Sales Strong: Unbreakable Discipline. More Deals.

Learn about Gregg Swanson as a sales professional and peak performance coach. 

More information about Gregg Swanson and why should you listen to him?

Introduction to the study tips section and what to expect. 

It is essential that you:

1. Study this course with a purpose.

2. Continually search the course for ways to achieve your goals and solve your challenges and problems.

3. Stay focused on your purpose as you study.

4. Determine what you want to learn before you begin.

5. Commit yourself to Recognizing, Relating, Assimilating and Applying the principles, techniques and ideas that this course provides.

6. Study with a pen in your hand or an open document, ready to record any flash of inspiration or answers to problems

When starting each new lesson, I recommend that you read/watch it through from start to finish, stopping only to mark what you feel is important-what you would like to memorize, or to put a question mark next to statements you don't quite understand.

Introduction to Part 1 "The Foundation" and the 5 Step Success Process

Learn the details of 5 Step Success Process.

The 5 steps for success process consolidate what has been covered in creating a well formed outcome. This formula is not just for sales and can be applied to all areas of your life.  Remember: it’s much easier to hit a target that is clearly defined and visible.

1. Know Your Outcome
2. Take Action
3. Have Sensory Acuity
4. Have Behavioral Flexibility
5. Operate from a State of physiology Excellence

Introduction to the Principles of Success.  These principles apply to business, life and your career.

The Principles of Success details. 

When it comes to living up to our human potential and being able to reach peak performance we need certain principles to live by.  
In my studies, experiences and with the help of my mentors, I have identified 10 essential mental strength principles that will assist you in creating the life you desire.  
Here are the 10 Mental Strength Principle to Live By.

1. Cause vs. Effect
2. Results vs. Excuses
3. Perception is Projection
4. Responsibility for Results
5. Turn Excuses into Reasons
6. The Mind and Body are Connected
7. If You Want to Learn...Act
8. The response you get is the Meaning of Your Communication
9. Adapt Behavioral Flexibility
10. Act as If

Introduction to the Success Sales Code.

Details of the Success Sales Code. 

These are things that every top salesperson does on a regular basis.

1. Play to win-win.
2. Live by goals.
3. Take action.
4. Think buying first, selling second.
5. Be a fluent expert.
6. Create new sales conversations every day.
7. Lead masterful sales conversations.
8. Set the agenda; be a change agent.
9. Be brave.
10. Assess yourself
11. Have behavioral flexibility.

The Basic 5 Step Sales Process.  

If you don't currently have sales process you are following, this is a good one.

The 5 Step Sales Process

1. Establish Rapport

2. Ask Questions

• Questions #1 – What Do You Want?
• Question #2 - What’s Important to You About…?
• Question #3: Why Is That Important?
• Question #4 – How Will You Know if You’ve Made the Right Decision?
• Question #5 – Why Did You Choose to Look for (product/service) Now?

2. Find a Need or Value

3. Link the Need or Value to Your Product or Service
 
4. Close

5. Objections

Introduction to Part 2 - The Sales Strong Mindset.

This is an overview of the 5 major limiting beliefs that may be holding you back from sales success.

You will discover the extreme degree in which drive your behavior. You'll understand why changing them is so important. To do this, you need to uncover and process the faulty thinking behind them––releasing negative self-talk and replacing it with new beliefs that support your well-being.

Major Limiting Sales Strong Factors:

1. Need for approval
2. Tendency to become emotionally involved
3. Self-limiting beliefs
4. Non-supportive purchasing criteria 
5. Money/price issues

Need For Approval

Origins of Need for Approval

• Low self-esteem
• Dependent personality
• Insufficient sense of self, versus "will of group"
• Insufficient and limited sense of freedom to be themselves
• Other

Your sense of self and beliefs must evolve so you can start behaving differently in sales situations.

How It Shows Up

• Avoid Confrontation
• Problems with Questions
• Call Reluctance 
• Deferential Statements and Actions
• Inappropriate Follow Up
• Unconscious Limiting Beliefs

Strategies for Improving Your Need for Approval
Here are 10 strategies you can use to address your need for approval and make your sales conversations more effective:

• Recognize it and face your fear.
•  Maintain a peer dynamic.
• What does it mean to have good balance in tone?
• What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
• Let your curiosity drive you. Ask why.
• Share a point of view.
• Have a game plan
• Practice how you will push back on put-offs.
• Ask for “no.”
• Keep a journal.

The next limiting belief is becoming too emotionally Involved.  

We'll first take a look at the origins. 

Origins of Tendency to React Emotionally

• Lack of confidence – causing feelings of nervousness and anxiousness 
• Lack of preparation - causing feelings of nervousness and anxiousness
• Lack of skill to deal with curveballs - causing feelings of nervousness and anxiousness
• Psychological factors

How It Shows Up

Tendency to react emotionally can show up in selling in several ways including:

• Fumble Important Situations
• Waste Time Following Rejection or Success
• Say Things You Shouldn't
• Do Things You Shouldn't

Strategies for Improving

Here are some strategies for overcoming your tendency to react emotionally:

• Recognize it. 
• Stop and think. 
• Plan and anticipate. 
• Don’t worry. 
• Use active listening. 
• Focus on your selling knowledge and skills.

