In my view, there is no excuse for making less than $500,000 per year. This is true whether you own your own business or are a sales rep for another company.
Businesses spend about $250 billion per year on promotional products, printing and custom packaging. You are probably within an hour’s drive of at least $1 billion in business. You are surely an internet connection away from the full $250 billion.
So, why do so many distributor owners and sales reps fail to get wealthy?
I believe fear of failure is the No. 1 cause for failure. Read that again. Fear of failure creates failure (or lack of enough success).
Here is what most people fear the most.
1. Hearing “no.” No one likes rejection. But rejection in business is never personal. It just means there are not interested now. Not forever.
2. Selling new products. It amazes me how few folks sell the full product line of promotional products, printing and custom packaging.
3. Selling new solutions. Additionally, many distributors and reps do not understand how to best sell and implement company store solutions
4. Asking better questions. Weaker folks fail to ask great questions. They are afraid the prospect may think they are pushing too hard. The truth is that most prospects rule out weaker reps that don’t ask great questions.
5. Asking for referrals. Most folks forget to ask for referrals. More are afraid of asking for them. I know some very successful people who only sell to referrals.
6. Trying new things. New marketing approaches. New sales techniques. New prospects.
7. Trying more than once. It seems crazy to me when I hear people say that they tried something once and quit because it didn’t work. Keep trying. Keep finding new ways to fail. You will eventually fail your way to success.
8. Trying too many times. Success in many ways is about being in the right place at the right time enough times to be successful. Just because someone is happy with their current supplier today doesn’t mean that supplier won’t eventually make a big mistake.
9. Humbling themselves. When we reach out to earn new business and new opportunities, we humble ourselves. We put ourselves at risk of being rejected. The truth is that many very successful people I know are very humble because they had to learn humility to create success.
10. Being uncomfortable. If you want to live a wealthy, comfortable life, you need to learn to put yourself in very uncomfortable situations every day. If you choose to be comfortable behind your desk every day, doing those things that are comfortable, you will never live a wealthy, comfortable life.
If you really want to succeed financially, if you really want to make $500,000 per year or more, fail more.
