Are you over the recession excuse yet? If you’re still waiting for the old pre-2008 days, you’ll be waiting a long time. Welcome to the new normal. It’s time for you to let go of the past and get going again. There is a market of around $20 billion dollars for what you’ve got to sell. Most of us would be very happy with just a few crumbs from that table. So what’s holding you back?
1) You’re waiting for something. Stop waiting and start creating! If anything was possible, what would you do? What accounts do you want? Go out and create something great for them. Learn their business and work to solve their problems.
2) You’re trying to make sales instead of creating relationships. Every buyer is a person. A person with the same needs as everyone else in this world. They are seeking solutions for problems at work. They want to look good to their bosses. They want to make their company a hero to their customers. They want to have fun. They want to deal with fun people who are competent and confident. Start treating sales as a relationship-building process. It’s fun and it pays off with loyal customers and lasting friendships.
3) You think good is good enough. If you’re not working to be the best—and I mean the very best—you don’t deserve high margins or loyal customers. That’s right. You need to earn it. You need to be great every single time. It may not seem fair, but you’re only as good as your current project. In every project—go for the WOW factor.
4) You’ll take any job and do anything. Instead of becoming very very good at a particular niche, you use the Chinese Restaurant menu approach to the business. In case you haven’t noticed, the great restaurants have a limited menu and they do those things very well. Specialists always make more than generalists. Experts don’t get shopped for price.
5) You don’t work to be distinctive. You’re selling the same stuff from the same sources in the same way to the same people. That, my friend, is the definition of a commodity. Any buyer who does not shop a commodity for the lowest price is not doing their job. You must be different. You must be distinctive. You must break out and stand out.
Get going and get growing. Write the happy ending to your story. Actively pursue your dream accounts and figure out ways to create value for your unique services. Treat your job as a relationship builder, a trust builder and a problem solver. Never settle for good. Be great. Specialize. Don’t just be a little different. Be distinctive.
