Don't play results

There’s a rule in poker:

don’t play results.

Ideally, you get your money in good.

If you get it in bad and win,

sure, that feels good,

but it’s not the solution long term.

If you get your money in good and lose, it feels bad,

but it was the right decision.

It’s the same with sales, but it’s related to sales actions.

What we need to focus on is the inputs, not the outputs.

I don’t really care about your sales target.

I’m not really interested in that.

What I’m interested in is: are you doing the right number of sales actions at the right time in the right way?

Let’s say you make just one call and land on the one big client and get a big deal.

Sure, that’s great. It’s amazing, you make some money,

everyone’s happy, but that’s not long-term.

What we need to do is be absolutely fanatical and fascinated about the process: are we learning?

Are we getting better at everything:

If all our inputs are done correctly and at volume,

we don’t need to worry about the result.

We don’t worry about the outcome, because it will come.

While sales can be a fast-paced game,

it’s consistent players who win.

Just be relentless,

keep plowing forward,

and always do your stuff.

Do not stop, over time,

Your continual input compounds,

you will get the results,

and you will beat your target every time.

Let me tell you, the people who beat target year on year, the results are not the story.

The story is the inputs they did consistently every day.

In sales, always get your money in good,

do the sales actions,

and be ambivalent to the result.

Sure, we’re going to lose great big deals that were almost there,

but we don’t worry because we know we’re still doing the work relentlessly to move us forward.

And other deals will come

Get at it

Talking of progress,

I built a sales fitness plan to drill into everybody what those sales actions are and how to do them. It’s free on my website. Go and get it.

I’m biased because I built it, but honestly, this is the secret to sales.

It’s just repeated actions over weeks, months, and years, and you can sell whatever you need to sell.

Link is here, enjoy it