EricSaid

I saw this speech on ESPN when Jimmy V gave it in 1993. I have listened to it 100s of times. I listen to it at least once a week This is one of the greatest speeches I have ever heard. It will move you to tears. It will change your interactions with others. It will change your sales presentations. It can change your life!

I learned through the death of my step father that you can learn to live by watching how other people die. It can be their greatest gift to us. Both my step dad and Jimmy V taught me valuable life changing lessons. I share this one with you here. More from my step father later.

Was that not a great way to spend ten minutes?

In this study my personal notes are in the quotes throughout the passage.

The dreamers are the saviors of the world. As the visible world is sustained by the invisible, so men, through all their trials and sins and sordid vocations, are nourished by the beautiful visions of their solitary dreamers. Humanity cannot forget its dreamers; it cannot let their ideals fade and die; it lives in them; it knows them as the realities which it shall one day see and know.

The great discoveries, achievements and advancements of the future exist only in the dreams of men and women today. Dreaming allows the creative energies which man possesses to begin to flow so that the ideas become a reality. But not just dreamers…dreamers who are willing to sacrifice all to make the dreams become a reality.

Composer, sculptor, painter, poet, prophet, sage, these are the makers of the after-world, the architects of heaven. The world is beautiful because they have lived; without them, laboring humanity would perish.

You play a vital role as well in making the world a beautiful place. God made you for a purpose and fulfilling that purpose brings a unique beauty to the world. The key is for you to dream your dream and act your part.

He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart, will one day realize it. Columbus cherished a vision of another world, and he discovered it; Copernicus fostered the vision of a multiplicity of worlds and a wider universe, and he revealed it; Jesus saw a joy before Him that lead him to endure the cross a offer Himself as a sacrifice for all of man kind.

Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals; cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all, heavenly environment; of these, if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built.

To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to, achieve. Shall man’s basest desires receive the fullest measure of gratification, and his purest aspirations starve for lack of sustenance? Such is not the Law: such a condition of things can never obtain: “ask and receive.”

Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your Ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.

The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg; and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.

Your circumstances may be uncongenial, but they shall not long remain so if you but perceive an Ideal and strive to reach it. You cannot travel within and stand still without. Here is a youth hard pressed by poverty and labor; confined long hours in an unhealthy workshop; unschooled, and lacking all the arts of refinement. But he dreams of better things; he thinks of intelligence, of refinement, of grace and beauty. He conceives of, mentally builds up, an ideal condition of life; the vision of a wider liberty and a larger scope takes possession of him; unrest urges him to action, and he utilizes all his spare time and means, small though they are, to the development of his latent powers and resources. Very soon so altered has his mind become that the workshop can no longer hold him. It has become so out of harmony
with his mentality that it falls out of his life as a garment is cast aside, and, with the growth of opportunities, which fit the scope of his expanding powers, he passes out of it forever. Years later we see this youth as a full-grown man. We find him a master of certain forces of the mind, which he wields with worldwide influence and almost unequaled power. In his hands he holds the cords of gigantic responsibilities; he speaks, and lo, lives are changed; men and women hang upon his words and remold their characters, and, sun like, he becomes the fixed and luminous center round which innumerable destinies revolve. He has realized the Vision of his youth. He has become one with his Ideal. And you, too, youthful reader, will realize the Vision (not the idle wish) of your heart, be it base or beautiful, or a mixture of both, for you will always gravitate toward that which you, secretly, most love. Into your hands will be placed the exact results of your own thoughts; you will receive that which you earn; no more, no less.

Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain, or rise with your thoughts, your Vision, your Ideal. You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration.

The above paragraph has insired me to raise my goals and aspirations to greater heights. I’m the young man who labored while he dreamed. Soon the visions became to large for the world in which I labored. I had to perfect the message. I knew it was time to take flight to loftier goals. For in me was that message building that could change people’s world.  Listen carefully to that last sentence: “You will become as small as your controlling desire, or as great as your dominant aspiration.” Do you dare to dream big dreams?

In the beautiful words of Stanton Kirkham Davis, “You may be keeping accounts, and presently you shall walk out of the door that for so long has seemed to you the barrier of your ideals, and shall find yourself before an audience-the pen still behind your ear, the ink stains on your fingers and then and there shall pour out the torrent of your inspiration. You may be driving sheep, and you shall wander to the city-bucolic and open-mouthed; shall wander under the intrepid guidance of the spirit into the studio of the master, and after a time he shall say, ‘I have nothing more to teach you.’ And now you have become the master, who did so recently dream of great things while driving sheep. You shall lay down the saw and the plane to take upon yourself the regeneration of the world.”

This is the normal development of man. He begins focusing all of his labor on the task at hand. He then begins to see the world as a bigger place than his eyes currently behold. This new global visioncreates in him a desire to be greater, achieve greater, and impact greater than his sphere of influence.

The thoughtless, the ignorant, and the indolent, seeing only the apparent effects of things and not the things themselves, talk of luck, of fortune, and chance. Seeing a man grow rich, they say, “How lucky he is!” Observing another become intellectual, they exclaim, “How highly favoured he is!” And noting the saintly character and wide influence of another, they remark, “How chance aids him at every turn!” They do not see the trials and failures and struggles which these men have voluntarily encountered in order to gain their experience; have no knowledge of the sacrifices they have made, of the undaunted efforts they have put forth, of the faith they have exercised, that they might overcome the apparently insurmountable, and realize the Vision of their heart. They do not know the darkness and the heartaches; they only see the light and joy, and call it “luck”. They do not see the long and arduous journey, but only behold the pleasant goal, and call it “good fortune,” do not understand the process, but only perceive the result, and call it chance.

