When you’re New to Sales I believe it’s important to remember you must always stay humble. God resists the prideful and arrogant, and most people do as well. An arrogant attitude is not good for relationships and sales is a relationship business. Because I’ve made this mistake myself and learned the hard way, I want to give you some ideas on how you can remain humble and avoid the pitfalls of arrogance especially if you have found yourself having early success in your career and surpassing those around you with more experience.

I believe that there are no born salespeople, we are all simply born either a boy or a girl. However, it is true that some of us are born with innate abilities that give us an advantage in sales IF we recognize them, develop them, and put them to work for us. If you’re reading this it’s likely you focus on self-development, finding inspiration and motivation, and are probably the kind of person who is good at whatever you put your mind to. That’s great, and there’s nothing wrong with success. You want to set goals to have big success in life whatever that looks like to you because anything less would be a waste of your God-given potential!

However, if you find yourself having success early in your sales career, I want to remind you of these two points:

#1- You’re Too New To Know Any Better

and…

#2- You’re Not The Only Reason For Your Success!

I remember when I first got into sales, I didn’t know the first thing about sales. I was successful early on in my career because I had a good work ethic, I was honest with people and gave my best advice to them, and I genuinely wanted to help solve their problems. From that foundation, my sales career began. I was successful but I had no idea why because I was too new to sales to know any better. I just thought I was good and a natural and that’s how it would always be.

That’s arrogant, and it cost me some time I’ll never get back that I could have been working on my natural abilities to grow them, develop them to more advanced levels and increase my skill and ability with people. It would be a few years into selling before I first discovered motivational speakers, sales leaders and great thinkers like Zig Ziglar, Og Mandino, Jim Rohn, Tony Robbins and others who began to shape a new mindset in me and help me realize that growth is the only way to truly be successful, because if you’re not consistently growing you’re going backwards, your dead.

I also figured out that if I was going to be successful long-term in my sales career that I was going to have to develop great relationships with all the people that affected the sales process I worked within. I was in retail furniture sales in the beginning years and then moved into the car business before making my home in the mortgage business where I live now. In those early days, I got to know the warehouse crew, the delivery guys, the service team, and repair technician. All of these people played a critical role in the customer experience which ultimately I felt responsible for.

You never have great success without the help of others, often times I know at least in my life, it’s really the help of many others. No matter the sales award or recognition I have received throughout my career, I could give tremendous credit to someone else for me attaining it. I have learned over the years that my relationships with clients are so important, but the relationships with those on my team are just as important if not more. If we are all looking out for each other because we care about each other’s success, the client is going to receive an amazing experience throughout the sales journey.

Wrapping It All Up

So what’s my point? My point is very simple, stay humble especially if you are having great success which I hope you are. If you can make a habit of reminding yourself that you will accelerate your success. If you’re new to sales you may not realize why you’re having so much success early on. As I mentioned, you’re too new to know better so make sure you find a solid mentor. At least have someone who can hold you accountable and help you develop. Mentors don’t have to be someone you meet in person, like many of mine they can be mentors who you follow on YouTube, Podcasts, read their books, follow their social media pages, etc. Just be sure to grow your natural abilities and add constantly to your toolbox of skills.

And finally don’t ever be so arrogant as I have regrettably been guilty of in the past of thinking that your success is a given and you’re the only reason for it. Many people and decisions made your success possible, be humble and give credit to others always, most importantly to God.

As always, if I can be of any help to you or you have some advice or thoughts to add please feel free to comment below and please SHARE with someone who needs to read this! 

Make It A Great Day!

This is one that sounds so obvious but is so often missed by salespeople and companies every single day. In 2018 the customer is more and more focused on taking care of things themselves, this is why you see self-checkouts at every major store now. I always prefer to use them, and I’m sure you do too. But when a customer does need help somewhere along the sales process from a company or salesperson, they want to receive fast, efficient, honest service.

