Page 180 - Social Media Marketing

166 Walk Like a Giant, Sell Like a Madman

The more you sell, the more you earn. The first step, then, is to
hold yourself accountable for your current slump and for pulling
yourself out of it.

Holding yourself accountable does not mean that you berate
yourself for lackluster performance. That sort of negativity can
be counterproductive. Holding yourself accountable simply means
that you stop blaming your boss, your products, market conditions,
and other external factors and start looking to yourself for answers.
You cannot afford to sit around waiting for the economy to turn
around or a slow season to pass. You have to start working to make
something happen.

Figure Out What's Changed

When you find yourself in a slump, it's usually because something
has changed. Perhaps when you were first starting out, you were
making 200 cold calls a week, but once you had plenty of customers,
you stopped making those calls. In many cases, you simply need to
get back to what you were doing when you were more successful.

When I coach agents, this is usually the first thing I discover-
what they were doing opposed to what they are doing now. It really
isn't rocket science. Many times, we get so busy working in our
business that we forget we should be working on our business.
What that means is you get caught up in the tyranny of what's
urgent instead of focusing on the big picture.

Ask yourself, "What has changed?" If you can figure out what
changed between the time when sales were brisk and when they
began to slump, you usually know what you need to start doing.
When asking, "What has changed?" consider changes in all aspects
of your business:

• Have you changed anything in the way you prospect for new
customers?

• Have you changed anything in the way you serve your clients?

• Have your products or services changed in any way?