OK, now I want you to pay very careful attention….

I’m going to give you, right now, the Real Secret to what it takes to really qualify a lead. Before I do, though, let me back up just a minute.

Here’s how all this came about. Right now I’m involved with a company whereby I’m listening to and critiquing cold calls. These are qualifying calls. We’ve written the scripts for these reps, put in all the qualifying questions, and now I’m listening and seeing how good a job they are doing. Here’s what I’m finding (and by the way, this is the same thing that I find with ALL of my other clients as well – i.e., that means I’d find it with you, too!).

#1: The first thing these reps are doing is defaulting back to how they’ve been doing it for the last several months (or years). In other words, they haven’t yet begun using the new scripts and new proven techniques word for word yet. And that’s OK. It’s a process.

The good news is that once they do, they will immediately begin qualifying better, understanding true buying motives, and they’ll begin understanding who isn’t likely to be a buyer. That will save them A LOT of time.

#2: But here’s the real secret: After they begin getting comfortable with the scripts and begin asking the key qualifying questions, what will come next are the REAL SECRETS to qualifying the leads. And here’s what it is:

While I’m listening to these calls, what I’m dying for the reps to ask are the things that I would be asking that would tell me if I’m dealing with a prospect who might actually buy in the future, or if I’m dealing with someone who is likely not to buy on the follow up calls. And here are the things they (and YOU) should be asking of all of your prospects (Not in any particular order):

“How often do you check (prices, rates, suppliers, services, etc.) with other companies like mine?”

“Have you found that you can get better (service, pricing, rates, etc.) from another company?”

If so: “Did you go with that other company (or – “Did you give them a try?”)?”

And if not: “Oh, why was that?”

“What would you need to see from our (company, information, service, etc.) that would motivate you to actually try someone different?”

“What part of the decision process are you involved in?”

“What happens next after I give you a (competitive quote, price, service analysis, etc.)?”
“If you like what you see, what would be our next step?”

And then my favorite – a trail close! You absolutely MUST say this at the end of ALL Qualified calls!

“_________, let me ask you, if you like what (we can offer you, pricing, service, availability, whatever is appropriate for your product or service), can you see anything that might stand in the way of us doing business together?” (Note: You can use many different trial closes here – just pick one that matches your product or service the best).

These are the Real Secrets to qualifying a lead. Yes you need to ask the other important qualifying questions that I list in my blog, books and CDs but after you do, you need to find out if you’re really dealing with a buyer, and asking these types of Real Questions is the way to do just that.

Compare these questions (and the kinds of answers you’ll get from them) with the kinds of questions you or your team is currently asking. If you’re far off from them (in other words, you don’t ask them at all), then you need to incorporate them TODAY. Not tomorrow or next week, but TODAY.

I guarantee that when you do, and when you begin getting the Real Answers to these Real Qualifying Questions, and your sales career will begin to dramatically change (and so will your company). This is how you move from the bottom 80% into the Top 20%.

But like everything I give you, don’t take my word for it. Try it and see for yourself. If it works, all you have to gain is hundreds to thousands of extra dollars a month. How good will that feel?

If you have to make cold calls and you don’t know the decision maker’s name – you’re going to love this proven technique (and you can still use it even if you do!).

First of all, you have to use this exactly as you read it here – Do Not deviate from the order of works – and make sure to pause where I tell you to. Ok, here you go:

Again, use this Word for Word. When the gatekeeper answers, you say:

“Hi, this is (your name) with (your company name) and I need a little bit of help.”

Now make sure and pause here! Pause and let the gatekeeper respond. After she says, “I’ll see what I can do…” or however they respond, you simply say:

“Great. I need to speak to the person who handles your (your kind of contact person), who would that be, please?”

That’s it! This works like magic if you follow these rules:

1) Say all this with a smile in your voice.
2) You pause long enough for the gatekeeper to respond – completely!
3) You use the “Please” at the end – again, with a smile in your voice :–)
4) Use this word for word. The more you vary the wording, the less effective this will be.

Again, if you need to find the name of your contact or decision maker, you’ll love using this technique. Try it this week and see for yourself how much easier your job becomes!

If you have to set appointments over the phone then you know that delicate balance between building rapport, creating interest, qualifying and asking for and getting an appointment. It can be difficult knowing exactly when and how to ask for the appointment without sounding like you are closing them, and, of course, there is always the awkwardness of handling the no’s if you’re turned down.

