Commit to Excellence
Make it a life-rule to give your best
to whatever passes through your hands.
Stamp it with your personal character.
Let superiority be your trademark.
— ORISON SWETT MARDEN
Optimists, people with high expectations of eventual success, are ambitious. The more optimistic they are, the more ambitious and determined they become. Ambition is therefore the most important single expression of optimism, and it is the key quality for the achievement of great success in sales or in any other field. Ambition is so important to goal setting, courage, and persistence that having this one quality alone can almost guarantee that you will overcome every obstacle and difficulty that stands in your way.
Ambitious people have one remarkable characteristic in sales. They dream big dreams. They have high aspirations. They see themselves as capable of being the best in their fields. They know that the top 20 percent of salespeople make 80 percent of the sales, and they are determined to be among that top group.
Ambitious salespeople are optimistic about their opportunities and possibilities. They are absolutely convinced that they can achieve their goals by selling substantial amounts of their products or services. And they are completely determined to do it. The only question they ask is, How?
Perhaps the most important step you can take in the field of selling is to commit yourself to personal excellence, to becoming one of the best in your field. Resolve today that you are going to join the top 20 percent in your industry, and then the top 10 percent, in terms of sales and earnings.
Here is an insight that changed my life when I was twenty-eight years old. After years of hard work and struggle, it suddenly dawned on me: Everyone who is in the top 10 percent today started in the bottom 10 percent!
Everyone who is doing well today was once doing poorly. Everyone who is at the top of your field was once not even in your field at all. Everybody who is at the front of the buffet line of life started at the back of the line.
Now, here is the question: How do you get to the front of the buffet line of life, where all the good stuff is waiting for you? The answer is simple. It consists of two key steps: First, get in line! Second, stay in line!
It is absolutely amazing the number of people who want to get to the front of the buffet line of life— who admire or envy the people who are already up there enjoying the best that life has to offer—but don’t get up and get in line themselves. They don’t realize that life, like a buffet, is self-serve.
The way that you get in line is by making a decision that you are going to be excellent in your field and then by taking action to learn and apply whatever knowledge and skills you need to get ahead.
Once you get in line, the way that you then get to the front of the buffet line of life is to stay in line! Once you have made the decision to be among the very best in your field, get in line and stay in line. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. Keep developing new skills and acquiring new knowledge each day, each week, each month. Keep improving at your craft of selling. Keep moving forward.
The good news is the buffet line of life and success never closes! It stays open and continues to move twenty-four hours a day. If you get in line and stay in line, if you start moving and refuse to quit, nothing and no one can stop you. You must eventually get to the front of the line in your profession. You must eventually become one of the most skilled and highest paid people in your field if you make a total commitment to excellence and then never go back on your commitment.
Here is the turning point in your life: Make a decision! The dividing line between success and failure is contained in your ability to make a clear, unequivocal decision that you are going to be the best and then to back your decision with persistence and determination until you reach your goal.
The world is full of people who are wishing, hoping, and praying for their lives to be better, but they never make the kind of do or die decision that leads to great success.
Just as you become what you think about most of the time, you also become what you say to yourself on a regular basis. You should repeat to yourself, over and over again, the words “I’m the best! I’m the best! I’m the best!” until they come true in your life. And they surely will.
ACTION EXERCISES
Make a list of all the things you do each day that contribute to your sales. Describe in detail the sales process from the initial prospecting to the completed sale and the satisfied customer.
Review this list and give yourself a grade from one to ten in each skill area. Have your boss evaluate you as well.
Then ask yourself this question: “What one skill, if I developed and did it consistently in an excellent fashion, would have the greatest positive impact on my sales?”
This is the key question for moving ahead in the line. Ask your boss. Ask your coworkers. Ask your customers. But find out the answer. Then, set the development of this skill as a goal: write it down, set a deadline, make a plan, and work on becoming better at this key skill every day until you master it.
