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Show notes for episode #489 “Tendencies take you down.” Listen right here.
On Episode #488, we talked about details. The more professional you are, the more detailed, you should be, but usually it’s the other way around. The more professional we consider ourselves to be, the less detailed, we actually are.
Instead of using your experience to prepare, you instead use your experience to wing it.
NFL Hall of Fame defensive back Deion Sanders kept detailed information on every player he faced. Sanders kept details on every player he played against-from the rookies to future Hall of Famers.
You know what Sanders was looking for? Tendencies. From the way a player broke the huddle to the positioning of his feet.
Sanders would use your tendencies to beat you.
Tendencies take you down.
Others aren’t beating you, you’re beating you…through your tendencies. Josh from Covington Louisiana, emailed me (& you can too @ thesaleslife1@gmail.com),
“Marsh I’m three years into sales and no matter what I do, I always seem to sell the same amount of vehicles. Even if I start off hot, I end up in the same boat. How can I break free of this?’
Josh, asked a perfect question for today’s podcast. We’ve all found ourselves stuck a time or ten thousand…
Your growth is in your tendencies. You can’t have different by doing the old. Know your tendencies. Your tendencies are your natural default settings that you revert back to without even thinking.
When an environment is conducive to your tendencies, then your tendencies will kick in without your realization. It’s as if you’re floating in an inner-tube down a lazy river (of tendencies)…and the waterfall is just ahead.
When Josh gets rolling, maybe his tendency is to psychologically pull up, thinking, “I did it,” but the problem is he’s no longer doing it.
Maybe he’s lost his sense of urgency. That’s why I say that you should work as if you broke & sell as if you’re rich. But when you achieve a little success, you tend to be dyslexic in thought. You work as if you’re rich & sell as if you’re broke.
With an arrived mentality, you start coming in a little later and not as fierce as you started, plus you’re selling as if you’re broke- rejections mount up…deals don’t bounce your way, customers buy elsewhere, to the point where you begin to personalize the losses and feel sorry for yourself.
The world’s not picking on you. The world is showing your tendencies.
Tendencies take you down.
To conserve energy, your mind is always looking for patterns. It spots a pattern and boom, your defaults kick in.
If there is no trigger, there are no tendencies.
You have to disrupt your patterns by knowing your tendencies.
Bring your tendencies to an awareness, but this will take complete ownership on your part because you can’t blame your tendencies away, but you can bring them to an awareness.
You can begin spotting the times you start to veer off course. You have to disrupt your tendencies before the tendencies disrupt you.
Tendencies are small yet powerfully destructive. Where you sit…where and how you stand…the phone you use at work…the actions you take when when a customer buys or doesn’t buy. When they buy, do you hide to celebrate or do you look for the next opportunity? When a customer doesn’t buy do you spend 45 minutes recapping to others who were glad it was you and not them? What do you say to yourself at certain times? Do you take the same route to and from work? When you’re having a bad month do you push yourself to come in earlier and stay later or do you fold to your feelings?
Many people write me and say that they are going to start getting up earlier, but they might as well sleep in because when they wake, they have the tendency to pick up their cell phone and look at social media instead of using the earlier time to make an impact in their own lives.
My tendency lately, has been to come home, grab something to eat, and sit down to relax. On the way home I vowed to go workout but the minute I sit down, I cave and promise to hit it hard tomorrow. I now see the tendency and that tendency can take me down. So I have to disrupt the pattern by changing clothes and immediately getting the workout in…because I know my tendencies once I sit down.
So here’s your TSL never settle action item for today:
- What are one or two tendencies that are taking you down? (Be honest. If you’re shrugging it off, it’s probably a destructive tendency.)
- What have you traditionally done in the past?
- What will you do different?
Email me your answers @ thesaleslife1@gmail.com.
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The Sales Life with Marsh Buice 