This post originally appeared on LinkedIn Pulse and has been adapted for use on this blog with kind permission of Larry Levine.
“We never know the worth of water till the well runs dry.”
Scottish Proverb
When hiking deep inside a forest, your vision may sometimes be blocked by the thick foliage. In order to successfully maneuver through it, you need to break out of the dense forest just to see the entire landscape.
Similarly, if you’re thick in the jungle called life, you might not be able to see tomorrow, let alone the next week.
The hustle and bustle of everyday life tends to get exhausting, zapping the energy right out of us! Sometimes it can be downright paralyzing! We have so many responsibilities pulling us in every direction.
In our sales lives, we have the grind that exists in our day-to-day job. From family life to our social life through to our work life, most feel like we just don’t have enough time to accomplish it all effectively.
“There cannot be a stressful crisis next week. My schedule is already full.”
Henry Kissinger
The Prioritization of You
It’s so easy to get caught up in the daily hustle and bustle of life. When it’s all said and done, we haven’t set aside time for ourselves. We immerse ourselves in our work life and our personal life then fail miserably at finding time for ourselves.
I am a frequent flyer and during safety demonstrations on airplanes, flight attendants instruct passengers that in case of an emergency an oxygen mask will drop down. If you are traveling with children or adults that need your assistance, you must put on your oxygen mask first before tending to them. Why? If you aren’t breathing, it becomes next to impossible to help anyone else.
Your ability to function at your very best is no different. Take for instance your sales life. If you are so wrapped up in taking care of your clients, running and gunning, grinding it out to hit quota, your stress level increases, your resources start to deplete and then BOOM it all hits at once becoming difficult to do anything.
Taking care of everyone else first and giving more importance to the work rat race, ignoring the importance of you is a recipe for a long-term disaster.
The Most Important Sales Appointment
Set aside the images in the back of your head as your sales manager is hammering on you for more sales appointments. The single biggest appointment, the one you may be forgetting to add to your schedule is staring at you as you look in the mirror. It’s the most important one of them all! Make an appointment with YOURSELF!
This may sound a bit odd and you may be saying to yourself, “this is a bit weird” but it is the most important appointment you’ll ever make! Remember, you are just as important as everyone else in your life.
Acknowledge that you are important and start making appointments with YOU! Mark it on your calendar. Mentally phone yourself everyday first thing in the morning. Think about it. There’s no gatekeeper except the mental one!
Set the mental timer daily and when that time comes, don’t miss it!
- Set an appointment with yourself to read for 15 minutes
- Set an appointment with yourself to exercise
- Set an appointment with yourself to write thank you notes to your friends, people who mean a lot to you and more importantly your clients
- Set an appointment with yourself to uncover what you could be doing better
Invest in You
Sales reminds me of the National Football League. It’s smash mouth, an in your face, full contact business sport. You get knocked down and you must rise back up. You must take rejection and brush it off just like a quarterback sack!
How many dials do you need to make in order to set up one quality appointment? I don’t care if the number is 25, 50 or 75; it’s downright tough!
The best call you can make, is to yourself. I guarantee you will get through 100% of the time!
Investing in yourself has the single best return on investment. Invest in learning a new sales skill. Invest in developing yourself personally and professionally. Invest in hiring a coach or mentor. Invest in building better relationships.
Invest in yourself and stay truer to true!
One must give to themselves first before they can give to others. This takes personal commitment but the rewards are well worth it.
The Outcome of Investing in You
Sales today is more competitive than ever. Look no further than to professional sports. How hard is it to repeat as champions? It’s extremely difficult as other teams raise their game to compete to take down the champions. You starting to get it? As a sales professional, you must stand out from the competition now more than ever. One of the most effective ways to make that happen is to invest in yourself and your career.
Consider making the investment in enhancing your skill set and what this could mean to your sales career today, tomorrow and into the future.
Areas this could impact:
- Potential earnings – By enhancing your professional skills this can translate to higher pay and commissions.
- Job growth – Making an investment and gaining expertise within what you do allows you the opportunity to move into more advanced sales roles.
- Job knowledge – Always be learning. This allows you to stay on the forefront within your industry. Learning new techniques can have immediate impact to your job.
- Leading and motivating others – An investment in you may even help you transition into a leadership role. Think of the impact you could have on others as you inspire those around you to reach for higher goals.
Investing in yourself packs a powerful punch!
It allows you to become the best version of yourself. As you invest in yourself, watch out for the opportunities that come your way and the people who start turning to you.
Now, this is one sales appointment you must not procrastinate in making!
If you would like some inspiration I welcome the conversation or send me a message to llevine@socialsalesacademy.net. Your comments are greatly appreciated.
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