I always knew with hard work comes great success... but little did I know how good it feels when hard work is also recognized and rewarded by your own peers.
Making 80 calls, setting 5 appointments, and pitching 3-4 businesses in in one day is the usual at my job. This is the standard. You come in at 8:30am.. immediately look at your phone to see if a business you called yesterday left you a message, grab your coffee mug and go into the kitchen to get your morning buzz on, and then return back to your desk and begin your day.
Dial... introduce yourself... make an appointment.
Dial..introduce yourself... answer questions.
Dial.... no answer.
You may think after a while this can become redundant... lets be honest here. Yes, at times it certainly is.
The one thing that is interesting about this job is the conversation you get to have with people on a daily basis. A good sales person cares about what their potential client has to say-not just trying to make a sale.
I try to be relatable. When I talk to wineries I tell them about Josh over in New Z, when I talk to a lot of business owners I ask where they are from to see if they have moved too, and if I can't relate at all, I at least like to make them laugh at something I say. A good salesperson to me means that even if they don't want to buy this product, they are going to because gosh darn it they like me.
The standard are the metrics I stated above. Even if you are a good sales person sometimes you have to put in the extra effort. Doing these metrics should put you at about 3 hours on the phone each day. When you look at an 8-9 hour day that doesn't seem so bad right? 3 hours on the phone should be pretty easy... let me tell you sometimes it is tough. How many coffee breaks do you take each day. How long do you go to lunch? How long to you look at facebook in between calls or chat with someone online at work? How many 3 second phone conversation do you have with people and then they hang up on you? All this can cut into your day and make those metrics harder to reach.
To me.. I don't want to be standard. I want to be excellent. So lets say that instead of making 80 calls a day, I make 90. Instead of spending 3 hours on the phone I spend 4. What would that do? I tested that out this week.
Over the last week I have made 80-100 calls a day and spent over 4 and a half hours on the phone each day. Yesterday I made 7 appointments and was on the phone for 5 hours. I have worked harder this month that I think I ever had in my whole life.
Yeah college was hard.. but lets face it. Real life work experience is a little different.
What was the outcome of all my hard work and determination this month? How about hitting my quota and then some. I also have been on the top 10 list for calls in the entire SF sales team! Me a "rookie."
The real reason I am writing this post this week: I am writing this week is to encourage anyone who reads this to challenge themselves. Choose something that you do in your life every day and tomorrow do it better. Challenge yourself to not do the standard. If you are taking a walk to get in shape walk an extra half mile. If you find yourself doing something the same at your job every day, tomorrow do something different and do it better. Even if it is something small, I challenge you to try something new for a week and see what success it brings you.
Instead of being normal.. this week put in the extra effort. I guarantee you you will see fruits of your labor. Whether it be a pat on the back, a hug from your child, or your own personal gratification. This is something I tried and it felt amazing to see the results.
My manager tells me that my hard work will flow into next month and if I keep it up he expects big things from me.
Just think if you turn being excellent into being normal.. then what would being excellent get you?
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