But is that what they always get? No, and often times they get the exact opposite!

We know customers want to spend less time in the store making transactions, this is why so many people spend hours shopping online, doing research ahead of time and gathering information from social media, as well as getting recommendations from friends. But even though we know this many companies and salespeople will still do things or practice processes that go against what the consumers are telling us. Don’t do that!

Instead, find ways to streamline your process and make it as efficient and transparent as possible while maintaining a Win/Win mindset as Dr. Stephen R. Covey called it when he wrote about this in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Dr. Covey said, “Win/Win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions.” He also went on to say that “agreements or solutions are mutually beneficial, mutually satisfying,” “all parties feel good about the decision and feel committed to the action plan.”

Focus your process and actions on Customer Experience, and throughout the road to the sale keep a win/win mindset. By doing this you become mindful of the little things a customer would pick up on and you can make sure you address these things accordingly. For instance, knowing that people dread the car buying process if you’re in car sales you may choose to use a process that saves time and offers information to the customer making it easy to buy from you. It’s no longer about wearing customers down or being the high-pressure closer, it’s now about how do you make your customer feel during the road to the sale?

Part of the ROI from focusing on the customer experience is the word of mouth and referral business you receive from it which is more important today than ever before. Do you want to hear something crazy? Consumers today, our customers, trust what they read in online reviews almost as much as they do the recommendation from someone they know! That’s huge, but in taking a closer look at those stats you also find that reviews older than 90 days don’t seem as relevant to those same consumers.

So what does this mean to you?

When you deliver on the customer experience and really win over your customer, you also have the opportunity to leverage the experience by getting positive Online Reviews, Testimonials, and Customer Service Survey’s from them. If you did a great job with your customer, part of your follow up process should include getting your customer to tell their story in the form of a review. Now it’s believed 70% or more of our customers are happy to leave a review when asked to do so. But the statistic I want to make clear is this, 100% of the customers you DON’T ask for a review won’t give you one, so be sure to ask!

In the end, your personal brand is going to benefit tremendously from focusing on the customer experience, as technology makes it easier and easier for consumers to get information on their own our role as salespeople will evolve as well. What we do will be less about “selling” and more about the experience. Yes, selling skills and the abilities of a well-trained salesperson will be necessary, but they will be useless if they aren’t part of a bigger package.

For more motivational sales blogs visit www.NewtoSales.org!

Define what “Success” means to you

We certainly live in a very competitive, and aggressive sales world. Everyone is working to get attention, get ahead, get successful and blow up. If you’re like a lot of salespeople it’s easy to get caught up in all the pushing and shoving out there. But have you stopped for a minute to give some thought to what it is you really want to accomplish with your career?

Have you defined success in your life?

It’s important to take some time away from the noise and all the pushing and shoving and think about what success looks like to you. Be very careful not to get caught up in the motivational hype and lose sight of what’s really important to YOU in YOUR life. Not what’s important to everyone else, or what everyone else says success looks like.

What do you want to accomplish in your selling career, how far do you want to take your selling success? What about your home life, what does that look like and how does that fit into your professional life? How about your faith, what kind of spiritual maturity do you want to develop over time?

Let me ask you, are the actions you’re taking right now helping you get closer to your definition of what success looks like?

If not, then why?

It’s very true and real more now than ever before that if you live in America you can accomplish great things with just sheer will and determination, hard work and passion, and maybe a smartphone. Just kidding, you don’t need the phone. It’s been done so many times by so many unlikely people that we admire, but the story never gets old. You and I are writing our life stories every day!

Look to achieve worthy Goals

Don’t work just to make money to acquire things, and don’t push yourself to do more and more of something if you aren’t passionate about it. A good reason to push yourself is to achieve a worthy Goal. A goal that is designed around your needs and dreams.

