You haven't heard from The Drift since late spring... a several-week hiatus that allowed for some R&R, a bit of business planning, a little bad golf, and the outlining of a book that will be called Write this Down: Memes and Metaphors for a Better Life in Sales. Since fleshing out the book will take a while longer, I've decided to share many of the aforementioned Memes and Metaphors across the next few posts of The Drift. Read on, comment, share, push back and apply them to your own life in sales. Your interaction will only make what I ultimately produce that much better.
The first thing you talk about or put on screen is what the sales call is about. If it’s about you, or if it consists of a set of blank-slate questions you might have already answered with a bit of research, then you’ve defined your meeting as either an information dump or a fishing expedition.
Stop listening to the voices in other people’s heads. You can't manage what others may or may not think about what you say or do. Focus instead on your own Why. That will be enough.
Leadership happens everywhere, at every level. A title change or promotion isn’t the starting point for leadership. It’s most often a matter-of-fact recognition of someone who’s already been leading.
You get delegated to the people you sound like.
There is no such thing as a renewal. If you’re not working to win your customer’s respect and loyalty as though the relationship were brand new, someone else is. And you’re in the process of losing a customer.
Life is better when you’re left of budget.
Attention is not a passive state. To pay attention is, literally, ‘to attend’ – to be present. When you are – and you will KNOW when you are – you will have created the white space where all good things happen.
You can promote someone long before you give them a new title. Including yourself.
Adversity and struggle are capricious. All we can control is how -- and how often -- we stand back up.
