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As important as it is for you as a salesperson to have work friends who push and challenge you, nobody can ever want your success for you more than you do. Sustainable motivation must come from deep inside you.
But no matter how motivated you are, there are times when that motivation will wane. This is especially true as unexpected challenges and distractions vie for your attention. It gets even worse when the inevitable setbacks start to undermine your confidence and resolve.
The key to staying motivated is to remind yourself of your longer-term goals and mitigate the obstacles you will find along the way. Here are some questions that will help. Answer them and revisit them regularly to recalibrate, reenergize, and recommit.
Where are you now, and where do you need to be?
Whatever your current role is in your agency/organization, start by taking a complete and detailed inventory of your current situation. What is going well, and what needs to improve? As you think about where you need to be in the future, focus on the evolution of your current role or a new role within your organization. Maybe you even see this taking you to a new employer. Be as specific and detailed with both parts of the question as possible.
Let me give an example for those of you in a sales role. As a producer, answer the question(s) in a quantifiable way related to the quantity and quality of your book of business.
Some things to consider (for both parts of this question) are total revenue in your book of business, annual new business written, average revenue per client, potential revenue in your pipeline, and conversion and close rates. Again, the more specific and detailed you are in these two endpoints, the more assured you are of arriving at the latter.
How quickly do you need to get there?
Don’t overthink this one. How quickly do you need to arrive at the position you described in the first question about where you need to be?
Your desired ETA will significantly impact your ability to go further. Once you know how far you need to go and how much time you have to get there, you can identify the milestone measurements to confirm you are on track.
And my favorite question: How much noise will you endure along the way?
By noise, think about the disruption as you make the necessary changes to move from where you are today to where you need to be tomorrow.
Some of the noise will come from those who have become comfortable with you being where you are and will be challenged to change in some way as you challenge yourself to grow. There will be naysayers, those who are threatened in some way, and those who are just generally toxic. Let them know that either they find new behaviors or you will find new work friends.
However, much, if not most, of this noise will originate between your ears. There will be moments of self-doubt, you'll get tired along the journey, and other distractions will tempt you.
The more you anticipate the noise from internal or external sources, the easier it is to ignore when it arrives. Start by listing all the internal noise sources that have affected your past change initiatives. I’m serious; write them down and follow each with a plan of what you will do to avoid them entirely. If complete avoidance isn’t possible, plan what you will do to mitigate them as much as possible.
Good for you, good for prospects/clients
Not only are these questions useful for keeping yourself motivated and on track, but think about how powerful they can be as you walk prospects and clients through them. Instead of myopically focusing on getting a prospect/client from one reactive renewal season to the next, imagine how your impact and relationship can grow by focusing strategically on the bigger picture.
Guide your prospect/client through the following conversation:
Endpoints - In terms of your overall HR/Benefits program, let’s clarify where you are today and where you’d ideally like to be. Some specific elements to consider are:
- Cost control of your medical insurance
- Level of employee engagement
- Value placed on your benefit program by employees
- Benefits education of employees (and their dependents)
- Operational efficiencies through benefits administration technology
- Confidence in your compliance responsibilities
- Ability to attract and retain team members
Timeline - In an ideal world, how quickly do you need to move from the “today” description to that of “tomorrow?”
Noise - How much noise (distractions, challenges, etc) are you prepared to endure to reach your “ideal” scenario? Here are some things to think about:
- Budgetary issues
- Employee pushback
- Buy-in of other leaders
- Waning commitment
- Poor communication
- Competing demands on your time
With a mutual understanding of their answers to these questions, you can lay out a plan and long-term strategy to deploy your solutions and resources to move them from where they are today to where they need to be tomorrow.
As you remind them of the inevitable noise and prepare them to respond effectively, you will become their guide to new levels of results and impact. Doesn’t that sound like a significantly stronger relationship than depending on rounds of golf to get from one renewal spreadsheet to the next?
Content originally published on Q4intelligence
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