There are a lot of people who have a lot of money and things but feel as if they really have nothing at all. Do you know what I mean? You’ve seen it before, some people have dedicated their lives to acquiring, and in the end still feel empty. There’s nothing wrong with having nice things, and if you don’t want to become rich you’ll probably fib about other things too.

But money can’t be your God because if it is you won’t stand a chance. Money isn’t anything, it’s made from a tree, or a bush or something like that. It’s what money does for you and the freedom and choices it gives you that makes money a worthy goal. The ability to take care of your family, help others in your community, and enjoy things in life money makes possible is what makes money a worthy goal.

Design your goals, including financial, around your Needs and your Dreams for your life. Write down the things you NEED for happiness and to truly feel like a success in life first. Then dream a little bit about your life and how you would like to see it grow and develop if you could really have what you want.

Make a list of Goals for your Life and begin to create the map to your Success

Put these needs and dreams for your life on paper and go big by starting small! Create Dreams and Goals for all areas of your life, define what success looks like to you. Write your goals down from short-term goals as short as goals for today, all the way to your long-term goals about 5 years or more out.

Don’t be afraid to design an entire life of goals, have fun with it because you always have the right to go back and make edits, it’s your life! The key is to think about what success truly looks like to you right now at this point in your life, again not what someone else says is a success, and then design a plan around Goals to achieve your Dreams.

Something important to know, it is estimated that only 3% of the population have goals and take the initiative to write them down. Every book I have ever read on success over the years has included talk about goals and the importance of writing them down.

Tip: GREAT Power to achieve comes from consistently writing your goals down daily to remind your conscious mind and your subconscious mind what you want to achieve. I have experienced it many times in my own life. What you focus on you usually accomplish, good or bad, so have a laser-like focus on your goals!

Over my own life and sales career I have had many goals that I have wanted to achieve, and every time I practiced goal setting to achieve them I had more success faster than the time when I haven’t set goals. When I write my goals down daily, however, my performance changes dramatically.

Write your Goals down!

The simple act of writing my goals down daily has produced periods in my life personally, professionally, and spiritually of magnified success. I have used goal setting, more specifically daily goal setting, to accomplish a radical body transformation in 90 days, become a #1 and 5-Star Rated salesperson, and reach other targets I have set for my life.

But you have to first decide what success looks like to you and what is important to you in your life and sales career. Why do you wake up every day and work hard? What are you working hard for, what’s the Goal? If you aren’t working hard towards your Dreams and Goals, then you’re wandering through your life and you’ll be working hard for someone else to achieve their life’s desire instead of yours.

Some of the best advice from the most successful and motivational people out there today is to follow your dreams and go for it. That’s true you really should go for it in life, you only have one life to live so make sure you live it!  Just be smart, join that 3% and use written goal setting to make sure you get there!

I’m truly rooting for your success, comment below with what success means to you!

Something I truly believe is that most every salesperson has some degree of fear of selling. Whether that fear is based on not being able to make a quota, letting their team down, being treated poorly by a customer or management, being rejected, being laughed at and judged, or whatever else the mind can conjure up. But trust me, your mind creates a terrible false reality you will likely never live out in the real world. Learning how to overcome the fear of failure and instead have success begins with your mindset.

Strive to have a Mindset of Growth

There are different mindsets you can choose to have and each will affect how you think about your sales career and ultimately how successful you are. If you choose a fixed mindset that believes you’re either born with it for sales or you’re not, then you are going to be sadly disappointed because no one is a born salesperson, salespeople are made. Instead, I recommend you choose a mindset focused on constant growth.

Focusing on having a mindset of growth, it is easier to overcome your fears of selling because you know that even though you may fail, you will learn something new that will make you better next time, so in reality, you never fail unless you quit! This is why salespeople with a growth mindset will continue to try and try again because they believe they can develop and grow over time into successful salespeople.

For some wonderful insight into a Fixed vs. Growth Mindset, I highly recommend you read the book “Mindset” by Dr. Carol S. Dweck. It is one of my favorite books on the shelf, and one that I learned so much from and continue to reread for insight into this subject. However, along with mindset, you have to have a healthy self-image.