How You Know If You're Improving

You'll Know You’re Improving When You:

• Recognize the emotions.
• Don't let emotions get into the way.
• Can say, "I use to react like [X] but this time I didn't"
• Find yourself in fewer emotionally-charged situation where you say things you later wish you hadn’t.
• Aren't wrapped up in your own thoughts during sales conversations.
• Find yourself actively listening, not missing important parts of the conversation.

Self-Limiting Beliefs

Negative thoughts such as "I don't like prospecting" or "It's OK not to close" are self-limiting beliefs that sabotage a successful sales process.

The majority of sales professionals have self-limiting beliefs.  Overcome yours with coaching and you’ll be 33% more effective.

An example of how self-limiting beliefs.

Limiting beliefs:

• All prospects are honest.
• Prospects how think it over will buy from me.
• It’s not OK for me to challenge my prospects.

How they show up:

• You'll accept what the prospect says at face value.
• You'll take actions that reflect your belief.
• You'll waste your time chasing someone who is not really a good prospect.

Now we'll look at some examples of self-limiting beliefs. 

Improving self-limiting beliefs.

Your self-limiting beliefs and bad outcomes

"Prospects who think over will eventually buy from me.”

Bad outcomes:

• Time may derail the sale.
• Another provides may swoop in.
• Cost may become an issue.
• More assertive salesperson may convince the buyer.

Desired outcome:

• Better articulate value.
• Overcome hidden objections.
• Find out if they’re really interested.

When a salesperson's process for making a major purchase does not support the selling process, we say he has a non-supportive buying cycle.

64% of people have a non-supportive buying cycle. Overcome it with coaching, and you'll be 50% more effective.

How Do You Know You Have It?

• Speed of purchasing decisions
• Care given to exploring alternatives
• Frequency and intensity of price pushback

How you buy is inherently neither good nor bad - but how you buy is going to affect the way you sell.

Non-supportive Buying Cycle Manifests by:

When you have a non-supportive buy cycle it can show up in your selling behaviors in the following ways:

• Accepting put offs and stalls – Because you’re likely to stall and use put offs yourself, you’re more likely to accept such actions from buyers without questioning them.

• Discounting – You’ll tend to be more prone to discounting, because you’re more apt to ask for discounts yourself or believe that discounting is part of the sale.

• “Agreeing” with buyers – By being too empathetic with the buyer, whether it’s over cost, competitors, or other issues, you’re actually encouraging the buyer’s behaviors to the detriment of moving the sales process ahead.

Strategies for Improving

Here are some strategies for overcoming your non-supportive buy cycle:

• Always get to a next step – Always think about your next step no matter what you hear for push backs.
• Understand your buy cycle – Understand your buy cycle, buyer responses you’re vulnerable to, and the selling challenges they create for you.
• Change your buy cycle – Try buying in a different way. This will allow you to sell in a different way and take actions that will help you move the sale forward.
• More inside the lesson

Money/Price Issues
Money weakness refers to discomfort talking about money. This can be a discomfort talking about money in general or a discomfort talking about money over certain amounts.

Money Ceiling: comfortable having a financial conversation up to a certain dollar amount, but amounts beyond are out of your comfort zone.

54% of people have a money weakness.  Overcome it with coaching, and you'll gain 27% more effective.

Strategies for Improving

• Talk about money/investments/savings – Introduce money conversations into your daily life and boost your comfort with the topic.

• Be prepared – Identify the financial issues or topics you need to cover in a sales conversation. Do your research in advance so you’re prepared with specifics.

• Improve your understanding of money and finance – Identify the knowledge areas where you may be weak and then go ahead and develop your knowledge in those areas.

• Understand how qualification works – In addition to confirming the prospect can allocate the funds, you must also confirm they have the authority, interest, need, and timing (or purchase intent) in order to be a qualified buyer.

• More inside the lesson

You'll Know You're Improving.

Results You'll Being to See

• Find yourself talking about money
• Sound confident when you talk money
• Are pursuing larger opportunities and accounts
• Waste less time because you're qualifying better.

This is the introduction the Sales Strong principles and what's to follow.

Sales Strong – Depicted by uncompromising fortitude, resilient and results oriented. Ruthlessly prepared, objective and service minded.

The 8 Principles of Sales Strong

1. Nothing Interrupts the Money Hours
2. Start Early and Go Long
3. Calls First, Paperwork Last
4. Open Strong
5. Know Everyone (Network More)
6. Close Comfortably and Confidently
7. Solve Problems (Don’t Share Them)
8. Evaluate Your Personal Sales Value

Let's begin and take a look at Sales Strong Principle #1 - Nothing Interrupts the Money Hours

Let's take a look at Sales Strong Principle #2 - Start Early and Go Long

Now let's look at Sales Strong Principle #3 - Calls First, Paperwork Last

A look at Sales Strong Principle #4 - Open Strong

Let's look at Sales Strong Principle #5 - Know Everyone (Network More)

Almost finished!  Let's look at Sales Strong Principle #6 - Close Comfortably and Confidently

In the home stretch.  Let's look at Sales Strong Principle #7 - Solve Problems (Don’t Share Them)

Let's wrap up with Sales Strong Principle #8 - Evaluate Your Personal Sales Value...and some field work. 