The more “instant gratification” that we see plastered all over our world the more this becomes a problem. You can be sure that if there is a reward there was also a labor. “Be not decieved…whatever a man sows that shall he also reap.” Sowing and reaping are joined together. You cannot have a harvest without a planting. Our current internet world is filled with “get rich quick” schemes and cons. A man cannot reap without sowing!

In all human affairs there are efforts, and there are results, and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result. Chance is not. Gifts, powers,  material, intellectual, and spiritual possessions are the fruits of effort; they are thoughts completed, objects accomplished, visions realized.

The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart–this you will build your life by, this you will become.

As you think in your heart so shall you become. What is your heart fixed upon? Is it a permanent fixation? Is it something that is so lofty that it will hold your attention until the vision is realized? If not, dream again! The dream that captivates you must met certain criteria: it must be for the good of mankind, it must involve a blessing for other people, and it must bring joy to you and your family.

What is your dream? How does it measure up? Write it out, share it with others, and make it your focus for the rest of your life.

By Dave Kahle

I wish I had a dollar for every time I was asked that question in a sales training session.  It’s certainly one of the most common questions I hear coming from professional salespeople – and their bosses.

There are a variety of answers — too many for just one column.  But, we can identify one of the most powerful ways to deal with this problem.

First, let’s start with this premise: “Low price” is not the main reason people buy!  In every survey of buying motivations I’ve ever read, low price is never the primary motivation. Yes, it’s important.  And, when everything else is equal, it will be the deciding factor. But very rarely is everything else equal.  And very few people in this world buy only on the basis of low price. How many of you are driving used Yugos?  Or wearing a suit you bought at a garage sale?  Or watching an 8-inch black & white TV?

You’ve got the picture.  You don’t always buy on the basis of low price, so why should you think that all your customers do?

The truth is, they don’t.  And here’s a secret that almost nobody knows, including all those gurus telling you to sell value.  They don’t always buy the best value. But, they can invariably be counted on to buy the lowest risk!

The biggest issue in the minds of your customers and prospects is not price, and its not value – it is risk.

What’s risk?

Risk is the potential cost to the individual customer if he/she makes a mistake.  It’s not just the money, although that is part of it.  It is also the social, psychological and emotional cost that your customer will pay if your choice isn’t the best one. The lower the risk of the decision, the more likely your customer will say “yes” to you – regardless of the price.

Let’s become comfortable with this concept of risk first, and then discuss how to use it in your sales efforts.

In order to really understand risk, you must first see this issue from your customers’ perspective. Try to put yourself in their shoes, and calculate the amount of risk that you expect your customers to take when you offer them an opportunity to say “yes” to you.

Here’s an illustration to help you understand this concept. Imagine that you are under orders by your spouse to pick up a package of disposable cups on the way home from work today because you’re having friends over for a casual evening of dessert and drinks tonight. You stop at the local grocery store, and make a selection between brand A and brand B. You pick brand A.

After you bring the cups home, your spouse mixes up a pitcher of margaritas and pours one.  The drink leaks out of the bottom of the cup and puddles on the counter. There is a hole in the bottom of the cup. You pour your drink into another cup and it leaks, too. In fact, every one of the cups you bought is defective.

What happens to you in this instant in time? What is the consequence of your decision?  I don’t know about you, but I would be the recipient of some negative emotion.  My spouse would be upset with me. That may be the most painful cost of your decision.  But there are other costs.

You’re going to have to fix the problem.  If there’s time, you’ll have to run back to the store and replace the cups. So, in addition to the emotional cost, you must also pay in terms of extra time and additional money. All because of your bad decision. Those costs — negative emotions, time wasted, extra money spent—all combine to form the risk you accepted when you made your decision.

Here’s a simple exercise to help you understand this concept. Draw a short vertical line.  At the top of the line write the number 25.  At the bottom, write the number  zero. Now on a scale of 0 – 25, where would you put the risk of buying a package of disposable cups?  You’d probably say it is close to zero.  So, put an X on the line from 0 to 25 where you think the risk of buying those cups would be.

Let’s look at an illustration at the other end of the scale.  I once had an adoption agency as a client. When a young lady is in a crisis pregnancy, and she’s making a decision as to whether or not to release her unborn child for adoption, how big a risk is that for her?  Put your X on the line that represents your assessment of that risk.

Most people put their mark around 25. The risk in this situation is a lifetime of consequences for at least four people – the mother, child and adoptive parents. That’s a very high risk.

Compare the X’s for the two different decisions, and you’ll conclude that different decisions carry with them differing degrees of risk.

Now, let’s apply this concept to your customers.  Remember that every time you  ask your prospects to say yes to you, they are accepting some risk. And each of those decisions you ask of them carries with it a different degree of risk.

Imagine your typical customer.  Then think of the typical offer or decision you ask of that person. For example, take one of your newer products.  Imagine you are presenting it to your customer for the first time.  Now, put yourself in his shoes, and see the situation through his eyes. On the 0 – 25 scale, how much risk does your customer accept when he says “yes” to you?

For an easy way of calculating it, just ask yourself what happens to that individual if you, or your company, messes up.

If your customer buys that product and it doesn’t do what you claim it will, what trouble will that make for your customer?  What consequences will he/she pay?  What is the risk?

And don’t say that there is no risk because you’ll take care of any problem that might develop.  You may think that, but your customer doesn’t know that.  And remember, you’re trying to see this from your customer’s point of view, not yours. The amount of risk is what your customer perceives it to be.

I had a great example of the role of risk in sales several years ago. A young man approached me to help his company with their sales efforts.  They were selling a product that was, at the time, a real state-of-the-art breakthrough. The company designed computerized controls that were retrofitted on production equipment.  As a result of the use of these controls, the savings in energy consumption would pay for the cost of the equipment in less than a year.

