I was thinking through my work habits that helped me in my sales career for those years. In conclusion, these 5 habits contributed to my early success in my sales profession.
1. Eat, Drink, Sleep Theory
2. Singular Focus
3. Ultra-Learning
4. Personal Drive
5. Grit Factor
Eat, Drink, Sleep Theory
As I am in financial services profession, I need to learn many new things due to the steep learning curve. My Major in Chemistry for my varsity degree does not help much either. So let me explain this theory now.
This theory is actually to reinforce the concept of totally immersing in your career. (Provided you are doing what you love or like).
Basically, you need to reflect on your daily business practices and think through what went wrong. My daily routine will be doing self-reflection at the end of the day before my “beauty” sleep. I thought really hard about the happenings in the same day.
These deep thinking processes enlightened me on my mistakes made for that day. I think of alternative solutions before going to bed. And I implemented the solutions the very next day.
The actual term I used in my mind is Eat, Drink, Sleep, Sh*t Theory. I got to sanitized it for the above title. Ha.
Singular Focus
Not just focus, but singular focus. The one and only focus on your personal goals. You may have a goal in mind that you really will die for. Stay on course for that and think about it every single day.
Just an example below.
One senior taught me his way when I just joined this career. He wanted to buy his dream car by end of that year. So he printed out pictures of the actual car in his favourite colour and pasted all over his home. It is crazy as he told me where he pasted them. Toilet, ceiling above his bed, cupboards and walls, you get the point. Amazingly, he got his dream car in that particular year.
So this singular focus with power of visualization really can help us achieve our goals. Trust me. I had seen it happened.
Ultra-Learning
The never ending thirst to learn everything about something you really care about. This tip is to prove that anyone can become an expert in your chosen field. (If you put your heart and soul into things you care about.)
For my case, this sales career is a personal milestone for me to prove my achievements as a fresh graduate. So I kept learning and absorbing every piece of knowledge along the path. You need to be on a ultra-learning attitude if you want to be proficient with your work.
Coincidentally, there is a book titled “Ultralearning” recently. Go read it. Pretty insightful.
Personal Drive
This one takes the cake for me. This is different for every one of us. Personal drive stems from internal motivation. The question to ask is “Are you driven?”
Drive is what internally pushes someone to succeed. It is pretty “unteachable” in my personal opinion.
In sales, there are 3 key characteristics for personal drive:
a. Achievement Need
b. Competitive
c. Optimism
Achievement need – For a driven person, the need for achievement is extremely high. They strive on the “highs” of closing the deals. The whole process from chasing to closing the sale helps to satisfy this need for achievement. They are always gunning for the next bigger deals and they don’t “rest on their laurels”. For some of you that understand the feeling, you will know what I meant.
Competitive – They like to win or win. In summary, they want to be the first at the finishing line for all the contests that they participate in. Of course, healthy competition and doing the right things. They hate to lose and thus, they will go all out and be the hardest worker in the room.
Optimism – This is the most powerful trait to have as a sales professional. Rejection is high in all sales encounters and one must be super optimistic to be in this profession. They see rejections as one step closer to their goals. Of course, as human, we feel the same sense of rejection as any other person. But it is the positive optimism that can make stronger. So this is a must have.
Just google about “Thomas Edison Light Bulb” quote and you will understand my point here.
Grit Factor
Quick summary – “Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day-in, day-out. Not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years. And working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
Go Read “Grit” by Angela Duckworth.
So here we have it. THE 5 KILLER HABITS…
Let's grow together in this brave new world.
Galvin Ang, Performance Coach
