Ooh!!

       After all of these years, do you still have the Ooh Factor? You do remember the freshman Ooh Factor when you first hit the blacktop; you were literally oozing with Optimism, [saw] Opportunity, and had [good] Habits. Like athletes, salespeople need an edge; these factors are the edge needed- the triplets to build successful sales career.

• Optimism: What are you expecting each day? Are you looking through the lenses of optimism and seeing a favorable outcome or looking through the microscope of the daily minutia? When you look through a microscope, you magnify your problems and often you become drilled down into things you have no control over. You have no control over yesterday’s customer who had sub-par credit or was $11k buried in their trade. How many problems did you have when you first got into the business? The only thing you were focused on was making a sale; you didn’t know enough to have any other worries. A baby doesn’t know when he will begin to walk; he just gets up and tries, falls, and tries again. The same is true for you in sales; you fall down, and must get back up and try again.
• Opportunity: Because of your optimism, opportunities seem to open up everywhere. Ever hear of beginner’s luck for the green pea? Beginner’s luck is nothing more than optimism; because of the optimism, opportunity is created. While the new kid is sprinting across the lot in order to grab a key for his next customer, all of the veterans stand around and jealously sneer at his efforts. The sad truth is they remember they too used to be that way. Optimism breeds opportunities; conversely pessimism produces more problems. What you look for you will find; when you look for the problems in each customer, you begin to punch holes into your own sales. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Pessimism overcomes optimism and becomes a vicious cycle. When this happens, you begin to focus on the problems hindering you from making a sale instead of cherishing the opportunity right in front of you.
• Habits are the glue that holds your fortunes or your misfortunes together. Habits guarantee results 100% of the time; unfortunately you may not like the outcome of your daily disciplines. If you make it a daily priority to read 30 minutes pertaining to sales, make 3 new phone calls, and don’t leave until you catch 2 ups each day, your habits will reap you a fortune. As Dennis Waitley said, “Habits are like a submarine, they run silent and deep.” It takes time to rewire your patterns you’ve developed; you didn’t obtain the habits overnight, nor will you rid yourself of them. If you don’t like where your are, change your habits to obtain your have-its.

You still have the Ooh Factor; it may be lying deep in the recesses of your mind, but it has never left you. All it takes is faith in your abilities, daily action, and focus in the daily disciplines. When you tweak the efforts-you will reap Ooh results.