Everyone
wants to ‘succeed’ and everyone wants to ‘win’… especially in sales!
But
‘winning’ in sales 100% of the time is unrealistic … sometimes you will lose.
You
can increase the winning percent by cheating with shortcuts, or by selling
below a reasonable margin, but, in the long term, these tactics always come
back to bite you. (That’s why ‘selling’ has such a bad name and such
traditionally low levels of trust and reputation).
So,
how can you increase your chances of winning without sacrificing your
principles or your profits…?
…
and how can you make sure that you’re always upbeat and proactive, whether you
get the deal today or not?
In
his seminal masterpiece ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, Steven Covey
talks about ‘primary success’ and ‘secondary success’:
He
suggests that:
- ‘Primary
success’ is about sticking to your principles, working on continually
improving your skills, always being prepared to give a situation your ‘best
shot’ with no excuses and continually holding yourself accountable (and, if
you’re a leader of others, doing the same with them).
- And
‘secondary success’ is the results of doing the above.
The
trouble is that we’re always so much in a rush, and so blinkered (and
brainwashed) to focus on secondary success, that we’re often tempted to go for
the shortcuts in order to get the results we want. On top of this, our animal
‘fight or flight’ instincts push us towards this all the time…
And
then we’re surprised when we continually struggle and life becomes much harder
than it needs to be!
They
say that adversity reveals the true character of a person!
The
amazing joy of knowing this ‘secret’ is that ‘primary success’ is always
within our sphere of control … so we can always achieve it.
- We
can always stick to our principles,
- we
can always work on look to improve ourselves
- we
can always give something our ‘best shot’ without excuses
- and
we can always hold ourselves accountable.
(And,
of course, ‘secondary success’ is always outside our sphere of control, and
therefore so often so elusive).
The
key, of course, is to focus obsessively on continually creating ‘primary
success’, and the paradoxical miracle is that, if we do this, then secondary
success flows much more quickly and easily!
The
challenge is to stick to ‘primary success’ consistently and continually,
through thick and thin, no matter how tough it gets: and this is the REAL test
of effectiveness and success in life.
Very
few people understand these key points or give serious effort to them: it’s
‘easier’ in the short term to focus on secondary success (primary success takes
some real effort).
Because
it’s ‘hard’ to do, so often people don’t put the effort in: but this is even
better news for those that do:
- Because so few people (and organisations) put the
consistent effort into ‘primary success’, then those that do will quickly and
easily put themselves head and shoulders above their competition!
The
main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
‘Primary
success’ is what ‘Slow Selling’ is all about: the key is to slow down, put
simple, effective ‘primary success’ systems in place, and then stick to them
and hold yourselves accountable.
Easy to say, much harder to do: that’s why we offer you our help.
For help in ‘primary success’ systems, and all ‘Slow Selling’ top tips and events, please join our mailing list or buy the book or contact us for bespoke advice.
These are some of the principles and questions we address in Slow Selling: please click here to join our top tips and updates list or, if you have a question regarding your situation and would like a simple answer, drop us a line at support@wordpress-983538-3474751.cloudwaysapps.com
