Motivated salespeople and entrepreneurs make more sales than their less motivated counterparts. Having a miserable countenance, a poor attitude and a bad physiology never made a good salesperson and it never will.

Your motivation, your mindset and your actions are critical in helping you to achieve your goals and close the sales and build the business that you want. When I am invited to companies one of the most common questions asked by sales managers, sales directors and business owners alike is, “How do I get and keep my sales teams motivated?”

Indeed, one of the most common questions asked of me by salespeople themselves is, “How do I get and keep myself motivated?”

Most people do not understand how and why they get motivated and therefore their motivation levels tend to ebb and flow like the daily tides. Few people have total control of their own motivation levels. Salespeople know that they need to be motivated to sell, they want to be motivated to sell, but often they just cannot maintain that all important motivation to sell.

Motivation tip 1:

Motivation begins and ends with you. You determine your own motivation. Motivation is internal, it’s something that you control; even though you may not realise that this is the case. Many people believe that motivation is something that happens to them. For this reason they and their sales results get buffeted severely throughout life.

Sales superstars do not believe or act this way. Sales superstars know that their personal motivation is down to them. No matter what anyone else does or says they get to choose their own motivation levels. No matter whether they get the deal or they lose the deal, they get to choose their own motivation levels. No matter whether life’s going the way they want or it’s not, they get to choose their own motivation levels. And it’s that choice that sets them apart and defines them as the rock stars of sales.

If you want to join the ranks of the sales rock star elite now then you need to take responsibility for your motivation on a day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute and moment to moment basis…

Step 1 is to decide to do just that. To decide to hold yourself to a higher standard, to decide that nothing short of operating at the optimum level is acceptable for you anymore, to decide that you are a sales rock star.

Step 2 is to employ effective strategies for boosting your motivation and staying on top of your game. One powerful way to get that jolt is by sharing proven techniques so this post is a double whammy – you gain by reading & you gain by sharing.

Start by making a list of ways that you can motivated both yourself and your team and take time to employ them on a daily basis.

Happy selling.

I’ve talked in the past about how to develop your Brain and Body Energy to build self-motivation; so here’s another suggestion – Spend time with positive people.

Last Saturday I had lunch (well beer and chips) with five of my really good friends. They’re always interested in what I’m doing, really supportive and they really make me laugh! When I leave them, I feel much better and more motivated than I did before we met.
I like to think that I do the same for them, and that’s the secret to receiving support and motivation from others; you need to hand out some ‘Warm Glows’

So let me ask you; do you remember how you felt after your last interaction with another person either on the phone or face to face? That person – it could have been one of your customers, a colleague, a salesperson, a friend or even a member of your family. Did they make you feel good, uplifted and more positive? Did they leave you feeling neutral or, even worse, did they make you feel down and more negative?

Unfortunately, most of us have grown up in a negative culture where it’s much easier to tell people what they did wrong rather than praise them when they succeed. Research in the United States found that 65% of employees received no recognition for good work in the past year.  Similar research in other countries of the world shows comparable results.
Other research has shown that the number one reason people leave their job, and customers take their business elsewhere, is that they don’t feel appreciated. (And if you think about it – many people leave their partners for the very same reason)
 
If customer’s leave an interaction with you or one of your team feeling better than they did before, then they’re much more likely to come back, recommend you to other people and spend more money with you.
If one of your team feels better after an interaction with you then they’re much more likely to pass that feeling onto a customer.

“The way you treat your staff is the way they’ll treat your customers” – Karl Albrecht

If a friend feels better and more motivated after spending time in your company, then they’re much more likely to return these feelings to you.

So, go ahead; give some positive and motivational comments to the other people in your life and you’ll have – a workplace that’s more productive and more fun – more happy customers – more friends – better relationships and a healthier, happier and longer life.

Remember – “Hand out warm glows, not dampeners.”

Increase Your Financial IQ Book Review â?? Part 1: Making More Money

The book starts by asking the fundamental question:

â??Does money make you rich?â?

Take a moment to answer that question.

Do you think money will make you rich?  Do you think winning millions of dollars from lottery will make you rich?  How about having a high-paying job from a lucrative profession like doctors, or lawyers, or IT professionals?  Does having a lot of money make you rich?

Many people have heard stories how instant millionaires lost their millions after a few years. Or how someone who was once rich and famous had his house foreclosed.  Or how a high-paying manager begged for his job back because he can no longer afford the lifestyle that he once had.