 The good news is that if you follow these 3 proven secrets of top producers, then you’ll not only begin setting more appointments, but you’ll set more qualified ones as well.  Here they are: 

Secret #1: Always use a script.  I know, this may sound basic enough, but you’ll be amazed by how many professional sales people still insist on winging it through their initial call.  Your script must help you deal with things like: 

• How to deal with and get past the Gatekeeper
• How to handle your prospect’s initial objections
• How to establish quick, relevant rapport
• How to qualify to see if your prospect is even the right candidate 

This article is too short to script all these things out for you but don’t worry I’m not going to leave you in the dark.  I’ve covered all these topics before in previous articles, and I’ve even written word for word scripts for you to use.  You can find them all on my website by searching the Inside Sales Training Blog. 

Bottom line: Prepare and use an effective script! 

Secret #2: Know when to ask for the appointment.  Many sales reps just don’t know when the best time to ask for the appointment is.  Because of this they either ask too soon and then begin fielding objections, or they pitch for too long and the prospect has then heard enough to say no.  Either way, obviously, you lose. 

Here’s the rule: After you’ve made a connection with your prospect (built rapport), gained the right to ask a few questions to see if there might be a fit between what their needs are and what you’re offering (how you can help), and after you verify a few crucial qualifiers – like if they are the decision makers, what their interest level and time frame is, and what their budget is – then it’s time to suggest a possible meeting to explore if your solution might benefit them. 

The key here is to ask enough questions to identify what their buying motives are (their needs) and then to give them just enough information to suggest a fit.  Then it’s time to suggest an appointment.  

Secret #3: Know how to ask for the appointment.

Please, whatever you do don’t use the age old sales technique of the “either or” close.  You know, the “Well I can either stop by tomorrow at noon or would the next day at 4pm be better for you?”  As soon as you utter those words, your credibility goes down.  Everybody recognizes that as a sales pressure line and they react accordingly. 

Here’s the better way to do it: 

“_________, from what I’m hearing from you it sounds like it makes sense for us to explore this a little further.  Here’s what I’d be willing to do: Let’s make an appointment to briefly get together so we can get to know one another and I can learn a little more about your situation.  If we find that there is a fit, and you think I can help you, then I’ll give you some information that you can go over, and then I’ll put together some options for you.

And if we don’t see a fit at this time, at least you’ll have another resource you can use at a later date – is that fair?” 

And then you set the appointment.  The strength of this close is that it’s a none-pressure situation that gives your prospect a way out if they’re not interested.  Plus, it lets them know you’re not coming over to try to close them.  This script lets them know this visit is all about them, which is what it should be.  

I guarantee that if you begin using the three secrets above for setting appointments, your appointment rate will not only go up, but you and your prospect will feel better during the whole process.  And how great will that be? 

I urge you to take some time to search my blog for great openings and qualifying questions, and to then incorporate the script above into a comprehensive opening script for yourself.  You will be so much more successful if you do.  And don’t forget that if you need other scripts, you will benefit greatly from my new book of over 220 other proven scripts by getting a copy of “The Ultimate Book of Phone Scripts.” You can find a copy on my website or on Amazon. 

I hope this helps and, if it does, please pass this article on to others can benefit from it!

I was talking to a real estate agent the other day about the importance of disqualifying leads, and he told me an interesting story about their office’s top producer. He was talking to her one day and asking her what she did that made her so successful. She said her secret could be summed up with one word. When he asked what it was she said:

NEXT.

The moment I heard him tell me that I was in total agreement. I told him that was what I was trying to teach him with my disqualifying method. The majority of people you speak with, I told him, are never going to be a deal. The problem 80% of sales reps make is they spend time with them anyway, sending information, making multiple appointments, and begging and chasing the deal.

The Top 20%? Their attitude is — NEXT. And that’s when he said something interesting. He said he was afraid to let go because he didn’t want to chance losing a sale.

“If you don’t know after qualifying and listening to your prospect what it’s going to take to get the sale, and who isn’t a real buyer, then you’ve got problems — big problems.” I told him.

“I guess I kind of know but you can never be sure,” he said.

I’m here to tell you that it’s that attitude that separates the bottom 80% of sales reps from the Top 20%! The Top 20% know when to say, and aren’t afraid of saying, NEXT.

According to CSOinsights.com less than half of inside sales teams make their revenue goals each month.  If you’re a business owner or sales manager of an inside sales team, then I’ll bet you can relate.  So what differentiates the half that makes their numbers from the half that doesn’t?

Obviously there are many factors and each company is different, but there are 5 common mistakes I regularly encounter whenever I work with companies who are struggling to consistently make their revenue goals.  If you can avoid these mistakes from the beginning – or correct them now – you can immediately begin to get better results, and that means you can begin to make your revenue numbers. 

