Everything Is An Education

Everything is an education. But only if you are willing to learn.

You might make mistakes when you sell.

You might skip over stages of your sales process and lose at the boardroom table. Because you didn’t discover what your prospective client wants, your solution doesn’t sound like the right answer. The fact that you blew past the consensus building means you don’t have the support you need. And the fact that you don’t have all the people on the buying committee in the room means you can’t get a “yes.”

Or maybe you hate the phone and spend your time searching for information to confirm your bias. You are emailing like crazy, but you aren’t getting appointments. You’re also using LinkedIn and Twitter to “connect” with prospects, but nothing’s doing. You’re waiting for marketing and inbound to do their jobs, but in the meantime, you are starving.

You don’t like asking people for things because it makes you feel “salesy.” You want to be consultative. You desperately want your dream clients to believe that you are their trusted advisor. So, you never espouse a strong point of view around your solution, and you wait for your dream client to ask you to take the next step. But they aren’t asking. And neither are you.

You might make mistakes when it comes to your mindset.

You spend your time with the cool kids being cynical, negative, and slack off during work hours. You and your little group of fellow travelers find dozens of things to complain about while you explain to each other how stupid your leadership team is. You absolve yourself of your responsibility for producing the results that you need by pointing the bony finger of indignation at anyone and everyone.

You can continue to repeat these sales mistakes as long as you want to. Your prospects and clients won’t tell you that your process is going to fail you (and them). Those who sell you the idea that you don’t need the phone aren’t going to suggest you pick up the phone. And your prospect is going to ask you if it’s okay to proactively make the commitment you are afraid to ask for.

You can continue to make the mindset mistakes that will make you average—or something less than that—for years. Maybe even decades. Your peers are never going to admit that they are infected with negativity and scarcity. They’re never going to admit they are mediocre on their very best day.

You only learn when you accept that you are the one who is making these mistakes and that you are the only one who can change.