| Many years ago, a
racehorse named Achmed became one of the first horses in history to win more than $1
million in a single season. During that same season, there was another horse that came in
second in almost every race that Achmed won. Interestingly, Achmed won 15 times as
much money as the horse that consistently came in second. Later, the champion was sold for
ten times more money than the second runner. A big difference, huh? Does that mean that Achmed was 15 times
faster than his nearest competitor? That question intrigued a sportswriter, so he made a
study of the times logged by the two horses. Achmed's finishing times averaged only 3
percent faster than the slower horse. Simply stated, the champion that year
had a winner's edge of only 3 percent over his nearest competitor, but it was enough to
bring his owner 15 times more prize money and give him ten times as much value! When it comes to making a sale, there
are only winners and losers - no one comes in second. You either make the sale or you
don't, and the winner gets 100 percent of the money. For most salespeople, income is directly proportional to the number of sales made. Although you may be able to change jobs often enough to remain ahead of a draw, or you may jump from one salaried selling job to another and keep some income coming in, sooner or later, it will catch up with you. If you don't close sales, you won't make a living as a salesperson. Don't Just Show Up For The Game;
Play To Win Life clearly not about "just
making a living" - that's the loser's mentality. Losers feel privileged merely to be
in a big game, but winners always play to win it. As a college football coach for 14
years, I learned that you can almost always predict the outcome of a championship game by
listening to what the coaches and players of the two teams say before the starting whistle
sounds. It's now ancient history, but the 1986
Super Bowl offers a great example of how it works. The Chicago Bears won it decisively. Make no mistake about it: the New
England Patriots brought a great team to the championship game that year. They had many
talented players and excellent coaching, and they had overcome great adversity and
defeated some strong teams on their road to the biggest game of the year in the National
Football League. But the difference in the two teams
showed clearly throughout the tail end of the season. The Patriots seemed surprised that
they had made the playoffs, shocked that they'd won their conference championship, and
amazed that they'd earned a right to play in the Super Bowl. "We're just glad to be here and
have an opportunity to play in this game," several of their players told the press in
the week before the big game. However, the Bears had decided before the season started that it was to be their year to win it all. They were convinced they could win every game they played that year, and they did win all but one. "No team in football can beat us!" boasted their cocky quarterback Jim McMahon before the big game. Then he and the Bears confidently went
onto the field and backed up their claim with a dazzling performance. When it was all
over, they were clearly the champs. Customer Impact: How To Get More Of It I suspect that you want to become a
winner at the selling game. The truth is, you probably are already a winner. Losers seldom
read articles like this, but winners read anything and everything that can help them keep
their winner's edge honed to razor sharpness. It's clear that the ability to gain and
hold the attention of enough of the right people is what gives the top 5 percent of
salespeople their winning edge. If you have a champion's heart, your
next question is likely to be, "How can I get more customer impact?" In a way, that's what sales is about.
Every sales idea is designed to do one thing: to enable you to connect with and influence
enough of the right people to do the right things to get what they want out of life. Let's
take a brief look now at how to boost your customer impact. I've been around selling all my life.
My father sold for 43 years, and I've been selling all my adult life. Even when I was
coaching, most of what I was doing was selling. What's more, I've had some excellent
teachers and mentors in the selling profession. More recently, I've spent many years
training salespeople for some of the world's leading organizations. During all that time, I've noticed that the salespeople who have high customer impact reflect three basic qualities: 1. Strong personal attributes and attitudes 2. Specialized knowledge and skills 3.
A propensity for doing the right things at the right times What we are talking about is people with positive attitudes, in real situations, dealing with real motivational forces, and taking real-world, tangible actions to produce desired results.
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