Are Your Best Years Behind You or Ahead of You?

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It seems like an obvious question doesn’t it?  If I were to ask a hundred people on the street they would all say their best years are ahead of them.  But would they really feel that way or would that just be the politically correct thing to say?

The best years of your life by Albert EllisI was doing my annual New Year’s cards for my daughters. One daughter is 18 while the other is low 30’s. I believe the future is so bright for that generation that they should feel blessed — they have some many great years in front of them.

I actually believe that although most people do not.

And as I wrote their cards, I wondered aloud whether I felt that way about myself at 55 years old.  Can I honestly look in the mirror and say that my best days are ahead of me when I’ve had 55 years of a great life?

I have some rather long lifelines in my family (my dad lived to be ninety-seven and his mother ninety-five) and when people ask me when I’m going to retire I tell them retirement for me would be certain death.

So, for those of us that are in our 40’s, 50’s and 60’s, how do we ensure that in fact the best days are in front of us?

Here is a list:

  1. Stay current.  As we get older it becomes harder to stay current with the new technology/social media/web world but we must.  I know several people who have not been able to figure it out on their own but they have hired technology coaches.  Great idea. Read more

The Placid But Dangerous Comfort Zone

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Comfort zones everywhere.  Isn’t it interesting that with something that sounds so placid – comfort zone – that we’d take offense when someone says we’re in one.  The fact is we’re all in one – all the time.  It’s only with deliberate action that we can force ourselves to the warning track of those zones and thereby grow.

How To Avoid Sales Mediocrity – If You’re New In the Profession

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We get a lot of emails and requests from our Advanced Selling Podcast listeners about how to break into the profession of selling.

There is no shortage of tips and techniques out there, but here are five things that we believe you really need to “get” for you to be successful out of the gate.  As a new salesperson in 2012, you have platforms and technology available to you that older people like us would kill for when we were starting.  So one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to not take advantage of what’s been handed to you.

1.    Get clear.  This could pertain to many things like your personal goals, your income goals, the number of new clients you want in a 12-month period etc. But I think the biggest thing you can get clear about is “the problems you solve.”  Clarity in that area will help you communicate your value and your intentions to your customer in a much more savvy way.

2.    Get a method.  90% of sales people don’t have or don’t use any kind of a selling system or method to help prospects walk through the process.  My contention is that most methods are just manipulative enough that sales people don’t like to use them.  A great method should be less about convincing someone to buy from you and more about a process of sorting those who are tire-kickers and curious only, to those who are serious buyers.  Sorting is the thing.  Amateur sales people close 15% of their proposals; professionals close 80.

3.    Get a coach.  I know what you’re saying, “How can I afford a coach when I just started in sales?”  My reaction to that is “It doesn’t matter. You must have a coach.” You must have someone there that you can confide in, whose shoulder you can cry on and who you can party with when things go well. But don’t make the coach your sales manager.  They have too much skin invested in your success.  Find someone, pay them if you like, who is unconditional about your success and doesn’t benefit in any way from it other than just the sharing of feeling of success, other than the feeling of knowing the coach contributed to your success in some small way. Read more

Setting Your Goal

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Set the goal and work backwards. Ask the question:

  • What will have to happen for me to accomplish that?
  • Or, you can do what others do… “what are the roadblocks?”

That list of roadblocks evolves into your ‘strategy’.

What Can You Do With A Psychology Degree? These Things

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How many times have we heard, “What in the world can you do with a Psychology Degree?” My seventeen year-old daughter is exploring colleges right now and is somewhat interested in psychology (because she really likes her high school psychology teacher-maybe not a good reason but, what the heck?)

And yet when I talk to fellow parents – some of whose children actually majored in psychology – I get that look of disdain and shaking of the head.  And although they don’t say anything I know what they are thinking

“What in the world can you do with a psychology degree?” Read more

Goal Setting for 2012. Is A Doubling Of Income Possible?

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Well, you probably read that and say, “I don’t see any way at all I can double my sales next year. Especially in this market.”

In fact, that may be so much of a stretch that you decide NOT to watch the video. And what a mistake that would be.

This Whiteboard Wednesday is designed to “shock you” a little. Maybe you just need a jolt to your system so you can break free with some new thoughts.

Bill Caskey takes you through a Goal Setting exercise that the Caskey team takes their clients through. So, grab pencil and paper and play it out as you watch it unfold in front of you.

After you’re done, we think you’ll see things a little differently. So, you may not get to a doubling (or, you might) but what we’re after is a “change of thought.” And that will guide you to new goals you will accomplish.

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Your Competition is Targeting Your Accounts. What Will You Do?

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So everyone’s feeling a little fearful these days. A little 2009 Recession Afterburn.

Nonetheless, your best clients are on your competition’s target list. They’ve always been there, but you will begin to see some action now, if you haven’t already.

What To Do About It

I was on a training call yesterday when it came up. Here was my suggestion. Be More Than You Have Been. (US ARMY, go ahead and use this if you like).

What this means is don’t just see yourself as selling the service product you sell. See yourself as an expert and resource in a larger context.

I have a client that sells copiers, supplies and service. Everything they do points toward better productivity and low cost. So, my suggestion was to go out and find other experts who speak or write on those topics and create an ongoing seminar program for their clients.

Right now, you are in a sub category of a larger category. All I’m asking you to do is back up one level and think “How can I be a value or a resource to my client base in the larger category?”

Selling The Larger Solution

Another example is us. We do sales training and develop people. But it all fits in a higher category of “growing your business.” So, I will go out and find others who are experts on this and bring them to my clients–through blogs, podcasts, videos, teleseminars etc.,

The winners in this next three years, will be people who think differently about their market. Same old stuff leads to same old stuff. You’re better than that.

Stay tuned. Soon, I’ll be releasing a video on what you can do today to get out of the recession mindset.

Fatal Mistakes in B2B Sales and How to Avoid Them Series – We Listen With Our Motor Running

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*This is a part of The Whale Hunters’ guest blog series for three weeks on “Fatal Mistakes in B2B Sales and How to Avoid Them.” To read some of the blogs for the series, you can visit: http://blog.thewhalehunters.com/

In this video, Bill Caskey discusses one fatal mistake he notices salespeople do. With his experience as an Indianapolis sales trainer, Bill addresses a few ways for salespeople to avoid this one mistake.

-Mentioned in this video…-
The Advanced Selling Podcast: Every week, Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale, upload a new podcast for sales people all over the planet. Eventually, we’ll be bringing over all the episodes but it’s not quite at the top of our priority list yet.

So, until then, go to www.AdvancedSellingPodcast.com and you can download–or listen to them all.