If not money, what then makes you rich?  According to Robert Kiyosaki,

â??â?¦it is not real-estate, stocks, mutual funds, businesses, or money that make you rich.  It is information, knowledge, wisdom, and know-how, a.k.a. financial intelligence, that makes one wealthy.â?

What is Financial Intelligence?

Robert Kiyosaki describes Financial intelligence as that part of our mental intelligence we use to solve our financial problems. Financial IQ, on the other hand, is the measure of that intelligence.

What money problems do you have?  Are you having the problem of â??not having enough moneyâ?? Are you

using your credit card whenever youâ??re short on money? constantly worrying about the rising cost of living? paying more in taxes after an increase in income? afraid of emergencies? receiving bad financial advice? waiting for the next paycheck to pay for last monthâ??s rent?

While the rich do not have these problems, they too have their own money problems â?? â??too much moneyâ?.  Some of these are

needing to keep their money safe and invested not knowing whether people like them or their money looking for smarter financial advisors raising spoiled kids worrying about estate and inheritance planning looking for ways to â??legallyâ? avoid paying excessive government taxes

Which problems would you rather have?

The 5 basic Financial IQs

According to Robert Kiyosaki, you need to learn the 5 basic Financial IQs to solve your money problems.  These are:

Financial IQ #1: Making more money Financial IQ #2: Protecting your money Financial IQ #3: Budgeting your money Financial IQ #4: Leveraging your money Financial IQ #5: Improving your financial information

Financial IQ #1: Making more money

How do you make more money?  The key according to Robert Kiyosaki is to â??solve problemsâ?.  People will gladly pay you money if you solve their problems.  I know Iâ??ll be more than happy to pay you money if you can fix my broken LCD TV at a reasonable price. Would you gladly pay your doctor if they solve your ailing stomach? Would you pay your financial advisor if they can make you more money than what you pay them?  Or how about paying your â??starâ? employees â??millionsâ? whenever they bring you â??billionsâ? in income?

Solve peopleâ??s problems and make more money.  As the famous quote from Zig Ziglar says

You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.

Which problems do you want to solve?

Which problems do you want to solve?

Do you want to solve the problem of â??hungerâ? by providing quality meals at an affordable price.  Thatâ??s what a lot of food businesses are doing.  Or do you want to solve the problem of â??not having enough time to eatâ?.  Thatâ??s what the fast and â??instantâ? food delivery businesses are trying to solve.

What are you naturally good at? Perhaps you can use any of your skills to solve other peopleâ??s problems.

Are you good in math?  Be a great financial analyst or an accountant and help people and businesses solve their financial or tax problems.

Do you like speaking to people?  Become a powerful speaker.  Share your message by leveraging your highly sought after skill of public speaking.  Inspire people to take action and solve their problem of a dull and boring life.

Do you love making great movies?  Learn to be a great director or a movie producer.  People will pay you to entertain them because you are solving their problem of â??not having fun”.â?

Solving problems is a process

The key according to Robert Kiyosaki is realizing the fact that problems will never go away.  After you solve a problem, another problem will come up.  Only in this process of solving problems one after the other will you gain financial intelligence.

You have to go through the process of solving whatever money problems you are facing right now.  Donâ??t run from it.  Face it head on.  Use your mind to think of ways on how to solve your money problem.  As Robert Kiyosakiâ??s Rich Dad says,

â??You can quit when you win, but never quite because youâ??re losing.â??

The reason instant millionaires end up poor after winning the lottery is because they want only the money but not the process of learning how to build their wealth.  This is the same thing as people wanting to get paid more than the value they are providing.  Their greed is making decisions for them.  Some people even claim that â??greedâ? has caused the current financial crisis that we are in right now.

The other side of the coin is also dangerous – fear.  Donâ??t let fear hold you back.  Enjoy the process of learning.  Feel the fear and face it head on. This is the same reason why employees would rather gladly receive the small steady paycheck than take a chance at building their own fortune.  Take a leap.  Live out your dreams.  As Hellen Keller says,

â??Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.â?

Rich Money Habits Review Notes:

What I liked about the book is that it offers other (unconventional) ways to think about money. The book is not about financial advise, so it does not discuss any â??how toâ? details on investing in real-estate or businesses. There are a lot of strong comments about the book so it is NOT for everyone.  My hope is that after reading the rest of the book review in the coming weeks, youâ??ll pick up a thing or two to help you with your money problems.