Introduction to the Professional Development Plan and why it's SO important to your sales career and success.

We're going to review the mindset principles that lead to a successful Professional Development Plan.

In order to be successful in sales and stay successful you must develop a mindset for success.  When it comes to living up to our human potential and being able to reach peak performance we need certain principles to live by.

In my studies, experiences and with the help of my mentors, I have identified 10 essential mental strength principles that will assist you in creating the life you desire.

Here are the 10 Mental Strength Principle to live by

1. Cause vs. Effect
2. Results vs. Excuses
3. Perception is Projection
4. Responsibility for Results
5. Turn Excuses into Reasons
6. The Mind and Body are Connected
7. If You Want to Learn...Act
8. The response you get is the Meaning of Your Communication
9. Adapt Behavioral Flexibility
10. Act as If

We're going to begin with examining the Seven Factors for Life and Career Satisfaction.  They are:

1. Your Vision  
2. Your Mission
3. Values
4. Beliefs
5. Capabilities
6. Behavior
7. Environment

Identify Your Vision

A personal vision statement is a picture of your true self in the future. An effective personal vision includes all the important elements of your life and career, it is who you want to be, what you want to do, how you want to feel, what you want to own, and who you want to associate with. Although your personal vision helps you to see into the future, it must be grounded in the present. It is a statement of who you are, and who you are becoming. It is framework for the process of creating your life.

Your Mission

To help identify the parts of you that may need attention complete the below SWOT analysis in regards to vision statement above.

Values

Values are what give us direction in life.  They provide internal guidance as to what’s important to us.  Often with a sales career we can get over enthusiastic about making the next sale and putting in longer and longer hours.

When we can identify our core values we’ll be able to create a harmonious life.  One that blends work with personal life.

Beliefs

We’ve already covered beliefs in a previous section.

Take time now to jot down your findings concerning the 5 major limiting sales beliefs.  In addition, think about any other beliefs you that may be supporting you or holding you back in your sales.

Capabilities

Capabilities are the skills and talents you possess.  These can include knowing a specific sales process like RAIN, SPIN, Challenger.  They can also include the “natural” abilities like being a people person.

There are a few sales strong specific capabilities that will make a tremendous difference in your sales career.   They are:

• Goal Setting
• Self-talk
• Energy management
• Mental rehearsal

Behaviors

Behaviors are those routines and habits that we perform, often unconsciously. To become a high achiever in sales you need to be aware of your behaviors and determine if they are supporting your vision and mission, or distracting you from them.

To help you determine if your behaviors are in line with your vision and mission below are 12 habits of high achievers.

Mental Habits

Let's look at the 4 mental habits of top achievers. 

• Mental Habit #1. Sensory Goal and Vision 
• Mental Habit #2. Disciplined Mental Application
• Mental Habit #3. Search for Knowledge
• Mental Habit #4. Creativity

Emotional Habits

Here we'll look at the 6 emotional habits of top achievers. 

• Emotional Habit #1. Confronting and Conquering Fears
• Emotional Habit #2. Inner-Directedness
• Emotional Habit #3. Capacity to Develop Warm & Lasting Relationships
• Emotional Habit #4. Time Competency
• Emotional Habit #5. Constructive Criticism
• Emotional Habit #6. Power

Physical Habits

Now let's look at the 5 physical habits of top achievers. 

• Physical Habit #1. Control Physical Stress
• Physical Habit #2. Resistance to Illness and Disease
• Physical Habit #3. Nutritional
• Physical Habit #4. Physical Exercise
• Physical Habit #5. Energy Rejuvenation

Financial Habits

In this lecture we'll look at the 4 financial habits of top achievers. 

• Financial Habit #1. Dollar Sense
• Financial Habit #2. Financial Control
• Financial Habit #3. Career Security
• Financial Habit #4. Law of Compensation

Spiritual Habits

We'll wrap up behaviors by looking at the 2 spiritual habits of top achievers.

• Spiritual Habit #1. Spiritual Focus
• Spiritual Habit #2. Sense of Higher Self

Environment

We'll finish the 7 factors for life satisfaction by looking at the environment.

Environment

Your environment includes people, places and things that will support your mission and vision.

Your environment also includes your:

• Car
• Home office
• Home
• Office
• People
• Things

Willpower

Many people believe they could improve their lives if only they had more of that mysterious thing called willpower. With more self-control we would all eat right, exercise regularly, avoid drugs and alcohol, save for retirement, stop procrastinating, and achieve all sorts of noble goals.

Bonuses and Resources 

This section includes information on

• The 6 Step Sales Process - Details
• Time Management Tips
• 6 Keys to Influence
• 2 Self-hypnosis audio's