No Excuses!: The Power of Self-Discipline (12 page)

FLY WITH THE EAGLES

 

Some years ago, one of my seminar participants told me his story. Bob Barton said he had started off in his twenties in a large company with about thirty-two salespeople in his branch. It was his first real job, and he was starting at the bottom. Because he was new, he hung around with the other junior salespeople. As they say, “Birds of a feather flock together.”

 

After a month or two, Bob noticed that the top salespeople in the office also associated with each other. They did not spend time with the junior salespeople. They also spent their time
differently
. When Bob got into work in the morning, the top salespeople were already there, planning their days and working on the telephone and making appointments. Bob also noticed that the junior salespeople would come in later, drink coffee, read the newspaper, and make excuses for not making sales calls.

 

 

 

LEARN FROM THE BEST

 

Bob decided he was going to pattern himself after the top salespeople in the office. He looked at the way they dressed and groomed, and he resolved to dress and groom the way they did. Each morning, he would stand in front of his mirror and ask himself, “Do I look like one of the top salespeople in my office?”

 

If the answer was “no,” he would go back and change his clothes until he felt that he looked as good as the best people. He began to come into the office and organize his day before 8:30 A.M. so that he was ready to make calls as soon as his customers were available to see him.

 

One day, Bob asked one of the top salespeople if he could recommend a book or audio program that would help him. It turns out that top people are always willing to help other people improve. When he got the recommendation, Bob immediately went out and got the book and sent away for the audio program. He read the book and listened to the program and then reported back to the top salesman. The top salesman gave him some more advice on things to read and listen to, all of which Bob followed.

 

 

DO WHAT THE TOP PEOPLE DO

 

Bob asked another salesperson how he planned his day, and that salesperson showed him his time management system. So Bob began to plan and organize his day the way the top salespeople did it. By using these top salespeople as his role models and emulating them whenever possible, Bob started to make more appointments, see more prospects, and make more sales. Within six months, he was one of the top salespeople in the office as well.

 

By that time, the top salespeople had invited him for coffee and lunch, and he became one of them, rather than one of the junior people. The next year, Bob went to the national sales conference, where he met a lot of the top people from around the country. He deliberately sought them out and asked for their advice: What books would they suggest? What audio programs would they recommend? What seminars had they attended? What strategies did they find that were the most effective in building their sales business?

 

 

FOLLOW THE ADVICE YOU GET

 

Bob did something that few people ever do: When he received advice, he
followed
it. He immediately took action on the advice and then reported back to the people who had given it to him.

 

Within four years, Bob became one of the top salespeople in the country. His friends and associates were the other top salespeople in his branch and in the other branches. His income had increased several times. He wore beautiful clothes, drove a new car, lived in a lovely home, and had a wonderful wife. And he said that it all came about as a result of asking top people for their input and then following that input and applying it to his sales activities.

 

But here’s the kicker: Over and over, the top people, the ones who had been winning the sales awards year after year, told Bob the same thing: He was the first person who had ever come up to them and asked them for advice. No one else had ever sought them out and asked them why they were so successful.

 

THE PAYOFF IS EXTRAORDINARY

 

I was giving a seminar in Detroit a couple of years ago when a young man, about thirty years old, came up to me at the break. He told me that he had first come to my seminar and heard my “3 Percent Rule” about ten years ago. At that time, he had dropped out of college, was living at home, driving an old car, and earning about $20,000 a year as an office-to-office salesman.

 

He decided after the seminar that he was going to apply the 3 Percent Rule to himself, and he did so immediately. He calculated 3 percent of his income of $20,000 would be $600. He began to buy sales books and read them every day. He invested in two audio-learning programs on sales and time management. He took one sales seminar. He invested the entire $600 in himself, in learning to become better.

 

That year, his income went from $20,000 to $30,000, an increase of 50 percent. He said he could trace the increase with great accuracy to the things he had learned and applied from the books he had read and the audio programs he had listened to. So the following year, he invested 3 percent of $30,000, a total of $900, back into himself. That year, his income jumped from $30,000 to $50,000. He began to think, “If my income goes up at 50 percent per year by investing 3 percent back into myself, what would happen if I invested 5 percent?

 

 

 

 

KEEP RAISING THE BAR

 

The next year, he invested 5 percent of his income, $2,500, into his learning program. He took more seminars, traveled cross-country to a conference, bought more audio- and video-learning programs, and even hired a part-time coach. And that year, his income
doubled
to $100,000.

 

After that, like playing Texas Hold-Em, he decided to go “all in” and raise his investment into himself to 10 percent per year. He told me that he had been doing this every since.

 

I asked him, “How has investing 10 percent of your income back into yourself affected your income?”

 

He smiled and said, “I passed a million dollars in personal income last year. And I still invest 10 percent of my income in myself every single year.”

 

I said, “That’s a lot of money. How do you manage to spend that much money on personal development?”

 

He said, “It’s hard! I have to start spending money on myself in January in order to invest it all by the end of the year. I have an image coach, a sales coach, and a speaking coach. I have a large library in my home with every book, audio program, and video program on sales and personal success I can find. I attend conferences, both nationally and internationally in my field. And my income keeps going up and up every year.”