176: Cut the Excuses Baby

<p>“I would be able to sell a lot more except for all the extraneous, external factors over which I have zero control”.  Actually, you have never heard this line of argument before from a salesperson.  This is because this statement is an honest appraisal of what they see as the problem, but they don’t express it that way.  This comes from not having sufficient self-awareness to realize this is what they are actually saying, by way of excuse, for not being more successful in sales.  Instead they bitch about the boss, the market, industry changes, currency movements, the sales materials, the pricing and everything else but their pathetic sales ability.</p> <p> </p> <p>There are excellent training courses both classroom and on-line, for becoming better at sales.  Bookstores and on-line retailers have a cornucopia of books on how to become a more successful salesperson.  The internet is clogged with free information about selling.  YouTube is brimming with sales modules, lessons, examples of what to do as a professional.  Sales gurus tour the globe sprinkling pixie dust on the faithful to transform them into sales powerhouses.  Yet, salespeople are constantly whining about all the reasons holding them back over which they have absolutely no control.</p> <p> </p> <p>Are they accessing all the good information available to become better?  No.  They are not bothering, because they don’t see any correlation between their lack of an internal motivation to study to become better and their non-realization of sales success.  They are too busy looking outward for the problems holding them back to see that the issues are all internal.  Why is that?</p> <p> </p> <p>People wind up in sales by accident.  The turnover of salespeople is very high because it is a metrics based game. The numbers tell against you when you are failing and in short order you disappear.  Fresh bodies are then brought into the meat grinder.  If they enter in a rising market, they may last for a while but then when times get tough, they are let go and rep