Employees, vendors/suppliers, associates, and clients all directly impact your ability to succeed.  In a perfect world you serve each other well and enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship.  In reality there are 4 types of people that you must ruthlessly remove from your business life without remorse or hesitation.

Yes, these people may be perfectly likable nice people.  You may enjoy their company outside the business environment.  But that’s the key difference.  These people will inhibit your business success distracting your attention and focus holding you back from where you could be with your business.  It’s like having Darth Vader hunting you down and you’re constantly trying to figure out your next avoidance tactic rather than focusing on your next step for business growth and development.  And you simply do not have time for that in your business.

The 4 types of people you must ruthlessly remove from your business life are:

1. Incompetent people
2. People who have no regard for you time
3. Negative people
4. People who demonstrate a lack of integrity

No matter how much you “think” you like or need these folks, you don’t.  Keeping them around is the equivalent of trying to go swimming with a one ton rock tied to your neck.  You can’t do a good job of taking care of your clients and your business if you allow any of these folks an ounce of your time and attention.

Instead surround yourself with the people you need to thrive.  These are the folks who know how to get things done and do them.  They’re busy people and have no interest in wasting your time or there’s.  They don’t whine, complain, or tell you how things won’t work they ask you; “how can we make it work”?  And most importantly you can’t count on their honesty and trust.

It’s time to clear the decks and shine the ship mate.  Who do you need to amicably separate from your business sphere?  Who do you need to bring into your business sphere?  And, oh, just checking but make sure you aren’t one of “those” people yourself and someone else is asking how they can eradicate you from their business life.

Well, if you’re trying to sell your services you most certainly are hoping you can influence the prospect to choose to buy and buy from you.  Yet, the way most salespeople are “trained” to sell doesn’t influence people it AFFRONTS them.  Not a good way to start a relationship with someone.

There are a lot of misconceptions about influence and persuasion.  A “presentation” or “pitch” isn’t a reliable means of either influencing or persuading a prospect.  For the very reason that “presentations” and “pitches” are focused on something your prospect doesn’t care about one whit.  You and your product/service.

Prospects only care about themselves and what they want.  Simple enough.  So if you want to influence and persuade a prospect there are two simple changes you can make in how you approach sales.

First understand that your ability to absorb, understand, and recall information about the prospect increases your power of influence.  Actually the way I just stated that was wimpy and understated.  It doesn’t just increase your influence it super-charges your influence like gasoline added to a fire.

Put yourself in the prospect’s chair.  Aren’t you flattered when someone hangs on your every word and remembers the exact details of what you’ve said was important, how you approach the decision making process, or the challenges you face?  Duh!

The hands-down most powerfully effective tool of persuasion is….drum roll please…  Questions, sincere questions, relevant questions, engaging questions, questions asked for the sheer purpose of understanding.  Questions allow the prospect to persuade themselves making you the king of persuasion.

So, why don’t more salespeople ask questions?  Because it’s harder for you to ask questions than it is to practice “telling selling”.  You have to break the habit of talking, you have to pay attention, and you have to want to understand the prospect’s point of view.  I didn’t say you have to agree with their point of view.  You have to understand why they want what they want, why that’s important enough to do something about, and whats keeping them from making a buying decision now.

Nuff said;-)

A Top Producer is a Top Producer not only because of their skills and knowledge, but because of the way they think.  Top Producers have a mindset that enables them to be Top Producers.  When you aren’t where you want to be, and you think you’re doing everything you should be doing, yet you aren’t getting the results you should be it’s time to look inside.

The mindset that’s holding you back is one based on fears.  You are:

• Afraid to stretch yourself and get introduced to the people you need to know
• Afraid to take action so you procrastinate
• Afraid to go all out and fully commit so you’re indifferent
• Afraid to make decisions quickly and stick with them
• Afraid to be overly ambitious because you think that’s just setting yourself up for failure
• Afraid to rely on yourself
• Afraid to take the first initiative to make things happen
• Afraid to be enthusiastic about yourself and what you do
• Afraid to practice self-control and self-discipline

Before you quickly dismiss any of those fears ask yourself how and when you’ve demonstrated those fears.  If you  think you  harbor none of them you aren’t being completely honest with yourself.  We all hold one or more of those fears on occasions.  The difference is whether you allow yourself to cater to your fears, or you take action to overcome them.

