Friday, September 02, 2016

The ABCs of Sales - H is for Hungry


H is for Hungry

When you are hungry for more business you will find ways to innovate.  Genuinely needing more business makes a sales person work harder, try new things, and never stop hunting. Being a "hungry" is a good thing if you have a career in sales.  Those who remain top performers month over month never lose that desire inside their souls to find more deals.  

The most successful do not sit back and wait for the phone to ring.  Top producers are not solely prospecting via social media and hoping or wishing the right customer will see their tweet.  The best are always pushing to find a new customer, and they are never passive about in their efforts.  Before going home for the day they make one or two more calls, because they know that selling is a numbers game.

If your life, or the life of your family, depended on you finding the next prospect you would do whatever it took to discover new business. Being hungry a key to ongoing sales success.  Yet humans can get comfortable and not even realize it. It is  common that once people reach a certain level of of personal income that they begin to behave differently.  They rest on their past successes and fail to keep up the same level of intensity they did when they were new and hungry.

Early in my career I worked for a sales manager who was great at praising success, but once he did that he pointed out that contract was now officially the past.  He would then want to hear what his team had in the pipeline.  What was next.  Some people did not like how quickly he dismissed a victory, but I always understood that was his way of keeping us from resting on our laurels. 

Throughout a lifetime you will have times when you are more hungry than others.  You will see the results in your bottom line.  Those who chase ever lead as if their life depended on it will have more clients over the long run.  If you are in one of those times when you are not feeling as hungry, you need to assess what is keeping you from being as aggressive as you could be.  Feeling content, or "full" is never the right mindset for anyone who is sales focused.  You have to have a little worry about what tomorrow may hold so that you will not let up in your pursuits of business development. 

Sales professionals, small business owners, solopreneurs and who are directly linked to their new business numbers should stay hungry everyday.  This is not about being paranoid, but instead being realistic that past performance will not mean you are meeting your numbers tomorrow.  A healthy concern about the future the way to keep that hunger stirring.

How hungry are you to succeed at selling?  

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Thom Singer is a keynote speaker and professional master of ceremonies.  He talks regularly to corporate audiences in competitive industries that are sales focused and whose people are seeking success.  http://www.EngagingSalesSpeaker.com


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