For those of you who are fearful of change (and raise your hand if you’re not) Lee J. Colan and David Cottrell have written a charming little change book: Winners Always Quit: seven pretty good habits you can swap for really great results.
In it, they suggest:
- let your gut have a say in your decision making;
- attend to what’s important, and know the difference between what’s important and what’s not;
- stand back, slow down, and understand the big picture;
- listen to yourself and listen to others (No. Really.);
- success means helping others.
The book is a deeply values-based look at how to be in integrity with yourself so you show up as an authentic person, and really, really be present.
Imagine if we all did that – instead of the DO-ing DO-ing that we DO. There is one catch though: just like our buyers can’t always understand, at first, the full range of their internal, hidden issues they need to manage prior to buying-in to change, we can’t always know how to make the changes we need to make to be more successful.
Sometimes making a behavioral change works just fine. Sometimes – especially if it’s a more complicate shift that affects our identity – some sort of belief change needs to happen for a permanent change to take place.
Whether it’s the desire to make more money, or take better care of yourself, or give more to your community, new activity demands new choices. And our old choices keep telling us they are perfectly happy as they are, thank you very much.
In order to change – like we ask our buyers to do when we suggest they bring in our solution – the underlying belief system that has kept us where we are needs to be willing and able to change. Couch potato? Change to new belief: Now you ARE a healthy person, and that means you work out and watch what you eat! Always use your internal training department to design all of your training? Change to new belief: Maybe it’s time to bring in fresh ideas and training styles and work with other vendors to expand capability.
Every change, no matter how big or small, involves a series of decisions that not only uncover the tangled web of elements in the status quo that maintain it, but teach the old how to accept the new with integrity and grace.
Not recognizing the complexity of the decisions that buyers must make has kept our sales efforts less than successful. Just as we need to make some underlying belief shifts to change personally, so you’re going to have to do that to change your sales.
Start with Colan and Cottrell’s ideas, and begin the process of understanding how to change yourself. It will give you a good idea about how to understand and serve your buyers better.