Here are the 5 mistakes to avoid when building or developing your inside sales team: 

1)      Not having a clearly defined sales process (DSP). Nearly every struggling sales team I work with lacks a clear definition of what defines a successful sales cycle.  While they may know they have to cold call or prospect to generate a lead and then call that lead back and close the sale, what is missing are the exact benchmarks (best practices) of what defines each step.  Without this clarity, it’s difficult to teach your reps how to consistently close sales (which is why they don’t half the time). 

Not having these benchmarks – and so not being able to identify, verify and teach each step successfully – leads to many of the problems inside sales teams have.  If you haven’t taken the time to identify your DSP, then this is job #1 for you.  

2)      Not having a training program that teaches your sales reps exactly how to succeed in the selling situations they encounter day in and day out.  Think for a moment about your Top 20% sales reps.  Isn’t it true that they seem to intuitively know what to say and what to do to close sales faster and more efficiently than the other 80% of your team? 

Many sales teams I work with may have a structured training program in place (and I say ‘may have’ because some don’t) but most of them don’t have a sales training program that teaches their sales reps exactly what to say and what to do in every selling situation to be successful (think scripts here).  In other works, the best practices of their DSP are not the focus of their sales training, and this is why their teams struggle to win sales.  

Job #2 for you is to script out your best practices and make sure every member of your team has the core selling skills needed to succeed in the selling situations they face every day. 

3)       Measuring the wrong metrics of your sales team.  While most managers and business owners can tell me how many calls their reps are making, how many opportunities they are getting, what their close rates are, etc., what they can’t tell me is what really matters: What their reps are saying during their calls.  Don’t get me wrong, those other metrics are important to know and track, but they do not drive sales!  How your reps are qualifying their prospects, how they handle objections and what they are doing and saying to move a sale forward is what drives sales.  And that leads me to number four: 

4)      Not recording calls. This is perhaps the most important thing a sales manager can do – record all sales calls and listen to both sides of the conversation.  Knowing exactly what is happening during a call is the only way to know what’s wrong and to know how to fix it.  This is the first thing I ask for from a company who hires me to help them.  If you are not recording your calls, then you need to start today. Trust me, you’ll learn more in an hour of listening to calls than you will in a year of trying to figure it out without doing this. 

5)      Not hiring the right sales reps to begin with.  Not everyone is cut out for inside sales, and that includes reps with inside sales experience. You absolutely have to have criteria in place that will help you identify who is likely to succeed in your sales environment.  That includes profiling your top producers, but it also includes assessing the level of sales skills your hiring candidates have.  

Also, one of the biggest determinates of future sales performance is past sales performance.  That’s why it’s often a better choice to hire reps without experience and put them into a structured program (see items one through four above) and training these new reps to succeed in your environment.  Also, get in the habit of slow hiring and fast firing – most companies do exactly the opposite! 

By avoiding the five mistakes above, you can save hundreds of hours of frustration and hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost sales and unnecessary expenses.

If you are an inside sales manager (or director or V.P.), then I know you spend a lot of time in meetings – meetings with the marketing department coming up with strategies to create and close more leads, meetings with the owner forecasting revenue numbers, meetings with sales reps going through their pipelines, meetings with potential new reps, sales meetings, sales training meetings, etc.  I get it – you’re busy.

During your busy days and weeks managing and juggling the 100 other responsibilities in your position, how much time do you actually spend coaching your reps through the prospects in their pipeline?  In other words, how often do you get involved during a stage in the sales process to intervene and coach the skills and techniques that are needed to advance that particular prospect through to a closed sale? 

In a report on sales management I just read from csoinsights.com, “World-Class Sales Management: Closing What You Forecast,” it differentiates between two sales management “flavors”: either reactive sales management or proactive sales management.  It defines proactive sales management as: 

“What we meant is that managers need to know which reps need what type of help to resolve what issues related to what deals to get them to close opportunities when promised.  To any seasoned sales professional, improving management’s ability to effectively coach their teams is viewed as a useful objective, but let us share with you why it is actually mission critical” 

According to this article, proactive coaching not only leads to an increase in sales (win rates), but something more: 

“The increase in win rates is generated by a decrease in both competitive losses and no decisions.  When managers can reach out early and often to the reps who need their help the most on any given day, they can help them develop strong business cases all the way through the sales cycle to ensure the prospect can cost justify moving forward with their purchase decision.  In addition, they can ensure their salespeople are able to differentiate themselves from the competition so that when a final decision is made they walk out the door with the order.” 