Self-Image is EXTREMELY important

Know this, it is very hard to act consistently in a way inconsistent with how you see yourself. You MUST get sold on yourself and your self-worth. Yes, you are New to Sales right now and you don’t know everything that you will know someday, but you have a passion for helping your customer and you need to use that to maintain a healthy self-image as you start out in your sales career. You have a tremendous amount of value even as a new salesperson that you bring to the table with you, remember that as you get started.

Also, you must see yourself as a salesperson, and when you look in the mirror you need to like what you see. If you believe and buy into the stereotypes given to salespeople, and if you yourself have ill feelings towards salespeople when you’re in the shoes of the consumer, you will, in turn, assume the worst opinion of yourself from your customers. Getting yourself sold on you and on your sales career is critical to a healthy self-image and your ability to overcome your fear of failure and instead have success in sales!

Customers are NOT rejecting YOU!

This one takes a little longer to really sink in, but the sooner you figure it out the better off you will be and the more successful as well. When a customer decides not to do business with you, you cannot take it personally and MUST realize it is not a “Personal Rejection” but rather a “Business Refusal” to the offer made. Too many new salespeople hear no from their customers and believe this is a personal rejection, after several of these “rejections” the salesperson has had enough.

It is the offer that the customer is saying NO to, so please don’t confuse this as a personal rejection. Once you realize this it becomes much easier to overcome the fear of failing in sales. Also, you must understand that a No today doesn’t mean a No forever. Don’t give up and you never know you might just close a deal you thought you’d never make. Every No leads you closer to a Yes, so when you’re New to Sales keeping looking to help people and don’t worry about the No’s because you’re looking for yeses and there plenty out there waiting for you!

Wrapping it all UP!

When you are new to sales it is very common and normal to have some healthy fear inside you, we all go through it and many salespeople even those that have been selling for years still have some fears and anxieties every single day. We are human and even the most experienced salesperson has to remind him or herself that thinking positive, having a positive self-image, and not taking No personally from a customer is important to having success in spite of fear.

I am my Brand.

Everything that we do and everything that we don't do is going to affect our personal brand. In today's world if you want to have extraordinary results, especially as a salesperson in the car business you MUST establish a brand. That brand must fill a need, offer a service, and consistently deliver on an experience time and time again so people give you their trust and business, and best of all send you referrals.

We must take extreme ownership and do what it takes to get above the noise in our communities and become THE go-to guy or gal for the product we sell. If you sell New GM vehicles then ask yourself, what makes you the best option for your customers and what are you doing ahead of time to make sure they already know that or someone is telling them that by the time they realize they have the need?

We all need to take extreme ownership of our career, and our personal brand. So here are a few tips to make sure from the initial contact online to the meeting in the dealership that you are the ONLY option your customers consider.

1- Be Genuine

We must make sure whatever claims we make on social media or in person, whatever you say you will do, make sure it's genuine so you are able to deliver on it each and every time. Don't say you're available 24/7 if you don't answer your phone on Sunday's. Make sure you set the right expectations, become known for honesty, integrity, and reliability, they're HUGE! 

2- Be Informative

I know you want to have extraordinary results and become successful as a car salesman or woman, and nowadays you need to stay aware of the market, know the industry, and be engaged with your network and community. We need to show that our brand has real value, and part of the value we can bring is INFORMATION! We can be informative and truly be a resource people refer to when our services are needed.

3- Be Open to Change

It's no secret that things are much different in the car business now than they were 20 years ago, even 5 years ago in some parts of the country and world. If your brand is going to be successful, if we are going to be successful in the car business, we must be open to change. Changes in technology, processes, mindsets, practices, whatever it is we must be open to change when change is good. So if you never used Facebook or LinkedIn before to sell cars and you have enough word of mouth to sell your 20-30 cars a month great. But 99% of salespeople are not you. So be open to change and never think you've have seen, heard or learned it all (Or at least share this blog with them. :) ).