Fears are nothing more than self-learned habits of thought.  They started in childhood.  Some of your fears are valid and healthy.  However, the ones that are hurting your sales success aren’t valid.  They’re based on false ideas that you haven’t challenged yourself to question.

To remove these false fears you first have to ask yourself why you hold that fear.  What has led you to believe the fear you hold?  Is that fear valid for you today, and if so, what evidence do you have to support it’s validity?  If the fear isn’t valid how can you prove to yourself it isn’t?  What would you stand to gain if you could remove that fear?  What do you stand to lose if you continue to allow a false fear to dominate your behaviors?

It all comes down to behaviors, so what behaviors can you develop that demonstrate your accurate beliefs?  Substitute your new behaviors for the old behaviors until they become automatic and replace the old ones.  Instead of holding yourself back you’re now propelling yourself forward.  And you’ll have one less thing standing between you and the sales success you deserve.

Top Producers are tremendously effective in sales because of their superior questioning and listening skills.  The good news is that anyone can learn these questioning and listening skills.  Plus these skills have been proven to work in all service industries.  The more effective you are using these skills the easier it is for you to sell and sell a lot.

The bad news is that it’s not easy to learn these skills.  I guess that’s kind of the duh factor because everyone will do anything that’s easy, but few have the persistence to work at something that’s hard for them.  Just a month or so ago all those membership gyms were bursting with eager new members who were going to get fit and healthy by joining the gym.  Well, about a week into it those new members don’t have much to show for their efforts accept sore muscles, and they start rationalizing why they don’t have time to go to the gym until they just give up and quit.

Now there are certain individuals who happen to be wired to be good listeners and questioners.  Of course, those folks are a rare breed.  Everyone else has to work at it to develop these skills.  And they aren’t skills you just pick up from reading a book, attending a seminar or workshop, or from following a Top Producer around.  According to Neil Rackham the author of SPIN Selling you need a coach to learn these skills.

The good news is you can learn the skills it takes to be a Top Producer and you can shorten your learning curve.  The bad news is many salespeople will proclaim they can’t afford to work with a coach.  Well let me share a story with you about my friend, Bob, the roofer.

Bob, was called by the homeowner Tim to estimate the cost of repairing his roof.  Bob met with Tim on the agreed upon time and day, and assessed the damages and cost of the repair.  When Bob told Tim his investment Tim caught his breath and said, “that much?”

Tim proceeded to share with Bob a series of hardships the family was going through.  Tim had an auto accident totaling his car, and in the accident his wife was injured and had to stay in the hospital for a week.  He knew his out of pocket expenses were going to be over $10,000, and to top it all off he had just been right sized from his job and his wife still on the mend wouldn’t be able to return to work for another month.  He just didn’t have the money to pay that much to fix his roof right now.

Bob asks, “When do you think it’ll rain next?   Tim shrugged his shoulders and shook his head, “I don’t know.”

Bob asks, “How much water do you think soaked into your insulation when it rained last time?”  Tim responds, “hmmm, I guessed I never went into the attic and checked.”

Bob, “How long do you think it will take for the mold and mildew to spread into the rafters and sheet rock in the ceiling?”  Tim doesn’t say anything but he’s starting to look sick.

Bob, “I don’t want to upset you Tim, but when that mold spreads how much do you think it will cost to have that cleaned up?”  Tim, “I don’t know, do you?”

Bob, “Well, a good friend of mine is an insurance agent and he was just telling me about a family who couldn’t even sell their home because their homeowners insurance had tripled after they had mold damage cleaned up.”  Bob continues, “Tim given all the financial stress your already under if this problem escalates it could financially wipe you out.  Would it make sense to repair your roof now before you have more water damage leading to structural repairs and mold clean-up, and huge homeowners premiums, and even a property that you can’t sell?”  Tim with a look of horror on his face, “Wow, Bob, you’re right I have to do this.  I’ll have to pull some money out of savings and maybe get a small loan and deal with the other bills as they come.”

Now Bob is a Top Producer.  Bob didn’t just want the sale so he could put money in his bank.  He wanted to protect Tim from consequences he hadn’t even considered.  So now I have to ask you, if can’t invest in yourself so you can get where you want to be now how will you ever be able to do it when your sales continue to lag and the bills continue to pile up?