Decreasing competitive losses and no decisions is crucial because it means that your reps will spend less time with unqualified non-buyers.  This means they will spend less time practicing poor selling skills on prospects who aren’t going to buy.  This will make them more confident and successful, and it reduces the money and time your company spends on chasing bad leads that should have been disqualified out a lot earlier.  This is why proactive coaching is seen as “mission critical.” 

 So what exactly is proactive coaching?  Like the article points out, a big part of it is understanding which reps need help at which part of the sales cycle that is going to make the most difference in moving the sale forward.  It’s also being “proactive in taking action when deals started to go off track.”  It means that you and your reps are on the same page with each prospect and with each step of the sales process.  

Proactive coaching is very different than ‘rear view mirror’ sales management.  Unfortunately, many mangers still coach after the fact, after the deal has been lost.  They coach on metrics and results. This kind of managing has its place, but it’s not effective in driving sales during the sales cycle. 

OK, so how do you learn to be a proactive sales manager?  The article mentions several elements including hiring the right managers with the right skill sets, benchmarking activities, and getting the right actionable data through a “Pipeline Accelerator” CRM type of system.  

Besides that, though, what is needed is to teach your managers the proper coaching activities that will allow them to help your reps succeed during the actual sale.  Methods I recommend are having a phone that allows the manager to listen into both sides of the call live – this allows him or her to actively coach the rep through the sale as it happens.  Another technique is to actively use instant messaging so the manager can send messages to all sales reps while they are on calls, and a third way is to actively use call recording as a way of prepping the rep for the next call.  

If you would like to learn a complete system for teaching inside sales managers to be more proactive in their coaching, see a dedicated product I created for it here (scroll down to “Option Two”). 

I encourage you to read the csoinsight.com white paper on this subject and to invest in ways of making your inside manager more effective.  It will increase your sales team’s win rates and put more money in all of your pockets.

Social media is all the rage right now and for good reason: We are all social beings and with virtually unlimited access to reviews, opinions, updates, people, information, etc, it would be foolish not to plug into it all and leverage this tool to make connections, make better decisions, learn about companies, products and options, and gain an edge in our personal and professional lives.  And we all do.

Social media has changed our lives in many ways, and it’s changed the way we make buying decisions as well.  If you’re like most people today, you probably search several sites, read reviews, look for deals and coupons and then think about it before you make a decision to buy.  It’s obviously changed the way your prospects buy as well and that leads us to the million dollar question: Exactly how beneficial is social media in helping you sell more of your products and services? 

To hear the social media pundits talk about it, they make it seem that without a strong and sustained presence and strategy in social media, you will get left in the dust.  They promise that if you just write your profile properly on LinkedIn and join enough groups (and are active enough in those groups), get enough people to Like you on Facebook, and spend the right amount of time and activities on other appropriate social networking sites, then you’ll have all the business and referrals you’ll ever need.  Ah, the promise of this global paradise is enticing, isn’t it?  

But does it work? 

To answer that, you just have to ask yourself this:  How much of your business last month came as a direct result of your involvement in social media?   

If you’re like most of the companies and sales reps I speak with, it’s less than 5%.  If that matches up with your results, then you understand why it’s important for you to use social media carefully and intelligently.  That means two things: 1) Don’t let it soak up all of your time (face it, it’s addictive!), and 2) Get the information you need and then do what you do best: prospect, qualify and close decision makers.  

Let’s face it.  While social media, company marketing and referrals are all great ways of meeting prospects, the only real activity that is directly under your control is to pick up the phone and call someone.  In fact, the most successful sales reps in all the industries I work with still make the most amount of outbound calls (either cold calls, warm calls to existing prospects and customers, or follow up calls to prospects identified in a carefully orchestrated social media campaign).  

Now don’t get me wrong.  Social media is a great tool and I use it all the time.  What I’m saying is don’t confuse being busy in social media as the same thing as being busy at what you’re hired to do – prospect and close business.  In other words, identify where you get most of your business from and then do more of that.  And for most successful sales teams, that means identify the best leads and then pick up the phone and make a qualifying call.  

Let me use a personal example.  There are many ways for me to generate leads and deals in my business as a sales consultant.  I’ve spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours pursuing one new “distraction” after another.  I’ve pursued social media, pay per click advertising, webinars with associations, multi-level marketing deals, joined endless groups, etc.  And while all these avenues bring me some results, nothing makes me more money than picking up the phone and calling on prospects and current customers.  Period. 

