by Scott Leese
When your expectations are reasonable, you will find it much easier to stick to the plan.
Stick to the Plan
There are three categories where you really want to stick to the plan: your office culture, your sales training, and your healthy routine.
Office culture. You need to understand what the culture of your sales office is and how it works for you. It should be conducive to making sales.
There are cultural movements going on right now in the startup world, with people trying to weave in lots of work-life balance. For example, some companies allow you to take your pet to work. But in sales, that may not be the kind of culture that gives you the best results. You are trying to eliminate distractions, and people’s dogs need exercise, food, water, and attention. All of those things take you away from the calls you need to make. Different jobs need different things.
You need to make sure the office you work for is set up to give you the greatest success. Is it a sales-oriented culture where salespeople are valued and respected? Does the leadership empower the sales organization and provide as many benefits and rewards to people as possible? Is the right kind of attitude pervasive in the office? You don’t want to work in a place where there’s a lot of complaining, but rather in an atmosphere of overcoming challenges and celebrating successes.
As a salesperson, the more you align yourself with a culture that sets you up for success, the better results you’ll get.
Training. Learn what works best for you and your type of learning process. Then make a plan for training, and stick to it.
You have to know your product and know your script, so come up with a rhythm to aid that learning. Try all different types of learning. See, for example, whether auditory is better than visual for you. I used to listen to Brian Tracy on my commute home every day when I was first getting started in sales. I learned some great techniques just by listening to those CDs over and over. Study the different parts of your product and its features at night. Spend an hour every day—before work, at lunch, or after work—role-playing and rehearsing your pitch. When you make this a routine, you will find the rhythm that allows you to be as successful as possible.
Your organization should also have support pieces in place, including a culture that promotes growth and development. If the company offers training, go. Seek help, and be as proactive as you can. Look at each leader or top performer as a resource for getting as much help as possible. If you don’t have an environment that gives you much help, it’s even more critical that you find a way to do it on your own. Create a situation for yourself that allows you to do your best.
A healthy routine. You want your habits to create your best self, so you can come to work at 100 percent every day. That means you want to develop a routine outside of work that is healthy and helpful to your success professionally.
You need to get the right amount of sleep. It’s very difficult to show up to work at eight o’clock if you’ve been out partying until three in the morning. You’ll be off to a slow start, and that can really hold you back. I try to wake up early, as often as my health allows.
Eat the right foods, and find a way to exercise. Otherwise, your health may be negatively affected, which means you may not be coming into the office as much. And that won’t just prevent you from closing deals that day, but will also prevent you from building a pipeline that could provide deals in the future. I know getting exercise for me is unlikely to happen if I don’t do it first thing in the morning, and it’s a key ingredient to my happiness and health. I like getting it done early when it’s quiet and I have no distractions. That is my rhythm. Once you find a rhythm that works for you, you want to do everything you can to stay right in that pocket.
Sales is an extremely stressful and emotionally charged profession. Finding healthy outlets to manage the stress is an essential part of becoming a great salesperson. Try not to get too up or too down emotionally. Surround yourself with people who do not add emotional weight to your life, but who support your efforts and positively influence you.
If you can do these things, you are demonstrating a commitment to success and following the Process.
Stick to the Recipe
One of the things that has made me a successful sales rep is that when I find something that works in any part of my life, I do not change it. Alternatively, I know someone who loves to tinker and experiment and is sometimes frustrated by the results (albeit in a totally different capacity). Sorry, Janet, but it’s just a perfect story.
My wife likes to bake. And she’s always tinkering with the recipes for pancakes, muffins, and other treats, adding a pinch of something here and a dash of something else there. They always taste good, but they never taste the same from one batch to the next.
Every now and then, she will make one batch of pancakes that is absolutely perfect. Our kids and I tell her, “You nailed it!” And the next time we have pancakes, I think to myself, “She’s probably going to make them the same way as last time, because they were perfect.” But nope. She tinkered again. And sometimes they are not nearly as good. (Sorry, but it’s true.)
Don’t sell this way!
You have the right mindset. You know your stuff. And you know the Process. You’ve made a plan, and you’re going to stick to it. You’ve found success. But how do you know when it’s time to push yourself to move forward? In the final chapter, we’ll take a look at what’s over the next horizon.
Chapter 6
The Next Move
Catapult to Change
Big growth points in my life often come when I listen to that voice that says, “I need something new. I need something more. I need to go bigger!” Sometimes it takes an event to catapult you forward.
For me, one of those events was a surf trip to Central America.
I had known for some time that I needed a change. I had started to become a little frustrated in my role at work. I was interested in what other people were doing but bored with what I was doing. I was getting restless.
I had some vacation time due, so I went on a surfing trip. I found myself in the middle of nowhere, in a small Central American country, with a bunch of my oldest friends. We went all the way to the Pacific Coast, to a place with some of the best waves we could find. We were the only people at this little surf village. We had the beach all to ourselves for an entire week. It was like having our own private surf resort. The exercise and isolation were exactly what I needed to bring about clarity.
I had a lot of time to relax, think, and reflect. I had conversations with my friends and got their feedback and advice. And sometimes when you remove yourself from the hectic everyday stress and chaos of your life, the right idea comes to you. I was somewhere serene, out in nature, and that gave me a sense of clarity.