Take extreme ownership of your brand and you will begin to see greater results, I promise!

Some of the most successful people in this world and to ever live would tell you that hard work is required to become very successful. To think that hard work isn't necessary to become a success is arrogant and naive. However, is just working hard really the answer?

You can work really hard every night after work on your golf swing, you can spend hours each evening in your backyard honing in your swing. But if you are working hard practicing the wrong mechanics, you won't become successful on the golf course and shoot a low score. No, you have to focus your efforts on practicing correct mechanics so you can accomplish your goal of playing good golf.

I think we tend to give the advice to other people who want to succeed that they need to work hard, which they do, but we need to be careful not to lead them to think that just working bell to bell is going to make success happen. In sales, especially car sales, if you're not working hard on the right things you will end up becoming very unhappy and miserable working many hours for little reward.

So if you want to get better at anything, be successful in the car business or any business, lose weight, find a great partner, make new friends, or anything else you need to work hard on the things that will allow you to have success in that area of your life... but work hard on the right things, don't just put in a lot of time and effort being busy.

You can learn a lot about selling, customer service, marketing, negotiating, cold calling, the sales process, the car business, people, the human mind, and anything else you want to know about from ready books, watching videos on YouTube, or following thought leaders and successful people all over the internet and social media. You will find that anything you want to do well at comes down to working really hard on just a few things, maybe even just one.

So in 2018 be sure to focus your efforts on the right things, the few things, maybe even that one thing that you can work really hard at and achieve extraordinary results! 

What does it mean to grind it out? The “Grind” is a very popular mantra with many modern motivational leaders and entrepreneurs. Hustle and Grind. You hear these terms all the time, regardless if you’re listening to a fitness expert or a sales trainer. But what does it mean to truly grind it out? Learn how grinding it out can change your life and your career.

You Must Be All In, 100% Committed

First of all being able to grind it out requires that you’re all in. You must be completely committed. If you’re not, it will be nearly impossible for you to stick with whatever you’re doing amidst major challenge or set back. You may be able to handle one or two challenges. But if you’re not truly all in and committed, eventually you will give up on your pursuit. You’ll allow excuses to ruin your chances. Don’t do this. Part of grinding it out is digging in deep and staying with something even when times get tough and you want to quit.

If you decide to do something, if you truly want something in your life, go for it and be all in. When a failure or a major challenge show up along the way, being all in will force you to find a way to keep grinding. Make no other option available for yourself. Burn the ships as they say. Go All In, and regardless of what you are faced with for hurdles, remember to keep grinding.

You Either Win Or Die Trying

Being all in also requires you be true to yourself and who you really are. You have to understand that the only thing you can control is yourself. You have to take full responsibility for everything you do, every choice that you make. Don’t be a victim of life, playing a victim harms your ability to reach your true potential. It stunts your growth. The victim is always a victim, and never a victor.

You have to be your own biggest fan, and be true to who you are. Throughout life, you will have mentors. If you don’t have any now, you should find some. Find someone or a few people that are successful in life and that you admire. Pick mentors that are much more successful than you are. Choose mentors that you will likely not outgrow anytime soon. You may find yourself imitating these mentors in certain ways. But, remember to always make everything your own. Be genuine.

Trust Your Instincts, Especially About Other People

Be mindful of your sales career, know who you should and shouldn’t be spending your time with. I try to remember something a friend told me years ago. He said, “Only a Fool Doesn’t Listen.” It’s true, you would be a fool to not listen to opportunity when it’s presented to you in your career. Just remember the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. There is no substitution for hard work. Watch out for scams and big promises! In your sales career, you will need other people if you are to be successful at the highest levels. Even for the most independent sales professional, there is support staff that keep the sales machine moving forward. If you can get everyone in your life on the same page with you, it makes achieving your goals that much faster. When the people who are closest to you understand your commitment level, and compliment that with their attitudes and actions, it makes it easier for you to reach your potential. Regardless, you need to take full responsibility for the people in your life, make sure they understand where you’re coming from. You cannot be all in on something and have someone in your immediate circle like a husband or wife for instance that is not. It won’t work.

