Stay Focused on More Important Things

On June 18th 1914, Lawrence Sperry demonstrated autopilot for the first time on an aircraft. He did it by flying past the crowd at an air show while holding both hands up above his head. Autopilot revolutionized flying and allowed pilots to focus on more important things like navigation and safety. Developing good habits let's you put parts of your sales process on auto-pilot and focus more of your energy on your customer.

On today's show discover:

• Why top salespeople utilize their own version of an autopilot everyday (without even knowing it);
• How you can put it to work for you to sell more and stay focused on more important things.

Do What Successful People Do

“If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want, copy what they do and you'll achieve the same results.” - Tony Robbins

Most of the people you look up to seem to make what they do look pretty easy, right? It’s like they’re on autopilot and in a way they are. Their success comes down to the things they do, out of habit, without even thinking about it.

• They greet their customers the same way everytime,
• follow the same steps,
• and seem to respond (with ease) to almost anything the customer throws at them.

Their habits are so strong, they could do them in their sleep. Building your own auto-pilot takes time but if you build good habits you’ll succeed. However, if you spend time reinforcing or sticking with bad habits overtime it could cost you thousands of dollars in lost sales commission. Selling with bad habits it’s like setting your auto-pilot to crash into the ocean.

Why would someone stick with a bad habit?

Even though you consciously know that a habit is bad your subconscious mind is looking for a pleasurable, immediate reward. The reward for a bad habit is often pretty obvious but sometimes you need to dig a bit deeper to figure out what it is. Bad habits live in your comfort zone and since it would require you to do something uncomfortable to break them, your subconscious wants nothing to do with it. This is why bad habits can be so hard to break.

Common Bad Habits that Cost Salespeople Sales

Here are some other bad habits that cost salespeople money every year.

• Assuming you already know if a customer is going to buy;
• Talking too much and asking too few questions;
• Not attempting to understand customer hot buttons ;
• Spending too much time on unimportant things;
• Rushing through the sales process;
• Arguing with customers or bad mouthing the competition;
• Not sharing information or offering cross sells.

All of these bad habits make it hard to succeed in sales.

Developing Good Habits

Here are some good habits worth developing:

• Great listening skills.  Hear more than just the words your customers is saying and listen for the meaning behind them.
• Write down what your customer tells you,
• Be curious enough to find your customer's hot buttons and use them to build value.
• Look at the glass as half full, and know that enthusiasm sells. When you’re positive more people say yes.

Conclusion

Recognize your bad habits and work to change them. Change may not always be fast or easy but with time and consistent effort, almost any bad habit can be reshaped into one that works for you, not against you.

Today's one-two Punch Good Habits set a Course for Success