That trip was the impetus to make a decision I had been afraid to make for a while. It’s where I really recognized and acknowledged, “Oh yeah, I’m done.” And it was time to move on.
When I got back, I told my employer I was done. We parted ways.
I didn’t know what I was going to do next. So for twenty-four hours, it was rough. All the fear and frustration of making a big change came up. Oh sh*t, what just happened? I thought. What am I going to do? I think it is important to allow yourself to really feel the emotion rather than suppress it. It becomes unhealthy only when you start to dwell on it and can’t move on.
When I woke up on day two, I thought, Okay, now I get to figure out what I’m going to do next. Time to get to work!
And suddenly life became really exciting. It was almost addicting in a way—that rush of having so many opportunities and getting to decide which one was the right one. It crushed the fear and frustration. And opportunities started flying at me almost faster than I could keep up. I felt secure that this was the best thing that could’ve happened to me.
I was on my way to something bigger. And I’ve be
en repeating that process ever since.
Time to Move On
To keep growing, you have to keep moving. And sometimes that means moving away from something easy and familiar.
You have to recognize when you’ve hit the ceiling in a certain role or at a particular organization. When you decide to push yourself forward to find the next challenge, you are saying that you won’t settle for mediocrity.
You should always try to find a way to one-up yourself. Sometimes that means taking a leap of faith. Faith in yourself is a prerequisite to success.
In the previous chapter, I said that once you find something that works, you should just keep doing it. And that holds true: you keep doing it until the job is done and there is nothing left for you to do, nowhere left for you to grow.
When there is nothing left for you there, it’s time to move on.
Once you’ve outgrown a particular role, go find the next thing. The right thing. Then challenge yourself with that new thing, and figure out how to excel at it. Do all the right things consistently to remain excellent, until you hit a different ceiling. You will keep hitting them if you keep crushing it, because it never stops. And neither should you.
You never stop growing. You never stop learning and improving and trying to be better. And you should never stop pushing toward a successful, fulfilling life. I am hoping a successful career in sales is a part of that!
The Next Step of the Journey
At the end of the day, we are all on a journey. It’s a journey of self-discovery and self-fulfillment. But you don’t have to travel in silence, alone on that path.
I encourage you to find a mentor, coach, or boss who has figured it out, and then attach yourself at the hip to that person. Get a direct line into the advice and insight he or she has to offer. I didn’t have much of that, especially at the beginning of my journey, and it would have been a lot easier for me if I had.
Gone are the days when people go to work for one company for the next forty years of their lives and just work their way up slowly. People don’t do that anymore. Younger generations don’t think that way. What you want are big paydays and fancy jobs, and you want them yesterday.
So it’s on me to provide you with the type of training and skills you need to achieve the success required to move up. I want to help everybody get to the next level and keep going.
I would love to help you get on the path to where you want to go. You can connect with me easily on LinkedIn and Twitter, and I am happy to be a resource or recommend resources from my years in sales all over the country and different parts of the world. You can also find me at my website: www.scottleeseconsulting.com.
I urge you to use everything available to you, and do whatever you have to do, to keep moving forward on the path to success. There is absolutely no reason you cannot succeed.
Find Success
I hope you feel fired up to kick-start your sales journey using the Process I have detailed in this book—especially if you’re on a path similar to the one I’ve traveled.
Remember, I started as an entry-level inside salesperson who had zero experience and zero background in business. And I tapped into something I didn’t know was there. Once I found it, I achieved success that went beyond anything I could have ever imagined. And if I can do it, so can you.
Let this knowledge light a fire inside of you. You’ve always known it was there. Now it’s time to let it burn bright enough to impel you to make some changes, push yourself, and take some chances.
I want you to succeed in sales. But more than that, I want you to find success in life. You control you, and the only thing that determines your success is how much you want to make it happen.
Stay addicted to the Process, and watch your life take off.
About the Author
Scott Leese is one of the top startup sales leaders in the country. He has built and scaled thriving sales teams at numerous multimillion-dollar companies and advised on many more. Leese’s near-death experience with illness led him to discover sales and startups, where he achieved success using the dedication, process, and drive to compete that he had honed as a multisport athlete and through the fight to take back his health.
Named one of the Top 25 Most Influential Inside Sales Professionals by AA-ISP, Leese is the Founder of Scott Leese Consulting, LLC and serves as the Senior Vice President of Sales at Qualia Labs, Inc. He has built and advised successful sales teams across the globe, including Austin, San Diego, Portland, and Berlin, Germany, Phoenix, New York City, and Los Angeles, and all over the San Francisco Bay Area.
An avid traveler and rabid sports fan, Leese tries to live life like every day is game day. He enjoys coaching, surfing, and savoring the finest tequila. Leese lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, Janet; their two boys, Brayden and Caleb; and the family dog, Loki.
Ready to take your sales game to the next level? Scott Leese Consulting has the tools to help you burn through your obstacles and nail the success you’ve been hungry for. Scott offers:
Top-to-bottom value analysis that reveals why people buy
A proven sales process that works for any product or service
Career development to help you hit your real goals
Training that lights a fire under you and your sales team
KPI tracking that drives your success with measurable progress
Sales tools to sharpen your competitive advantage
Compensation plans that attract and keep great talent
For more information, visit www.scottleeseconsulting.com.
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Twitter: twitter.com/sleese555
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