Step 4: Set Goals Outside Your Comfort Zone

These 5 Steps to Claiming Your Dreams are truly strategic. You have first off, given yourself permission to dream, taken the leap to make that happen, and then:

1.    Eliminated the negative messages from others and yourself.
2. Reassessed your values to see if they fit your next dream
3. Created the new identity that embodied your dream – making it yours.
4.  And now, setting goals outside of your comfort zone.

When your dream is locked into the need to play it safe you set yourself up to be limited in success, growth, and joy. Rather, it is imperative to set your goals well out of your comfort zone. In doing that, because it seems so outrageous, you are forced to clarify your wants and needs, you are required to have clear intention focused on exactly where you want to go, and being thrilled with the adventure of it all, you end up devoting yourself to making it all happen.

Clarity, intention, and devotion are the necessities of a successful company, a successful dream, and a successful life that is far beyond what you ever could have imagined. Safe results in stagnation whereas the risk of going outside your comfort zone brings up your fears, your passion, and amazingly the wondrous feeling of having been able to do it. Think of that saying “reach for the moon even if fail you will be among the stars.” It will be so worth the trip! 

Dorothy A. Martin-Neville, PhD, is a motivational speaker, author, coach, and psychotherapist who has spent her career helping others, through humor and faith, claim their dreams, eliminate self-sabotage, and become everything they were meant to be.

She can be reached at: drdorothyct.com    dorothy@drdorothyct.com   860-543-5629   

Which Side of the Coin Will Your Life Fall On?

This past week I helped someone who doesn’t have a car by giving them a ride to an early morning appointment. I was parked on a street in the north end of Hartford (not a good neighborhood) waiting for my passengers.

Down the street a bit I could see that someone had fallen. It looked like the person was struggling to get up, but I was too far away to tell exactly what the situation was. I knew there were a lot of reasons this person could be in distress, but I also knew they might be having a stroke, a seizure, or some other kind of attack.

My passengers arrived and got in my car; one of the two being a 12-year-old boy. I was still watching the person trying to get up. The mom asked me if there was a problem because I wasn’t moving. I said no and pointed to the person struggling to get up.

Her son said, “Oh, that’s nothin’. He’s just one of those people. He’ll be fine.”

I asked if he knew who the person was.

“No. He’s just one of those people. Sometimes they sleep on the street. You don’t have to worry about him.”

I watched a woman walk past the person without even looking. I started driving and when I was alongside, I stopped. Now I could see that it was an older man with white hair. By then he had managed to use the fence to pull himself up, but he was very shaky on his feet. I rolled down the passenger window. He looked our way and I asked him if he was okay. He nodded his head and waived his cap at me, and we drove away.

The 12-year-old said, “See… It’s like I said, he’s just one of those people.”

Without thinking, I said, “That may be true, but I guess I’d rather be one of those people who stopped to check and make sure he was okay than to be one of those people who doesn’t even bother to look.”

Believe me, no one was more surprised than I was to hear those words escape my lips, but I was glad they found their way out. I was really glad the child in the back seat heard them too because the truth is, you never know who your good intentions will help. The only thing you can know for sure is that you’ll never help anyone if you keep your good intentions locked away.  

Write your book. You don’t know who’s out there waiting to read your words. You don’t know whose life, career, or relationship might be ignited or re-ignited when you share your knowledge and expertise. Please…  It’s time to share.

 

 

You Have No leads?

You have no leads. Your company doesn't provide you with any leads. Your vendors rarely ever send any quality leads your way. Yes, your numbers are slowly and steadily declining, but what do they expect from you? It’s not your fault!

Well, to be more precise, it’s not your fault that sales is a tough business. It’s not your fault that the economy isn’t currently in an upswing. Nor is it your fault that your boss has a business to run and probably a big fat mortgage hanging over his head. But facts are facts; there is business out there. There are people turning prospects into clients – you’re just not one of them at the moment.

When you first thought about going into sales you probably thought it would be a good job for you because you like to talk to people. Everybody relaxes when they’re enjoying a good conversation. Now that both you’re career and financial success are attached to your ability to talk to people though, getting that good conversation rolling might not be coming quite so naturally. One quick way to decide if this has anything to do with what’s been going on is to review your elevator speech. Regardless of whether it’s delivered face-to-face, over the phone, or with an email, take a hard look at it. Make sure your need for a sale isn’t hidden between the lines.

When you were getting ready to make those first few sales calls you probably had confidence in your ability to get along with people too. That confidence made it easier to strike up the conversation and keep it going all the way to a signature on the dotted line. Confidence is a good thing, but like anything else we build or create within ourselves, it needs to be maintained or else it will just start slipping away when a client doesn’t sign – or worse – signs with someone else.

One way to build your confidence back up is to invest some time into researching your industry. What short-term and long-term trends are currently influencing your industry? While you’re researching that, research your clients (as well as your prospects) to see what effects those trends might be having on them. What new challenges or advantages will they need to adjust to? What innovations are being offered by your company that you are excited to share? Knowing the answers to these questions will provide the confidence you need to comfortably step into knowledgeable and relevant business conversations that get the ball rolling in the right direction.

A great smile and an excellent business manner will help you throughout your career in sales. But building and maintaining long-term relationships takes more. If you want to do more than survive your sales career, there’s no escaping the fact that you have to do more.

Alan Luoma is a Sales Coach and Speaker with extensive experience in industrial sales, sales management, and sales and product training. He holds key accounts with a national sustainable packaging company, is a motivational speaker, and provides sales training to individuals and groups. He is a member of the Hartford Springfield Speakers Network. You can view his profile on LinkedIn, or contact him at Luoma@snet.net

Tips for Better Business Presentations

Tips for Better Business Pitches

First - Do your research before you pitch

Learn all you can about the company or person you are pitching to. What do they do? How do they do it? What are their challenges? How does that fit in with what you do? And, anything else that would be helpful to develop a really impactful pitch to them.

Next - It’s not about you

It is imperative that your pitch is all about solving a problem for them in an affordable way or helping them to be more successful.

Once it is clear that you truly understand their business, their challenges and how your product and service can put them in a better place, then you can tell them more about your qualifications and why they should work with you.

About Nancy D. Butler

Nancy, a national motivational speaker, business coach and award-winning author,  has been quoted in many local and national publications including USA Today, Money Magazine, Playboy magazine, The Chicago Tribune, AARP and The Day and has been a speaker for major corporations such as Pfizer, General Dynamics and Dow Chemical. Nancy has also been a guest on several television and radio shows.

Contact Nancy for a free consultation at nbutler@aboveallelse.org.