There’s a simple fact in regard to a successful action; if you did it once, you can do it again.
Back in 1990, I was running a business as an independent sales rep selling motorcycle accessories to dealers. I was contracting for about 5 companies. Half of my income came from 1 business with the remainder spread among the other 4. One afternoon I got a letter from my #1 source of income telling me they had decided to change their business model and go through distributors rather than selling direct. In other words, I was fired. There was a little solace in the fact that it wasn’t based on performance, but on a fundamental change in the company’s direction. Still, how would you feel if you lost 1/2 your income in the blink of an eye? Probably a lot like I felt; stunned, shocked, pissed off and panicked.
As my friend and mentor Reg Kittrelle likes to say, “Fear can be a great motivator.” Though I had a small surplus, I couldn’t afford to run for long on 1/2 my income. I had to get busy. I reviewed my remaining lines and starting with what had been my 2nd best income producer, I thought about how I could dramatically increase sales in a very short amount of time. I decided I was going to make things work and set a minimum sales goal for each day. I went back to basics making sure I had plenty of samples and ALWAYS carried something in to the store to talk about. Calls were made to all of my sales managers asking what products were hot for other reps, and samples of those items were ordered immediately. I asked my dealers what trends they were seeing in the market, and what they felt were the hottest categories. And I sold like crazy.
At the end of that month, I was the #1 sales rep in the country for what had been my 2nd best income producer, AND I generated the same amount of total income as I had the month before. It was the first time I had ever accomplished anything like this.
The funny thing was that I had been so scared and so focused on survival, I had no idea where I stood compared to any other rep. When my sales manager called and told me I was the winner for that month, I was as stunned and shocked as I had been the day I opened that letter. I really wasn’t sure how it happened; but I was very happy.
Then I had a life changing realization; if I did it once, I could do it again. And I did. One month at a time for the remainder of the year, I set my goals and worked to be #1, winning 6 of the last 8 months of the year and earning Sales Rep of the Year honors and an offer to become the company’s national sales manager.
During those last 8 months, I also started getting calls from other companies offering me some of the best and most profitable lines in the industry. It was crazy. One panicked month’s effort had opened doors that I would have never thought possible just 30 days prior. That’s when it really hit me; nothing succeeds like success.
So how about you? Can you find that one thing that you can put all your effort into and pull of a win? It might be a sales contest, or ranking highest in 1 category, or beating your quota by the highest percentage, or producing more parts, delivering more packages, building more pieces of equipment, turning out more reports, turning in more cost saving ideas, or whatever it is you do. Whatever it is, I promise you, it’s worth doing. Get 1 win and leverage it to your next; and then to your next. This realization is one giant step forward on the road to financial freedom.
Nothing succeeds like success.
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Phil Ammendolia