Don’t Try To Figure Everything Out All At Once

Maybe you just want to reach a certain income level right now. Or, you may want to one day be known as one of greatest in your industry. Maybe you just want to be successful financially so you have more time to spend doing the things you love to do, with the people you love the most. Whatever your goals are, don’t spend all your time trying to figure everything out. TAKE ACTION! It’s no secret, all the successful people we admire say you have to take massive action if you want to be massively successful in life. Taking normal levels of activity will not create amazing results. So many times we want to figure it out first and perfect our plan before we act. We fear we will fail if we don’t have it all figured out first. What you need to do is just take action. Just get started on whatever it is you want to accomplish in your career and life.

Grinding It Out Means You’re Relentless, You Never Quit

You don’t even consider the idea of quitting. When you make a mistake, when you get set back by something or someone, you just find a way to keep moving forward. You regroup and find a better way, and you learn from your mistakes. However, what is better than learning from making mistakes, is learning from the mistakes of others. Part of grinding it out is studying others and always being a student. If you want to make more sales, you need to study how to sell. If you want more money, you need to understand money so it doesn’t avoid you and leave you easily. If you want better relationships with people, studying human behavior and relationships would be beneficial. The greatest in any field are constant students, never too proud to learn something new, or learn a better or more efficient way to do something.

Don’t be afraid to put in the time, and do the hard work. Anything worth doing, anything that will bring great reward to you, will require hard work and probably some patience on your part. Often times we look at successful people and assume they were lucky, that their success was easy. We don’t know about all the hard work, the failures, the times they were told no or doubted themselves before they finally became successful. Often the super successful are regular people like you and me that just simply believed in what they were doing, they refused to quit,  and then they had their breakthrough.

Many Times People Miss Their Breakthrough By Quitting Just Before Their Big Break Comes

Please, don’t let this happen to you. Don’t sell yourself short by giving up on yourself. Always look for one more way to give it another try. The only way you can fail in life is if you quit. Don’t quit, persist relentlessly. Grind it out! This is especially important to remember in sales. If you are new to sales, you will want to remember that rejection is part of the game, and it’s not personal. Keep moving forward. Every no you hear brings you closer to hearing a yes. If you are doing your best, and you have the proper training, then it’s just a matter of persistence. The more stick-with-it-ness you have in sales, the more successful you will be. I have seen new salespeople come in and have a very hard time with this. Rejection can be hard for certain people. They take it personally. When someone says no to you in sales, you have to remember they are saying no to your offer, not to you. Many times all this no requires in order to make it a yes, is the willingness to stay in there and keep working hard to get a yes.

Nothing Great Can Be Achieved Without The Ability To Grind It Out

Grinding it out doesn’t have to be seen as something that is bad, or dreadful. Grinding it out means you have found a passion within yourself to put your best effort into everything you do. You have come to a place where you refuse to settle for less than you deserve. You can decide right now that you refuse to be one of those people that just dream about what they want but never gets to experience it. Be determined, commit, go all in and decide to get everything life has to offer you. Use your unique abilities and talents that God gave you to go out into the marketplace and get your piece of the pie. Bring value to everything you do. The ultimate goal is to get yourself to a point in life where you can have true freedom,  where you can choose how you spend your time.

Wrapping it all up!