It looked like a great product.  But he couldn’t sell them as rapidly as the company wanted.

“Tell me how you go about selling them” I asked.

“We qualify our prospects to the point where we know we have someone who could use the equipment.  Then I call the production engineer or the plant manager on the phone, and gather some information about the type of equipment they use.  Then I create a written proposal showing the economic payback, and mail it to him.  Next I call and try to close the sale.”

“Let me see if I understand correctly,” I said.

“You are calling a plant manager on the phone.  I would guess that most plant managers are men in their 50’s, probably with advanced degrees, and who have been in the plant for a number of years, is that right?”

“That’s right.”

“OK,” I said.  “So, you’re calling someone twice your age, asking him to spend $20,000 – $30,000 of unbudgeted money on equipment he’s never seen, from a company he’s never heard of, and from a sales person half his age who he’s never met.   Is that right?”

My client became a little defensive. “If you put it that way, I suppose it’s right.”

“Well put it that way,” I replied, “because that’s the way he sees it.”

The problem was simple  – risk.  On that scale of  0 – 25, how much risk would you think the plant manager would be accepting if he said “Yes” to the over-the-phone offer?

Put yourself in his shoes. Suppose the equipment didn’t work the way it was supposed to? He could shut down production lines, spend weeks trying to make things right, cause all sorts of havoc in the plant, and potentially even lose his job.  Now that’s risk.

If you were that plant manager, how much more than the original $20,000 quote would you spend to reduce the risk?  It wouldn’t be hard to justify a price double that.

That should give you a clue as to how to fight the “low price” issue.  Worry less about low price, and more about lowering the risk.

Here are four strategies to do so.

• Build solid, deep relationships with the key decision-makers.  Relationships mitigate risk.  The greater the relationship, the lower the perceived risk.  That’s why the salesman with the longer relationship almost always has the benefit of the doubt in a competitive situation.  It’s not the price – it is the risk.

• Make ample use of third party recommendations, customer lists, case studies and testimonials.  All of these say to the customer that someone else, or lots of  someone elses, have used the product or service.  That means its less risk for your customer to buy it.

• Try to get your customer as physically involved with the product as possible.  For example, if you’re selling a piece of equipment, try to get the customer to trial the equipment, or at least visit somewhere its being used.  The more your customer can see and feel the actual thing, the less risk is it to them.

• Finally, work with your company to create offers that reduce the risk.  Trial periods, money-back guarantees, delayed billing, warranties, service desks – all of these reduce your customer’s perception of risk.

The winners in the competitive selling arena of the Information Age are those who are the low risk providers, not the low price people.

Dave Kahle is a high-energy, high-content motivational speaker, focused on sales training and B2B sales, with a special gift for engaging his audiences and stimulating people to think. A world-class speaker, he has presented throughout the United States and seven countries, bringing a wealth of practical information to his clients. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toledo, and a Master’s degree from Bowling Green State University. Dave is a member of the Author’s Guild, Sales and Marketing Executives International, the Christian Businessmen Committee, and the Association for Training and Development.

Christian Sales Assocation

In this study my personal notes are in the quotes throughout the passage.

ALL that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts. In a justly ordered universe, where loss of equipoise would mean total destruction, individual responsibility must be absolute. A man’s weakness and strength, purity and impurity, are his own, and not another man’s; they are brought about by himself, and not by another; and they can only be altered by himself, never by another. His condition is also his own, and not another man’s. His suffering and his happiness are  evolved from within. As he thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he remains.

A strong man cannot help a weaker unless that weaker is willing to be helped, and even then the weak man must become strong of himself; he must, by his own efforts, develop the strength which he admires in another. None but himself can alter his condition.

This is the reason that training programs some times fail. The weaker (the trainee) must be willing to be helped. All of the power to develop the strength to succeed is contained in the man who will. He is the only one who can alter his condition. This is why I focus training on your responsibility to create your own environment for success. You must take control of your environment and recreate it for you own success.

It has been usual for men to think and to say, “Many men are slaves because one is an oppressor; let us hate the oppressor.” Now,
however, there is amongst an increasing few a tendency to reverse this judgment, and to say, “One man is an oppressor because  many are slaves; let us despise the slaves.”

The truth is that oppressor and slave are co-operators in ignorance, and, while seeming to afflict each other, are in reality afflicting themselves. A perfect Knowledge perceives the action of law in the weakness of the oppressed and the misapplied power of the oppressor; a perfect Love, seeing the suffering, which both states entail, condemns neither; a perfect Compassion embraces both oppressor and oppressed.

He who has conquered weakness, and has put away all selfish thoughts, belongs neither to oppressor nor oppressed. He is free.

A man can only rise, conquer, and achieve by lifting up his thoughts. He can only remain weak, and abject, and miserable by refusing to lift up his thoughts.

“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. ” Proverbs 16:32 The man who is in control of his thoughts is in better possession than the one who has all the possessions from conquering  a city. Being in control is the greatest position of power available to man.

Before a man can achieve anything, even in worldly things, he must lift his thoughts above slavish animal indulgence. He may not, in order to succeed, give up all animality and selfishness, by any means; but a portion of it must, at least, be sacrificed. A man whose first thought is bestial indulgence could neither think clearly nor plan methodically; he could not find and develop his latent resources, and would fail in any undertaking. Not having commenced to manfully control his thoughts, he is not in a position to control affairs and to adopt serious responsibilities. He is not fit to act independently and stand alone. But he is limited only by the thoughts, which he chooses.

