Success Isnt Black and White, But Hard Work Is

Success Isnt Black and White, But Hard Work Is In sales, youre either  working hard or youre not. See, champions always start with a dream. Weve watched enough motivational videos to know that major success stories often have humble beginnings. Regardless of  field, high achievers dont stop until they get to where they want to go. As sales people, we need to regularly take a step back and refocus; remind  ourselves to keep going, dont give up, visualise the purpose.  What do we want to achieve and are we doing everything we can to get there? Before we move on, what does there even mean? For some people, there is being first to cross the finish line in a  world famous sporting  race; having a portfolio of clients worth $2 billion; being promoted to Managing Director. For others, there is  a  point in their life where they have enough money to make ends meet; having confidence to stand up to an office bully. Everyones goals are  different; my  there is  different to yours. Success is definitely not black and white, or one size fits all. Anomalies Lets set one thing straight  early doors. Some people are handed their dreams and high fortune  on a silver platter. Its not fair and theres nothing to be done about it.  Our starting blocks are all  staggered. End of story. Some people will get a better leg-up than you, but you cant dwell on it! Unless youre one of the lucky ones born with super-human powers into extremely fortunate family lines, achieving amazing things will ultimately come down to  one thing Hard work! Most champions  will have hard work in common.  Their situations and day-to-day dealings will differ  tremendously, but their work ethic will be strikingly similar. We always hear how high achievers  are  extremely driven and passionate, stopping at nothing to get where and what they want. Its this mentality we should try to mirror in our own jobs. Input = results Dont expect to have your hand held throughout your career, and dont expect people to be nice and help you to the top. Youve got to make things happen yourself; if you feel youre not getting anywhere or  youre  stagnating in your career,  you are the only one who can  truly turn things around. Maybe its time to crank your input  up a notch? As the saying goes,  you only get out what you put in. Nutri Grain (a tasty Australian breakfast cereal marketed for athletes) has coined the phrase its slogan, and for good reason! Its so true, from both a food/fuel perspective and an effort perspective! If you dont put the hard work in, youll unlikely reap the results you really want. Shortsighted tunnel vision One of the most  counterproductive approaches to sales, or anything really,  is thinking in tunnel vision, obsessing over  the short term.  Sales cycles can be extremely drawn out, lasting one month to one year or more from first approach to payment made. In agency recruitment, often a candidate will be on your books for many months before you place them! While you might not see the results of your input immediately,  giving up cant be an option. Building relationships takes time, patience and persistence. What you do today is setting you up for results tomorrow! Small wins An old  manager of mine always used to tell me to focus on the small wins, instead of placing all emphasis on writing deals alone. Landing a great new client or making a really pricey placement will be the result of a lot small wins in succession. Focus on the things youre doing well and the steps forward youre taking. Dont expect to leap from  A to B without enduring a hell of a battle between them. Hurdles We cant be sure to completely avoid failure forever, but we can change our perception of it.  We cannot control everything in our career; bad things will happen outside of our control and we will have to soldier onwards and upwards. We might not  necessarily make huge mistakes ourselves;  someone else might drag us down in their wake. This is especially true in sales! Deals will fall over for reasons beyond our control or  well forget to do something that ends up costing us a sale. Consider this: failure is crucial to success. We need to make mistakes to steer us onto the right path. Sometimes the lessons we learn from these situations can end up leading us to incredible things! The key is to never stop putting that effort in. After all,  success isnt black and white,  but hard work  is. Youre either working hard, or youre not.