When you’re trying to make a change, especially in the habits and assumptions you rely on in your work, it can be very difficult to break out of the status quo. But maintaining the status quo isn’t a long-term plan. No change equals an eventual decline.
You don’t need to try to create a new plan from the bottom-up, though. These questions will help you examine your motivation for making a positive change, which puts you in the right direction to start improving on your existing sales methods and see change happen.
What “game” do you want to change?
Yes, you want your sales to increase, but where do you want to focus your energy? Do you want to increase your numbers incrementally over the next 5 years, or would you like to double them soon? Do you want more contacts or more referral partners?
Zero in on what you specifically want to change, so you can use your time and energy effectively.
Why do you want to change the game?
Change is dynamic. There are 6 things that motivate people to change:
- Fear
- Pain
- Pressure
- Education
- Incentive
- Growth
The first three are negative motivations for change. They aren’t necessarily bad reasons to make a change, though. They’re negative because they are things you want to avoid. People make changes based on fear, pain, and pressure because they want to get away from those things.
The last three, though, are positive motivations for change. They are what people want to move toward. When you make a change because you are looking to grow and improve, that’s a change that’s likely to stick.
What’s driving your desire to change your approach to sales?
The negative motivations for change can be a great way to kickstart people into reality checks, but none of them have a lot of staying power for motivating change. The positive motivators will sustain your change.
What is the value of changing the game?
Value is a two-sided coin. There’s the value that you receive from a change, and the value that you provide to your customers.
First, what would this change mean to you personally? Would it bring an increase or a decrease of something? It could mean an increase in income, time, and independence, or maybe a decrease in stress and worry. Hopefully it would give you all of those things.
But also think about the value you provide to others. What you sell improves people’s lives, or else they wouldn’t buy it. Being able to provide that product or service to more people, or to do it more effectively, would benefit your current and potential customers.
What are you willing to invest to change the game?
How important is this effort to change my sales game? Is it easier for me to endure the pain of the status quo, or is it easier for me to change and improve? Nothing in life is free, so you need to think about the short-term and the long-term here.
We’re very focused, as a culture, on action rather than reflection. But it takes time to think about the way you’re doing sales. It takes an investment of time and energy to ask yourself tough questions about the assumptions and habits you have, and your mindset about how you view your sales responsibilities.
Ultimately, the most important thing to consider is what’s at stake if you do nothing at all. What happens if you just sustain the status quo? If you aren’t satisfied with what that future looks like, then it’s time for you to start making some changes.
The last question is one that only you can answer: