Sales-training

After working for a little over a year in the sales manager's position, Mark more than doubled the number of sales over the previous year, even though he had let one of his sales representatives go for poor perform-ance. After two years, he tripled yearly sales levels and had to ad several more routes to cover the increased business. His route sales were up significantly over the previous reporting period and customer retention levels were at an all time high as well. With literally no selling back-ground or customer contact and little opportunity to manage a large group of people in the plant, how did Mark achieve the success levels that eluded the previous sales manager, who had nearly twenty years of sales and sales management experience? If you could meet Mark, you would instantly see what makes him a success.

Mark has an attitude! I observed Mark's positive attitude on my first and several subsequent visits to the plant. His great attitude alone was the reason for my recommendation to his boss to have Mark head up mar-keting for the firm. Mark made some mistakes as he took over the reins of the department before he was trained and coached. But a few mis-takes could be expected from his lack of formal training and promotional experience. However, Mark's positive attitude quickly helped him to over-come this lack of experience and set an atmosphere in the department that produced unprecedented sales success levels. He is so positive and optimistic that he is contagious.

For most professionals, achieving and then consistently maintaining a high level of success is difficult. For some, it is a frustrating and futile exercise. Like a person on a diet who never seems to find just the right formula for losing weight and then keeping it off permanently, achieving consistent levels of management or sales success eludes most managers and their representatives. All too frequently sales professionals drift in and out of success producing sales and management activities and never achieve the long-term patterns of success they are seeking.

As I have studied the success patterns of top sales professionals from all types of industries and from all parts of the country, I began to make an exciting discovery. I learned that for the 20% of the sales people who sell 80% of the goods and services in the United States, achievement or failure is controlled in large measure by their strong, overpowering will to succeed--an attitude. The top sales producers in this country are driven to succeed, giving them a multiplying factor in generating consistent sales success. This achievement drive, attitude, or "personal motivation," is the primary force leaders employ in attaining consistent sales productivity and high closing ratios. From this research, I learned that sales success for any manager or sales professional is possible, if he or she correctly applies achievement drive principles that top sales professionals consis-tently use. Once I learned how achievement drive (attitude) worked for sales people, it became clear that it was also the power in the lives of all successful people (managers, parents, athletes, administrators, volun-teers, etc.) helping people to achieve higher levels of personal and profes-sional success than their peers.

How could Mark double and then triple sales levels in his laundry, while letting one of his sales representatives go? Why are some people like Mark able to overcome a lack of experience, terrible adversity and obsta-cles to achieve greatness, while others, in spite of every advantage, turn their lives into a disaster? The answer is quite simple. Those that are successful in life have learned how to create an overpowering desire to succeed. They have mastered the art of programming themselves to build the achievement drive necessary to produce consistently high levels of success.

Studies at major universities show that successful people from every field of endeavor have a greater need to achieve success than their peers. No one ever attained a consistent pattern of success that didn't have this burning desire to succeed internalized. This desire, in turn, gives achiev-ers the energy, stamina, enthusiasm and compelling personal motivation to attain their goals in life. Psychologists tell us that when you see your-self succeeding, the very thought of success alone can often make a sig-nificant difference in the outcome of any objective that you might have.