

Much learning earns you much trouble. The more you know, the more you hurt. The pursuit of happiness, the fun-filled life, is insane. We are all motivated by envy and greedy for more. If you are in a mess, it is your fault. Accept the responsibility, and move on. You are the sum total of all of your decisions up to this point in time. There are many dark days. Most of what comes our way is meaningless.

The few things that hold real meaning are these: The fear of God and doing what God tells you. Close relationships with others while you work make work easier and more enjoyable. Don’t wear yourself out pursuing all things. Keep balance in work, sex, power, recognition, and the pursuit of knowledge.

Confucius, a Chinese thinker and social philosopher, 624-551 BC, is a commonly quoted person when it comes to work. He said, “Do what you love, and you will never work another day in your life.”

The American marketer tells us we can make money while we sleep and that we need to find a way to work less and make more. They market the latest secret that says, “If the way you are doing something makes you sweat and stress, you are doing it wrong. Buy this book/DVD and gain the secrets of wealth and prosperity without needless sweat.”

I believe it is important to gain understanding of the truth about work in order to find joy in work and to be effective in our work. Accepting these truths actually makes life easier.

Here are some conclusions I have drawn about work after looking at these three perspectives.

Wisdom and understanding gained from a source of absolute truth is the first critical element. Wisdom in these key areas is important: work, money, relationships, productivity, balance, and spirituality.
Productive work is backed by these four character traits: Responsibility, concern for others, honesty, and a disciplined work ethic.
Balance, margin, diet, and sleep are critical to efficient work.
Constant growth and improvement of one’s skills in the chosen profession insures a long career.
There are basic rules of productive work that must include a plan with goals broken down into measurable activities.

Please join me in the coming weeks as we explore this holistic approach to work.

To set your income goal with activity goals, use the online sales funnel when you create an account at SalesActivities.com.

Do Mediocre Salespeople Have ADD or Lack Discipline and Work Ethic?

2011-10-03T13:56:57Z

As you begin your week, if you are not hitting your sales targets, ask yourself these two questions as you are completing tasks: "Why am I spending time on this task, at this particular time?" and "Is this the most important thing I can be doing right now to help me hit my activitiy targets?" If you find yourself redirecting your focus many times during the day, you may need help in the area of discipline and work ethic. I am not talking about the kind of help that comes from medicating a lack of focus with some ADD drug. I am talking about learning ways to manage your time more effectively and gaining perspective on the amount of, or lack of, discipline and focus.

I am sure Bill Gates had a vision for making the computer a machine that would help mankind to be more productive and to create more margin in our lives. The computer does have that capacity. It can also be the tool that we use to destroy our lives. There are millions of things accessable to us through the wonderful electronic devices we carry. We must use more discipline than ever to make the right choices with how we use our time every minute of the day.

If you need help with tools and processes to be more productive, contact my good friend Kimberly Medlock.

To set your income goal with activity goals, use the online sales funnel when you create an account at SalesActivities.com.