So the goal is to get yourself to a point where you do everything on your terms, and you do it with intent. Even if you’re not doing exactly what you want to be doing right now, you can choose to take responsibility for that, be awesome at what you are doing, and take steps towards what you truly want. You can choose. You have free will. You have one life to live so you have to take action on this now! Grind it out every day. Each day gets the most out of life that you can. Be willing to grind and do whatever it takes to reach your goals, to be yourself and stay true to you. The people you are around will respect you because you are genuine, you are real. Your choices won’t always be right, and you’ll never be perfect. However, refuse to quit. Take that option off the table. Commit to making it work, and grinding it out no matter what. You will find the freedom, and the success you are looking for in life if you do.

Do you want to be successful and accomplish great things with your God-given potential? I know I do, but it can be overwhelming trying to figure out what you need to do each and every day to move in the direction of success and get the results you expect from yourself. Are you making the same mistake that myself and so many people make every day of trying to do everything instead of narrowing your focus to the few things that will lead to the greatest results by following a proven principal for success?

Many people determined to be successful mistake being busy and taking lots of action for succeeding, or think that's what it takes to be successful. While I agree 100% with people like Tony Robbins and Grant Cardone who say to take massive action, I also believe that management consultant Joseph M. Juran gave us a simple formula for success and focusing our actions most effectively when he suggested the Pareto Principal named after economist Vilfredo Pareto, otherwise known as the 80/20 Rule.

In sales, as it is with anything in life that you want to have extraordinary results, your success is not determined by how many things you do, but by how narrow you can make your focus and take massive action on the few small things that make all the results you want actually happen. Your goal should be to do a few things really well, not to do everything. It's critical that you determine what matters most to your success and then do those things!

The 80/20 Rule suggests that a small amount, 20% of what you do and actions you take will create most of your success or 80%. Basically, the majority of what you want in anything in life including your sales career will come from the minority of what you do. The problem is that we get caught in a trap of thinking everything matters equally, but that's not the case, some things really do matter more and some things just need to be removed from our routines until those important actions have been taken and completed.

I know I have found myself in the mindset of thinking because I am busy I am being productive, have you done this before? You're checking email instead of making more calls, or organizing your files instead of following up customers from the previous day. Yes, you are busy when you're doing those things and they have their place and time but are you being the most productive you can be is what you need to ask yourself.

"Don't focus on being busy, focus on being productive, what matters most should fuel your day!" - Gary Keller

It's your responsibility to drill down to the few actions that are going to produce the most results. You need to give this some thought and consideration, maybe speak with your mentor or if you don't have one look to connect with someone in your space who is successful doing what you are doing and find out what things they do to produce all that success. I promise you the most successful people follow the 80/20 Rule whether they realize it or not.

Once you have figured out those key actions or maybe it's simply ONE thing that will make all the difference you have to be disciplined and say no to distractions. This might mean you don't check your email every hour, or you don't organize your files right away. Say no to whatever is NOT the most important work of the day until the most important work has been done.

Remember the point of this principle for success and what I am trying to drive home to you here, is that not all actions matter equally, and success will come from doing the thing/s that matter the most, I promise. When you develop this mindset you will see your results start to increase, and then you can take it even further by drilling down to what is the 20% of the 20% of actions and so on until you find the single most important thing you need to be doing each and every day to fuel your results.

You may not like to hear this but some customers are going to be much more valuable than others, some people in your life will create most your business success, and just a few financial decisions will result in most your financial success in life. It is just how it works, whether we like it or not! But if you don't figure out who and what these things are that are most important, you will be left with average results far less than your potential.

I challenge you to begin to apply the 80/20 Rule to your life and see what happens, give thought to the actions you take and drill down to the single most important, the 20% of what you do that produces 80% or more of your results and then take massive action on those few things. Continue to drill down until you know exactly what it is that will produce success, and then repeat.

Remember that doing the most important thing each day is always the most important thing, and by following this principle for success you will increase your chances of reaching your potential and enjoying the successes meant for you in life.

Also, remember to Subscribe below and get the New to Sales Success Tips delivered to your inbox every Monday morning. Tips to help you succeed in your sales career, and life! Click subscribe today!

