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    Watching successful sales professionals and businesses wake up to the realization that their production is waning with no clue which direction to follow is sad. Their market, products, culture changed and they didn’t. Now their competition that “got it” is ahead of the curve and success… many times as much as years ahead. This can be internal and not just external to your organization. A year and half ago I introduced social media and its applications for sales success to my team. Only one person got it. They went from bottom of the board to the top producer. They understood the possibilities and ran with it. While the local economy is sour this person is selling through other markets without any real costs. The big picture. Now her peers are trying to imitate and have found that it takes time. They are now playing catch up and are behind the curve.

    <Businesses are living breathing entities.

    You are either feeding them or they die. Sales success is not any different. What new idea, new process, or new excitement have you brought to this venture? Is this your responsibility? Success is 100% your responsibility It is so easy to get wrapped up on the daily duties that there’s no planning, educating, motivating going on. I’ve talked about business/sales plans Setting Goals: 1-2-3 Sales Plan Success™ before. Taking this a step further… Have you looked at your market trends? What is your competition doing? Are you capable of directing – understanding how to keep up and excel? My industry is not any different. I talked about holistic selling Holistic Approach: 1-2-3 Technology Sales Success™ before it was popular to do so. Very few understood where I was going with this. Now we have virtualization of phone systems, location based integrations, and cloud based services. Our competition is not only from traditional players but now from search engine companies, etc... Presenting this to my sales team I found them terrified of the implications. They are going to have to re-think, re-learn and the hardest part… change. Unfortunately most won’t until too late. Over the years I have watched prosperous businesses and sales professionals fail because they simply could not keep their minds open to a changing world and market. They wanted to stick with “tried and true” processes that made them successful for years. I watched as a router/switch company became a phone system company and changed my industry overnight. Many couldn’t make the change to VoIP and are either dead or dying. Today those that are selling solely phone “appliances” and not services, (hosted, virtualized, cloud based) are going to find themselves behind the curve and possibly in trouble. My guess is this example can apply to pretty much any industry. A bit of advice Do you find yourself in this same predicament? Here’s a bit of advice… Do not change everything. But do change. Take some time to look around, investigate, and understand what is happening to your market. Educate and wrap your arms around this information. Put it into your newly developed business/sales plan and execute. Most importantly become an evangelist and an expert. You will most likely find your career and business less tedious and possibly gain back some of that mojo you had when you first started.
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