Conrey is for Closers

In life we’re bound to do something where you end up not on your A-game, either physically like my knee and the line drive, or mentally because of an issue at home or with your family. The hard part is remembering that you still have the day job to worry about. You still have people relying on you to make sales, keep things moving forward and clients and prospects waiting to hear from you. You can’t allow your injury to slow you down as a salesman.

If it’s a physical ailment, power through it as best you can without making yourself worse, you won’t be mentally at 100% until you’re physically back to normal. If that means scaling back on some of your extra stuff, so be it, but that just means you’re more active in other places.

If it’s a mental injury, pull into your parking space, close your eyes, exhale and leave it in the car. Sales is hard enough when you’re in a great mood and the world is all rainbows, unicorns, and happiness. When you’re in a bad mood, over tired, depressed, or just pissy you are facing a herculean task to convince anyone of anything.

Play through the pain, play through in such a way that no one even knows you’re hurt if you can.

Remember, when you get hurt, you still have to play the game of your day job. There is no IR for weekend athletes. -quote from an email to me last week

“I will either find a way or make one” -Hanibal

Not the guy from the A-Team or Silence of the Lambs of course, the General from Carthage. Who knows if he really said that quote, but its attributed to him and if you do a little research it certainly seems to fit his personality and actions.

If I’m hiring sales guys I want a guy who has this mindset, a guy who will get from where he is to where he needs to be come hell or high water. A guy who is like a bulldozer, just pushing things out of his way to open the path. Pushing past obstacles and objections, skillfully brushing them aside.

Find one of those guys, or become one of those guys, and then you get to walk in the cleared path.

People are always trying to figure out the formula.  The recipe of repeatable steps to ensure success.  That’s great and all if you just want to be good. Good is enough for most people.  Good gets your paycheck covered and your event attended.  Good gets you the usual pat on the back and minimal critcism.

Great doesn’t have a formula.  There’s no recipe for it, no plan, no path to follow.  Great requires you to stretch outside of what’s expected, to bring in something different, to shake it up.

If you’re putting on a regular event and you have the same set of speakers and topics every time, you’re not going to be great – but you could be good.

If you’re putting together a pitch and you use the same lines as your competitors do, you’re not going to stand out and be great.

If you’re building something and you’re just taking the best parts of other people’s ideas and not doing something innovative you may be good but never great.

Be unpredictable, be dangerous, be great.

I’ve talked about negativity here before. I’m a firm believer that surrounding yourself with people who aren’t happy will lead you to being unhappy. I mean happy in a bigger sense – successful, productive, and comfortable all fill in there. Just like your body you need to check your team for cancers with a vigilant eye.

On a team of any size from 2 to 200 you will run the chance of having someone whose sole purpose in life seems to be to be the resident Debbie Downer. They may not do it in a way that is obviously negative at first – the ones who just bitch and moan are easy to spot. But like cancer the worst ones are the least obvious to find – they fester and spread until it’s much harder to save your team.

Early detection is the key, treatment should be swift and with the intent of saving as much as possible. If your cancer can’t be cured you need to cut it right out as quickly as possible. Nothing will take a team down faster than rotting from the inside.

See also the Zombie Theory of HR from James at Forty.

Remember every client you’ve ever won – but forget the work it took to get them.
Forget the ones you didn’t win – but remember why.

Remember everyone that sent you a referral, even the ones that weren’t deals.
Forget about all the people who promise you future referrals or leads if only you just work cheap this one time.

Remember every good press piece that you or a client receives – post them somewhere to celebrate.
Forget the bad press but learn from it so you don’t get more.

Remember everyone who ever helped you out or gave you good advice.
Forget all the bad advice and who gave it to you.

Remember every close that’s been used on you or you read in a book.
Forget the ones that didn’t get you to buy, if you didn’t buy they won’t either.

Remember to take the time to enjoy your job.
Forget all the long hours late at night or on the road.

Remember that you’ve got the best job in the world – making sales and making it happen for your company – regardless of your title.