I started setting goals years ago when I first began listening to Zig Ziglar. I believe you will win by setting goals because I have, so in my latest video blog for New to Sales, I give some advice how!

Happy Selling!

Trust is something that people have a harder time with today than maybe ever before. There are so many people online telling their stories, selling their ideas, who do you trust? We live in a time when major news outlets are called out for being "fake news" and Donald Trump is our Commander in Chief. Can you blame us for having trust issues?

So how do you establish yourself as trustworthy and gain the loyalty of your customers? It takes some time, but there are a few tips I want to share with you that have helped me establish myself and my personal brand as a trusted resource for my customers over the years. If you are New to Sales and want to have a long career in your industry, focus on these things and you'll be certain to gain the trust of your customers, and their loyalty to you and your company.

Do what you say you'll do

Relationships are based on trust, and if you're in sales you better be all about relationships. Great salespeople do what they say they'll do and they follow through on their promises. One thing I will never do is tell a customer I will do something that I know I cannot do or that I have no control over. I only make promises I can keep, and I always make sure to follow through on those promises.

If you want to be known as a trustworthy and as someone who can be relied on you need to make good on the things you say you'll do. Don't even consider letting something slip no matter how small you may think it is. People will remember when you make a promise and don't keep it. When you do that you lose some credibility, and it's very hard to gain it back.

Customers will appreciate your high level of integrity and the fact they can rely on you to do what you say you will. This will translate into repeat and referral business which will make your sales career successful.

Don't talk out of school

One of my first professional mentors taught me this years ago. Whenever I get asked a question I truly don't know the answer to I make it a point to find the right information, I don't make something up. This has served me very well over my sales career.

Customers want to work with someone who knows their stuff, so it's very important that you educate yourself on your products and services. You should know your competition and be prepared to answer the tough questions you may get when working a deal. But there's nothing worse than a salesperson who gets asked a question they don't know the answer to and they begin talking out of school, major turnoff!

If you don't know, that's OK! Some sales trainers will make you think and feel as though it's never a good idea to tell a customer you don't know something. While I agree the customer wants to work with a knowledgeable professional, I think more than anything they want accurate, and honest information. When you don't know the answer to a question, or when someone needs help beyond your current level of expertise, handle the situation professionally and seek help.

Follow up on things

It's one thing to be a good salesperson and write lots of orders, that's what we do! However, it's another thing to live up to the customer service end of the deal after the sale. Service after the sale is crucial to building the kind of relationship you want to have with your customers, and how you are viewed by your customer base.

Are you following up your customers after the sale to ensure their satisfaction? I know from first hand experience as a customer myself that not every salesperson follows up their customers post sale. This was something I learned early on and I believe is one of the biggest factors to my success in sale.

It's one thing to tell customers you and the company you represent will take care of them, but it's another thing to live up to that. Making sure you are available for questions after the sale, service, add on sales, and just simply continuing to build the relationship through follow up turns a good salesperson into a great one. The effort involved in follow up is most definitely worth it!

Follow up goes a long way towards maintaining trust with your customers. They trusted you enough to do business with you, now it's time to show them that you do what you say. If you haven't closed the deal yet, following up shows your potential customer that you care and truly want to help them and earn their business. Again, this builds trust and separates you from the competition who hasn't thought about them since they left their last meeting.

I have always prided myself on being a trusted resource for my customers whether I was selling insurance products, furniture, or automobiles. I want to be able to look each and every one of my customers in the eyes when they come in to see me or visit my place of business and know that I have no secrets, and I did what I said I would do for each and every person that has given me the privilege of helping them.

If you want to establish a solid career in sales and get the repeat and referral business that makes good salespeople great, focus on these points and I am positive you will have success! Remember, in the end we are in the people business, and people do business with salespeople and companies they like, and Trust.

I'd love to hear what you have to say on this topic, Comment below and please Share!