So we are focused! We can visualize our goals! We can taste them, we can feel them, we can get our emotion into them. We can imagine ourselves walking, talking and breathing in our new dream and it’s rocking BUT it’s raining outside and RIGHT NOW my reality is just NOT matching up to that dream. In fact right now I’m genuinely feeling down and that this whole goal setting, visualization and personal growth thing is actually a waste of time!!
Hehehehe….OK so it’s just the 2 of us ??
The reality is that you just can’t CONTROL the RAIN !
What the hang are you talking about Brad…??
I’m going to try and use a metaphor to make things easier.
Farming!
These are some of the toughest, hardest working people you are ever likely to meet. They sometimes bear the brunt of our City Slicker humor BUT in actuality they are generally the ones that have pioneered and built our countries over the years. As an unrepentant city dweller, I am totally convinced that I’d not have made it in their world.
But herein lies the rub! These folk plan, plough, plant, turn the soil and get rid of weeds (And a whole lot more I’d imagine) BUT they CAN’T make it RAIN. The most fundamental and most critical part of their journey …WATER…RAIN… they have no control over. And so a whole potential crop could be missed or lost due to a lack of rain… and what to these guys do next season… ?? plan, plough, plant, turn the soil and get rid of weeds – all over again – in the hope of the one thing they cannot control…RAIN!!
The only thing they can control is their …planning, ploughing, planting, turning the soil and getting rid of weeds.
As someone trying to grow, improve themselves, make more sales and get ahead in life, maybe that’s the lesson.
Do what you can control. Read the books, make the plans, see the visions and dreams the dreams but just know upfront, that not everything is going to work out TODAY the way you desire. There are so many things we can’t control but let’s do what we do have control over. Research, Planning, prospecting, meeting our deadlines, getting referrals, doing a brilliant day’s work….every day!
As a sales professional you’ll know, all to well, that the one thing you cannot control is … the customer signing. You can make all the connections, do great presentation, answer all the questions and go the extra yard in all areas and STILL have the customer choose someone or something else. Short of holding a gun to the prospects head you cannot control the customer or the SALE.
The lesson – do what you can control…make the prospecting calls, continuously ask for referrals, meet the client’s, seek to serve as best as possible, do the best presentations you are capable of doing…and then tomorrow, do that all over again …. And again….and again….and ag…you get the picture!
The people who succeed are the ones that keep the dreams, visions and plans alive despite the circumstances, long after Joe Average has given up and moved on! You see, successful people aren’t lucky – they’re just prepared to keep going when everyone else isn’t!
Just some thoughts!
Go for it sales champions!!