There can be no progress, no achievement without sacrifice, and a man’s worldly success will be in the measure that he sacrifices his confused animal thoughts, and fixes his mind on the development of his plans, and the strengthening of his resolution and self-reliance. And the higher he lifts his thoughts, the more manly, upright, and righteous he becomes, the greater will be his  success, the more blessed and enduring will be his achievements.

Once a man possesses his thoughts rather than being possessed by them he has more power than all the rest. He is in a position where plans become clear, resolution is fixed, and independence is gained. Until you make your thoughts your servant you’re not ready to achieve.

The universe does not favor the greedy, the dishonest, the vicious, although on the mere surface it may sometimes appear to do so; it helps the honest, the magnanimous, the virtuous. All the great Teachers of the ages have declared this in varying forms, and to
prove and know it a man has but to persist in making himself more and more virtuous by lifting up his thoughts.

Intellectual achievements are the result of thought consecrated to the search for knowledge, or for the beautiful and true in life and nature. Such achievements may be sometimes connected with vanity and ambition, but they are not the outcome of those characteristics; they are the natural outgrowth of long and arduous effort, and of pure and unselfish thoughts.

“I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.” Psalms 119:99 Greater intellectual achievements are the lot of the those who will make their meditations on the Word of God. They have learned to thionk outside themselves. They look to God for answers and direction. They don’t just think they meditate.

Spiritual achievements are the consummation of holy aspirations. He who lives constantly in the conception of noble and lofty thoughts, who dwells upon all that is pure and unselfish, will, as surely as the sun reaches its zenith and the moon its full, become wise and noble in character, and rise into a position of influence and blessedness.

Achievement, of whatever kind, is the crown of effort, the diadem of thought. By the aid of self-control, resolution, purity, righteousness, and well-directed thought a man ascends; by the aid of animality, indolence, impurity, corruption, and confusion of thought a man descends.

A man may rise to high success in the world, and even to lofty altitudes in the spiritual realm, and again descend into weakness
and wretchedness by allowing arrogant, selfish, and corrupt thoughts to take possession of him.

Victories attained by right thought can only be maintained by watchfulness. Many give way when success is assured, and rapidly
fall back into failure.

Did you get that? I have seen this too many times even in my own life. The victory leads to a point where the thoughts that brought me there left in the celebration and the victory was fleeting. You must maintain beyond the victory the very thoughts that brought the victory in the first place.

All achievements, whether in the business, intellectual, or spiritual world, are the result of definitely directed thought, are governed by the same law and are of the same method; the only difference lies in the object of attainment.

He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.

What thoughts are you willing to sacrifice to achieve enduring success? Thoughts of selfishness, self-service, and self-indulgence will not result in lasting victory. Taking control of your meditations will give you greater power and understanding than all your teachers. Controlling your spirit gives you greater power than the one who conquerors a city. So what will you do? Will you master this one thing that is entirely in your possession? Will you choose to think only on those things that will bring the greatest good rather than the greatest personal satisfaction?

By Dave Kahle

“I really struggle with the highs and lows of field sales.  Most days I feel like the weight of the world is on my shoulders.  Any suggestions?”

This is one of those rarely voiced issues that every salesperson confronts sooner or later. The job of the salesperson produces an emotional roller coaster, and unless you figure out how to manage those emotions and keep yourself motivated, you’ll have a difficult time succeeding.

This is particularly true right now.  As I write this, in the Summer of 2010,  the economy is in recession, and shows little sign of improving. Unemployment is higher than it has been for years.  Many companies are cutting back, there are fewer jobs available, and pressures to perform are greater than ever.

Not a pretty picture.  However, even though the world around us may be dreary and depressing, that in no way reduces our personal need to do the best we can.  We really do need to motivate ourselves.

Which brings me to the first principle of personal motivation.  At the heart of motivation lies a powerful belief which you must embrace.  Without a wholehearted commitment to this foundational belief, all the techniques and tactics for self-motivation are like spreading wall paper over crumbling plaster.  It may hold temporarily, but it is soon going to deteriorate into a mess.

Here’s the foundational principle:  You must believe that you can do better, and that it is your responsibility to do so.

Sounds so simple and common sense.  However, the more I observe people, and salespeople specifically, the more convinced I am that the majority of people do not share this core belief.  Rather, they are in the habit of making excuses for their situation.  Or, they believe that it’s really fate that determines their success, not their actions.  Or, they believe that success is for someone else, not them.  They never really grab onto the first part of this foundational principle.

Others believe that they can achieve greater degrees of success.  They accept the first principle, but they never accept the second.  They become content with their situation, no matter what it is, and remain in comfort zones.  Or they look at their managers as the person who has the responsibility to motivate them.

So, the first principle really is foundational.  Test yourself.  Do you really believe that you can do better?  Do you really believe that it is your responsibility to motivate yourself to higher levels of performance?

Once we’ve established that, the question now becomes how do we do so? Here are some time-tested ways to motivate yourself.

1.  Have some purpose, larger than yourself, for which you are working.

As long as your world is limited to yourself, you find it just as easy to rationalize your mediocre results as it is to extend yourself to achieve superior results.  One of the most motivating things in the world is the need to provide for a family.  That will get you out there on the dreariest days, under the worst of conditions.  Love is perhaps the greatest motivation in the world.  When combined with the responsibility for the economic well-being of those you love, it can be an incredibly powerful motivator.  I’ve often wondered what I would have become had I not had a large family and a sizeable monthly obligation.  It sure caused me to step up to the plate when I’d really rather not.

I’m not suggesting that you immediately begin to procreate if you haven’t yet.  But, in the long term, understand that the responsibility for a family will, over the years, create a sense of purpose in your life that will spill over and impact your career, and probably bring out the best in you.

Along that same line, creating a tangible, worthwhile, exciting goal runs a close second for a way to motivate yourself.  That’s why spending once a year in a personal strategic planning retreat in which you create motivating goals for the coming year is such a powerful discipline.

2.  Consistently expose yourself to positive thoughts.

This is one of those techniques that I have learned through experience.

One of my greatest challenges as a salesperson occurred when I had decided to leave my current position, and accepted a position selling surgical staplers.

This was a major risk on my part.  I was the number one salesperson in the nation for my current employer, had a good salary, a company car, and great prospects.  However, I was bored and looking for another challenge.  So I accepted a position that was the opposite in many ways.  It paid only straight commission, I had to buy my own demonstration samples from the company and purchase my own sales literature.

However, before I accepted the offer, I calculated the amount of current business in the territory.  I felt that, if I could double the business within the first year, I’d be OK.  After that, any increases would be real increases in my standard of living.

So I took the plunge and went off to New York for six weeks of intense training.  While I was gone, the district sales managers changed.  When I returned home from training, I was quickly met by my new district sales manager, who announced that he had changed the territories.  The territory for which I was hired wasn’t exactly the territory I was going to receive.  In fact, the territory I ended up with had only about 30 percent of the existing business I was counting on.

I was outraged!  That change seriously threatened my ability to make a living on straight commission.  I didn’t think I could do it.  How could they do this to me?  What kind of a company was this that would treat its employees that way?  I immediately decided that I didn’t want to work for them and began looking for a different job.  However, it only took a few weeks for me to realize that I was seen as unemployable.  Most companies with whom I interviewed saw my quick desire to leave as a weakness in me, not my company.

One thing led to another and, after six months, I was doing very poorly.  I owed the company $10,000 (a lot of money in the mid-70′s), my draw was finished, and I had few prospects for finding another job.  Talk about being between a rock and a hard place!

That was adversity, compounded by my failure to effectively sell the product.

Then I realized, in a moment of blinding clarity, that my situation was pretty much my own doing.  Yes, the company had dealt with me unfairly.  However, it was still a great product, fun to sell, and had the potential to make me a lot of money.  The reason I wasn’t doing well was my attitude.  It was my bitterness and my negative thinking that caused my poor performance.  When I realized that, it was like a great weight off my shoulders.  If my situation was my own doing, then I had the power to do something about it!  I wasn’t a victim anymore.  Then change was in my head!  I was once again in a situation where I could influence the world around me and affect my life.  It wasn’t them, it was me!  And since it was me, the power to do something was also in me!

So I determined to take control of my thoughts.  I searched out, and wrote down on a set of 3 X 5 cards, all the positive saying and quotes I could find.  I remember one in particular, from the Bible, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).

I had about a 45 minute drive from my home into my territory every morning.  So, I’d hold those cards between my hands on the steering wheel, and flip them over and over, reading them to myself on the way in.  While I wouldn’t recommend that driving technique, it did wonders for my attitude.  I began to become more positive, to look for opportunities, to feel more confident.

Six months later, I had paid off the debt I owed the company and was making more money than I had at any other time in my life.

You certainly can copy positive thoughts onto cards like I did, or program into your PDA, or whatever electronic device is most comfortable.

An easier way to implement this same strategy is to purchase motivating CD ROMs or podcasts, and regularly listen to them.  That’s a great use of drive time, and you don’t even have to be consciously listening to them for them to impact your emotions and thus your motivation.  Try it.  Just buy one and listen to it 3 or 4 times.  Then notice your own emotional state.  You’ll find yourself more positive and optimistic.

3.  Remind yourself of past success

Keep a journal or scrap book of your past successes.  Note that appointment that you finally obtained with the hard-to-get to prospect.  Keep a record of that big sale that you worked so hard to get.  And note the details of that great presentation that you made.

Save the awards you’ve earned, the congratulatory emails from your management, the photos of that trip that you won.  From time to time, review your file.  You’ll find yourself becoming confident and motivated.  If you have done these good things once, you can surely do them again.

You can do more, achieve more, earn more and become more.  It is your responsibility to become the best that you can be. Implementing any one or all three of these proven practices will help you consistently operate at the highest levels.

Dave Kahle is a high-energy, high-content motivational speaker, focused on sales training and B2B sales, with a special gift for engaging his audiences and stimulating people to think. A world-class speaker, he has presented throughout the United States and seven countries, bringing a wealth of practical information to his clients. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toledo, and a Master’s degree from Bowling Green State University. Dave is a member of the Author’s Guild, Sales and Marketing Executives International, the Christian Businessmen Committee, and the Association for Training and Development.

This is the second lesson in the series. In this lesson Paul contrasts Love with all of the other things that men hold dear in the church today.

Paul begins by contrasting Love with other things that men in those days thought much of. I shall not attempt to go over these things in detail. Their inferiority is already obvious.

He contrasts it with eloquence. And what a noble gift it is, the power of playing upon the souls and wills of men, and rousing them to lofty purposes and holy deeds! Paul says, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” We all know why. We have all felt the brazenness of words without emotion, the hollowness, the unaccountable unpersuasiveness, of eloquence behind which lies no Love.

He contrasts it with prophecy. He contrasts it with mysteries. He contrasts it with faith. He contrasts it with charity. Why is Love greater than faith? Because the end is greater than the means. And why is it greater than charity? Because the whole is greater than the part.

Love contrasted here with your gifts and abilities. That is at first almost insulting, for you can take those gifts and abilities and use them to express your love. Right? The point is that you cannot simply apply love to the gift. You must instead love beyond the gift. What about you, does your love go beyond your gifts?

