Congratulations to Scott Larrabee who had the top blog in June! Scott's blog, "My Personal Top Ten Quotes For Salespeople" was full of great ideas and quotes on how to keep yourself motivated. We talked with Scott more about how to stay motivated and inspired within the dealership world. Here's what he had to say.

Q: Why is it important for salespeople to find ways to get motivated?

A: I believe to be successful in sales you need a lot of positive energy. You need to be willing to give, give, give and go the extra mile for your customers. In today's marketplace it's way too easy for your customer to go down the road and buy something very similar to what you sell for a similar price. People want an experience when they decide to take the time to visit your dealership. If you are a demotivated salesperson, you are going to sell 6-8 cars a month, make $45,000 -$50,000 a year, work 50 hours a week and hate your life. You'll blame it on the job, tell people how bad selling cars is, but in reality it's usually lack of personal motivation that really did you in. If you are in auto sales, you need to realize you are a business within a business. Your level of personal motivation is going to determine your level and quality of actions, without motivation you will not succeed in this business very long before you burn out, that's why I believe motivation is critical for salespeople to figure out.

Q: Why is it easy to get discouraged with sales?

A: Honestly, I believe there are few factors here but I think a lot of salespeople take rejection personally, and it demotivates them. I think too often salespeople will allow a rejection of an offer affect how they view themselves as a salesperson. It's common to hear a lot more NO's than YES's, especially if you're new to selling. You have to persevere through this part of your career, this is where you "pay your dues" as they say and build your business. I can almost always tell who will make it and who will not by a persons level of motivation when they start, it's amazing how much better the self motivated people are in this business than those who aren't self starters!

Q: What are some tricks you recommend for staying motivated?

A: I find the best way to stay motivated is to WIN! Win in life, go after everything with your best shot, whatever that looks like from day to day. I find if you just hold yourself accountable each day to doing your best for that day, you will be more motivated and have much more success. Some days you will be more motivated than others, but always look to win in your personal life, win with your spiritual life, win with finances, and win in your sales career. I promise when you do this you will be very motivated!

Now here's 3 tips to help you Win in all these areas:

1. Set Goals and Write them Down!

2. Read, Read, Read! (If you don't like to read get then get books on tape or watch video, point is LEARN!!)

3. Be Grateful for what you have, make a list of everything your grateful for and review it often! 

Q: Do you think there's a difference between Inspiration and Motivation, and what is it?

A: I do think there's is a difference between the two, they even have different definitions! I have been inspired to do MANY things in my life. I have had moments of insane creativity hit me where I am thinking so clearly about something I seem to have the whole world all figured out. But often in those same moments, I do absolutely nothing to make that creative thought, that inspiration... a reality. I lacked motivation. Salespeople do this all the time and I believe the ones who have figured out how to take action on these mental stimulations, these inspirations, are the great successes of our industry!

Q: How can you motivate and inspire others on your team?

A: I think the best thing you can do to motivate someone is realize you can't motivate them unless they want to be motivated. We have to motivate ourselves because only we know what truly motivates us. So, what I find effective is help is not to demotivate people, and be a positive contact for them. Encouragement goes a long way to helping people find or simply maintain personal motivation.

Q: How can dealerships have motivation and inspiration in the store every day?

A: Be consistent. Hold salespeople accountable. Offer excellent, daily sales training. Hold meetings that matter. Don't waste time. Don't manage, Lead. Praise more than you criticize. Refuse to tolerate negativity. Be fair. Make sure everyone in the dealerships knows their role, and how it effects the entire process. Set big goals that push the dealership staff to its potential. Encourage self development. Those are just a few ideas...

Q: How can meetings be more motivational?

A: Make them short, to the point, positive, and share success stories. Those things alone would improve 90% of sales meetings on Saturday morning's! 

Q: In the automotive space, who are your top influencers or people you look to for inspiration?

A: Right now I would say Grant Cardone is the top person I follow for inspiration. When I started working for Darling's Auto Group back in 2012 I had never sold cars before in my life. Darling's was a Cardone dealership using and following his system so that was the first time I had ever heard about GC. In May 2016 for my birthday I bought myself The 10X Rule. After reading that book I was hooked on Grant's material and have been since. I even convinced my GM that we needed to up our commitment to training and get our store on board with Cardone On Demand, which we now have. The one thing about GC, he never runs short on inspiration, motivation, or positivity! 

Q: Who would you say is your top mentor or motivator when it comes to sales?

A: The honest answer is a boring one but it's the truth, myself. When it comes to sales I have to find reasons to be motivated and motivate myself. As Zig Ziglar use to say, "motivation is like bathing and eating, neither last that's why it's recommended daily!" I definitely get inspired by people like Mike Davenport who are doing what I do at a whole different level, and that reminds me that there is so much more potential. Reaching for my potential really motivates me, I'm never truly satisfied. I am also very motivated to give my family a great life and to make them proud. Those are great motivators for me! 

Q: Do you think money is the most important motivation at the end of the day?

A: They say a man who says he doesn't need a lot of money will lie about other things too. But no, I don't believe money is the most important. Personally money isn't the motivation for anything I do, but I  think money is important for what it represents. Money represents freedom, and freedom means more time. Time is our most important asset, and it's the only thing you can never get more of. So yes, money is important and it can be very motivating for some, but for most money represents something. Now if I was a sales manager in a car dealership I would want to know what money means to each and every single one of my salespeople so that I could use that personal motivation to fuel them on a regular basis!