As salespeople we are trained to figure out a prospect's "hot button." Just what will make them buy? Yesterday, I realized that a bigger question is: what makes you sell? What is the "carrot" that makes you pull the donkey cart of sales?
This is an important question. Why do you sell? What is your personal motivator? It's easy to say money, but what does that provide for you? It can be drastically different things for different people. For me its to provide my family a good home and future. "Things" don't really matter that much. Others might want that shiny new sports car.
But when I first started in sales, a "thing" sure did motivate me. A picture of the engagement ring I wanted to buy my girlfriend was tapped on the wall. It was my carrot. But it wasn't so much the thing as much as all the implications it represented. What's your carrot?
Knowing your carrot will get you through those dark days of sales that we all experience. Yesterday, thanks to our wise VP of Tremendous People, I realized I didn't know my salesperson's carrotts. Bad boss! Maybe they don't know it themselves? We're going to find out asap!
My guess is we will all find out, or reaffirm it. Over the holiday sit down and ask yourself what yours is. I bet we will all sell more.
Carrots...ah yes, I've got mine. But sometimes, believe it or not, the job is the carrot. Sounds sick and workaholic-y, but if you make the company culture good enough, the thought of selling anything else for any other company sounds horrifying. If I sell, then I get to stay!
Posted by: Dave McMinn | 11/30/2010 at 07:18 AM