Love is greater than faith, because the end is greater than the means. What is the use of having faith? It is to connect the soul with God. And what is the object of connecting man with God? That he may become like God. But God is Love. Hence Faith, the means, is in order to Love, the end. Love, therefore, obviously is greater than faith. “If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”

Which passion rules your life? Is it Faith? or is it Love? Are you known as a person of faith or a person of love?

It is greater than charity, again, because the whole is greater than a part. Charity is only a little bit of Love, one of the innumerable avenues of Love, and there may even be, and there is, a great deal of charity without Love. It is a very easy thing to toss a copper to a beggar on the street; it is generally an easier thing than not to do it. Yet Love is just as often in the withholding. We purchase relief from the sympathetic feelings roused by the spectacle of misery, at the copper’s cost. It is too cheap—too cheap for us, and often too dear for the beggar. If we really loved him we would either do more for him, or less. Hence, “If I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, but have not love it profiteth me nothing.”

Think about your acts of “charity”. Do they serve the needs of the other person or simply still the sympathetic feelings aroused by the thought?

Then Paul contrasts it with sacrifice and martyrdom: “If I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.” Missionaries can take nothing greater to the heathen world than the impress and reflection of the Love of God upon their own character. That is the universal language. It will take them years to speak in Chinese, or in the dialects of India. From the day they land, that language of Love, understood by all, will be pouring forth its unconscious eloquence.

It is the man who is the missionary, it is not his words. His character is his message. In the heart of Africa, among the great Lakes, I have come across black men and women who remembered the only white man they ever saw before—David Livingstone; and as you cross his footsteps in that dark continent, MEN’S FACES LIGHT UP as they speak of the kind doctor who passed there years ago. They could not understand him; but they felt the love that beat in his heart. They knew that it was love, although he spoke no word.

Take into your sphere of labor, where you also mean to lay down your life, that simple charm, and your lifework must succeed. You can take nothing greater, you need take nothing less. You may take every accomplishment; you may be braced for every sacrifice; but if you give your body to be burned, and have not Love, it will profit you and the cause of Christ nothing.

Jesus said that it would be by love that all men would know that we are his disciples. How does that fact move you to make the decisions you make concerning fellow believers? How is that manifested in your church attitudes and attendance?

Spend the time until the next lesson reflecting on all of the things that you do because of your love for others. Make a list of those things. How many are completely dependent upon your gifts and abilities? Now ask God to show you which of those things are really done because of love and how many  are simply done because you are exercising your gifts/abilities. How would you manifest your love to others if you couldn’t use your gifts and abilities? Several years ago there was a very popular Christian song which said “they will know we are Christians by our love” How do people know about your faith in Christ? Is it because of your faith? Or is it because of your love? Jesus never said people would know His disciples by their faith.

In this study my personal notes are in the quotes throughout the passage.

Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment. With the majority the bark of thought is allowed to “drift” upon the ocean of life. Aimlessness is a vice, and such drifting must not continue for him who would steer clear of catastrophe and destruction.

They who have no central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to petty worries, fears, troubles, and self-pityings, all of which are indications of weakness, which lead, just as surely as deliberately planned sins (though by a different route), to failure,  unhappiness, and loss, for weakness cannot persist in a power evolving universe.

A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart, and set out to accomplish it. He should make this purpose the centralizing point of his thoughts. It may take the form of a spiritual ideal, or it may be a worldly object, according to his nature at the time being; but whichever it is, he should steadily focus his thought-forces upon the object, which he has set before him. He should make this purpose his supreme duty, and should devote himself to its attainment, not allowing his thoughts to wander away into ephemeral fancies, longings, and imaginings. This is the royal road to self-control and true concentration of thought. Even if he fails again and again to accomplish his purpose (as he necessarily must until weakness is overcome), the strength of character gained will be the measure of his true success, and this will form a new starting-point for future power and triumph.

Those who are not prepared for the apprehension of a great purpose should fix the thoughts upon the faultless performance of their duty, no matter how insignificant their task may appear. Only in this way can the thoughts be gathered and focused, and resolution and energy be developed, which being done, there is nothing which may not be accomplished.

The weakest soul, knowing its own weakness, and believing this truth that strength can only be developed by effort and practice, will, thus believing, at once begin to exert itself, and, adding effort to effort, patience to patience, and strength to strength, will never cease to develop, and will at last grow divinely strong. As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking.

This isn’t about how deep you think it is about thinking on the right things. Deep thoughts come from thinking on the right things. You don’t suddenly become a deep thinker. You can suddenly begin to think on the right things and your thoughts will become deep. What you may even discover is that the the deeper your thoughts the simpler your life and your communications to others.

To put away aimlessness and weakness, and to begin to think with purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment; who make all conditions serve them, and who think strongly, attempt fearlessly, and accomplish masterfully.

This is the key to understanding everything this book is about…“to think with purpose.” Look carefully at the advantages. You will recognize that failure is one of the pathways to attainment. You will make the conditions of your life serve you. You will then think strongly no matter how weakening the situation may appear to others. You will attempt fearlessly no matter how uncertain the future may appear to you. You will accomplish masterfully regardless of the difficulties of the task at hand. 

Having conceived of his purpose, a man should mentally mark out a straight pathway to its achievement, looking neither to the right nor the left. Doubts and fears should be rigorously excluded; they are disintegrating elements, which break up the straight line of effort, rendering it crooked, ineffectual, useless. Thoughts of doubt and fear never accomplished anything, and never can. They always lead to failure. Purpose, energy, power to do, and all strong thoughts cease when doubt and fear creep in.

“For God has not given to us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” Fear never comes from God. Doubt never comes from God. Those are the devil’s delights. Faith can never be mixed with doubt. Faith is the result of a sound mind and a purposeful thought.

The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do. Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge, and he who  encourages them, who does not slay them, thwarts himself at every step.

He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure. His every thought is allied with power, and all difficulties are bravely met and wisely overcome. His purposes are seasonably planted, and they bloom and bring forth fruit, which does not fall prematurely to the ground.

Thought allied fearlessly to purpose becomes creative force: he who knows this is ready to become something higher and stronger than a mere bundle of wavering thoughts and fluctuating sensations; he who does this has become the conscious and intelligent wielder of his mental powers.

That last paragraph is the essence of what I teach in the book Power Thinking! For to know must be harnessed to the will to do or knowledge is powerless.  Knowledge by itself is not power. Without the will to do, without the commitment to the attending activities required by the knowledge gained, power cannot exist. Only potential power exists without the commitment to do. Real power, realized power, life changing power comes from the commitment to exercise all that knowledge reveals.

How then shall we live? Recognize that whatever you know…you must be committed to do.

From a consumer stand point the term “value added” means nothing. It does not give great value to the product itself. The baseline value of the product will have to stand on its own.

This definition of what adds value is really a consumer driven thing. Doing what is best for the consumer is really either what you do (as defined above) or it isn’t.

All things being equal, baseline value of the product, consumers will purchase from a sales rep who really cares about their needs and not just throwing in some “extra” things to make the sale.

I have tried for years to get sales reps to understand that the value they “add” comes from them. It isn’t something that the company provides to help them make up for their lack of understanding of the consumer and his/her needs.

Claiming that you have a value added service sounds to your potential buyer like saying “buy this car from me because it has air in the tires.”

Giving Value first demands that you see things from your potential buyer’s perspective. Understand that the potential buyer is always seeking to satisfy his/her own wants and needs – never yours. You are not in the consideration! It is never about you – it is always about them.

There are four levels of buyer satisfaction:

1. You must meet the potential buyers expectations. Ask yourself how you can do this with your product or service? Understand that it is the product or service that meets a potential buyers needs not some added value.

Nothing that you add to the product or service is going to help you meet expectations. The potential buyers expectations are on the product – not on your added value. I’m not saying that the extra things aren’t important – they are the subject of the next point. What I am saying is that the product itself comes with certain expectations and those expectations must be met by the product or the potential buyer will look somewhere else. Can you list twenty possible expectations a potential buyer might have before you have your first conversation? Can you show how your product is capable of meeting those expectations without the use of superlatives? Make a list of twenty things that will meet the buyers expectations. Then tomorrow add twenty more to the list…

2. Once the potential buyer understands your ability to meet his expectations you must prove your ability to exceeding the expectations. Here is where you provide the additional value. You must be constantly asking how you might be able to exceed the potential buyers expectations – by adding what… to the initial purchase product. Think of twenty ways in which you can exceed your potential buyers expectations. Now think about those things from your new customers perspective and see if you’re on target. If not, go back and think of twenty more. Then tomorrow add twenty more to the list…

3. Next you must delight the buyer beyond the initial point of purchase. Sometimes referred to as”satisfaction after the sale”. You must understands the difference between satisfaction and delight. Constantly be asking yourself, “how can I delight my customer?” He then develops ways to accomplish delight in his customers. Can you think of twenty ways to delight your customers? Will you think of twenty more tomorrow? How do you plan to implement those things today? What’s your plan for tomorrow?

4. Finally you must understand the power of amazement. You know that amazing the potential buyer at every step in the sales process is essential to being the best. Stop right now and think of twenty ways you can amaze your potential buyer from the first contact all the way through the buyer referring you to his friends. Then tomorrow think of twenty more. Schedule how you plan to implement those things.

Value demands that you understand your potential buyer! The buyer determines value by one standard – satisfaction. Value is your product and that product is you. Without you…your product is simply a commodity. Sales professionals take the commodity, add themselves to the mix and create great value, customer satisfying value, for the potential buyers.

LOVE

THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD

This is a Bible study taken from the Book “The Greatest Thing in The World” by Henry Drummond. This is the first chapter in the series. My comments and questions appear in the quotes section.

Everyone has asked himself the great question of antiquity as of the modern world: What is the summum bonum—the supreme good? You have life before you. Once only you can live it. What is the noblest object of desire, the supreme gift to covet?

Do you see Love as the greatest thing in the World? If so, how did you come to that understanding?

We have been accustomed to being told that the greatest thing in the religious world is Faith. That great word has been the key-note for centuries of the popular religion; and we have easily learned to look upon it as the greatest thing in the world. Well, we are wrong. If we have been told that, we may miss the mark. In the 13th chapter of I Corinthians, Paul takes us to CHRISTIANITY AT ITS SOURCE; and there we see, “The greatest of these is love.”

Why do you think that Love is superior in position to Faith? Explain in detail your answer. Now think about how that can change your everyday life.

It is not an oversight. Paul was speaking of faith just a moment before. He says, “If I have all faith, so that I can remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.” So far from forgetting, he deliberately contrasts them, “Now abideth Faith, Hope, Love,” and without a moment’s hesitation the decision falls, “The greatest of these is Love.”

And it is not prejudice. A man is apt to recommend to others his own strong point. Love was not Paul’s strong point. The observing student can detect a beautiful tenderness growing and ripening all through his character as Paul gets old; but the hand that wrote, “The greatest of these is love,” when we meet it first, is stained with blood.

Nor is this letter to the Corinthians peculiar in singling out love as the summum bonum. The masterpieces of Christianity are agreed about it. Peter says, “Above all things have fervent love among yourselves.” Above all things. And John goes farther, “God is love.”

This may be the most important thing for you to take note of in the entire study. Love was not Paul’s natural inclination. It may not be your natural inclination. But it can become your first response. How easily do you respond with love? Or is this something that you have to work on?

You remember the profound remark which Paul makes elsewhere, “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Did you ever think what he meant by that? In those days men were working the passage to Heaven by keeping the Ten Commandments, and the hundred and ten other commandments which they had manufactured out of them. Christ came and said, “I will show you a more simple way. If you do one thing, you will do these hundred and ten things, without ever thinking about them. If you love, you will unconsciously fulfill the whole law.”

You can readily see for yourselves how that must be so. Take any of the commandments. “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” If a man loves God, you will not require to tell him that. Love is the fulfilling of that law. “Take not His name in vain.” Would he ever dream of taking His name in vain if he loved him? “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” Would he not be too glad to have one day in seven to dedicate more exclusively to the object of his affection? Love would fulfill all these laws regarding God.

And so, if he loved man, you would never think of telling him to honor his father and mother. He could not do anything else. It would be preposterous to tell him not to kill. You could only insult him if you suggested that he should not steal—how could he steal from those he loved? It would be superfluous to beg him not to bear false witness against his neighbor. If he loved him it would be the last thing he would do. And you would never dream of urging him not to covet what his neighbors had. He would rather they possessed it than himself. In this way “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” It is the rule for fulfilling all rules, the new commandment for keeping all the old commandments, Christ’s one SECRET OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.

This is an incredibly profound statement about fulfilling the law. Take some time to think deeply about this. Answer this, fulfilling the law is really made possible by ___________.

Think about your situation. What role does love play in your life?
How will this knowledge affect your understanding of the Law (Ten Commandments)?

How does the “rule for fulfilling all rules” govern your life?

By Dave Kahle

One of the most debilitating myths about the sales profession is that salespeople can learn on their own, on the job, and eventually become good at their jobs. This myth implies they’ll eventually develop their own style, and that will bring them the maximum results.

That myth is true for about five percent of the salespeople in the world. For the other 95 percent, nothing could be further from the truth. The overwhelming majority of field salespeople perform at a fraction of their potential because they have never been systematically exposed to the best practices of their profession. Instead, they have been expected to “learn on their own.”

I like to paint. I don’t mean pictures, I mean walls and bedrooms and hallways. I enjoy the physical nature of it, and the resulting change in the feeling of the room. I’ve always liked to paint, and have done so for over 30 years. Once, for about two months, I actually made a living doing it. I think I’m pretty good at it.
Until a little while ago, when I was watching one of those reality home improvement shows. On it, a professional painter demonstrated the best way to apply masking tape, hold a brush and apply the paint. Yikes! I was doing it all wrong.

All this time I thought I was pretty good, in my own self-taught, learn-on-my-own sort of way. I guess I really didn’t have any standard. But I almost always painted by myself, and had only my own opinion. I thought I was pretty good compared to what I thought was good.

Then, when I discovered the best practices of a true professional, I saw that my own ideas we not up to the standard. I wasn’t nearly as good as I thought I was. If I’m going to become really good — objectively, verifiably good — I have to change my routines and incorporate the best practices.

So it is with sales as well. The world is full of salespeople who have learned on the job, pretty much on their own, and have never been exposed to the best practices of the profession. They delude themselves, as I did, holding the opinion that they are pretty good. And that delusion keeps them lingering in levels of performance considerably beneath what their potential would allow them.

Sales managers often share that delusion, and occupy themselves with other matters, unable or unsure how to improve the performance of their team. Typically, the sales manager was, in a previous incarnation, a high performing salesperson. He/she was one of those five percent who learned on their own, who studied the best practices, and who incorporated them into his routines. As a result, that sales manager, formerly high performing salesperson, expects every other salesperson to be just like him; to have the same motivation, the same drive, the same ability and propensity to learn. He, therefore, makes little effort to expose the sales team to best practices, because he did it on his own.

That’s too bad. Every profession in the world develops a body of knowledge about the best way to do that job. And every professional in the world is expected, if they are serious about the profession, to regularly study those best practices, and to incorporate them into their routines with a disciplined, methodical effort. That’s why teachers have in-services, doctors go to conferences, nurses have in-service training, etc.

The job of the salesperson is no different. There is probably no other profession that is more written about, and to, than field sales. Over the last 50 years, there must have been thousands of books written, tens of thousands of articles published, thousands of audio programs prepared, and hundreds of newsletters and magazines published – all for the field salesperson, and all describing the best practices of the profession in various terms and methods.

Just as there is a set of best ways to paint a room, so there are sets of best ways to ask a question, seek an appointment, build rapport, make a presentation, close the deal, and follow up on the purchase. Astute salespeople understand this, and seek to continually expose themselves to the best practices. They continually work on incorporating the best practices into their routines, repeating them until they become habits.

Astute sales managers do likewise. They continually expose their salespeople to the best practices of the profession, and encourage every salesperson to improve by methodically incorporating them into their routines. Those companies that systematically and methodically expose their salespeople to the body of knowledge regarding best practices of the sales profession consistently out perform those who don’t.

It is the path to improvement that the rest of the professional world understands. It’s time for the sales profession to do likewise.

BIO
Dave Kahle is a high-energy, high-content motivational speaker, focused on sales training and B2B sales, with a special gift for engaging his audiences and stimulating people to think. A world-class speaker, he has presented throughout the United States and seven countries, bringing a wealth of practical information to his clients. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toledo, and a Master’s degree from Bowling Green State University. Dave is a member of the Author’s Guild, Sales and Marketing Executives International, the Christian Businessmen Committee, and the Association for Training and Development.