 So, does social media work in bringing you new business?  I would say that it’s one of many new ways of finding new prospects and making new connections.  But at the end of the day, where does the majority of your business come from? 

If you can answer that, then do everything you can to get better at it and spend more time doing it.  Your result, like mine and all of my clients, is that you’ll make more money as a result.

What kind of a commitment do you get from your prospect at the end of your prospecting call?  If you’re like most sales reps, the answer is, ah, none.  Or, it’s an undefined, “Well, I’ll follow up with you next week…”

If this sounds familiar – or if you’re a manager and it sounds like your whole team! – then you’re not alone.  You see, many sales reps haven’t been taught how to properly qualify prospects and they especially haven’t been taught how to ask for and get a commitment at the end of the first call.  Most sales reps are just happy they were allowed to “get information out” to someone and don’t feel they want to push it or ruin it by asking for and getting clarity and commitment about what’s going to happen before the next call.

And that’s where Top 20% producers differ.  You see, a top closer knows that any prospect who isn’t willing to make a commitment of either time, or of taking a specific action or agreeing to some other part of a sales process (sitting through a demo, etc.) means that they are dealing with shaky prospect.  And think about it: if a prospect isn’t willing to commit to something now, what do you think your chances are of getting them to sit through a pitch and actually take action with you later?

So here are five kinds of commitments you can ask for (along with scripting) that will help you further qualify your prospect and get the kind of cooperation and buy in in the beginning of the sales process:

1)      A commitment of time for the next call.  Crucially important as we all know how busy people are and how prospects can literally disappear never to be heard from again.  I always end my call with:

“Because you’re probably as busy as I am, it’s best if we get on a calendar to make sure we can discuss this next week.  I’ve got my calendar open in front of me, are you looking at yours?”

Then simply set a firm date and time to get back with them.  Always send an email follow up confirming the time and asking them to email you if they have to change the appointment.

2)      A commitment of what they are going to do before the next call.  Give yourself some options here.  Can you get your prospect to look at a particular part of your proposal?  Is there a section on your website they can commit to reading?  Can they commit to running this by their boss or marketing department before your next call?  Think about your selling situation and come up with the most appropriate commitment of action and then say:

“OK, so let me make sure I have this right.  Before our call next Tuesday you’ll have been able to spend some time with your marketing manager and get his buy in before our demo next week, right?”

3)      A commitment of what you’re going to do (always make sure you get one of the two commitments above as well).  Think about your product or service and your prospect’s particular situation.  Perhaps you can check on the adaptability of your products or on the licensing or fit within their department.  I’m sure you can come up with something.  Try:

“OK ________, here’s what I’ll do in the meantime.  I’ll contact our delivery department and make sure we can ship to all of your locations for delivery at the same time.  This will make installation easy as we can walk all your managers through this at the same time.  That will help a lot, won’t it?”

4)      A commitment of what the next step is if they like it (again, make sure you get one of the first two commitments above as well).  This is so important on two counts: 1) By agreeing in advance what the next step is if they like it, you are actually trial closing on the first call.  Your prospect’s reaction here will be important – if they won’t commit at all, that’s a red flag.  You can choose to either keep qualifying or get an idea of what kind of objections you’re going to get when you do call back.  And 2) If they tell you what the next step is, you can prepare for that and for the closes you’ll need to use once you get back to them.

This is an important step.  Use this scripting here:

“_________, it sounds like this will be a great fit for you. Let me ask you, after you get through the demo, if you find this will work for you, what is the next step for you to get started with it?”

5)      The best commitment of all: Asking for the deal if the prospect likes your material.  I know, this takes real guts, but if you’ve done the proper job of qualifying up front, then this is actually the natural progression of your sales process.  In fact, this is how I became a Top 20% in 90 days.  I would always say (and still do, by the way):

“Great _______, well I think I’ve covered everything.  By the way, do you have any initial questions?”  (Now bare in mind that I covered every detail of my proposal and qualified for interest, compatibility and budget up front).

“OK, then let me ask you a question:  If after you get the material I’m sending you see it’s exactly what we just spoke about, and you can see this (making you money, working in your environment, meeting your needs – whatever is appropriate for your sale), what size participation do you see yourself starting with?”

The answer you get here will almost always be the same one you’re going to get after you get back to them and go through your presentation, so why not just get it now?

So there you have it – a variety of ways of getting a commitment at the end of your prospecting call.  Work with these approaches and adapt them to your selling situation.  I guarantee you that the better you get at asking for and getting a commitment, the more sales you’ll close.

If you found this article helpful, then you’ll love Mike’s NEW book of phone scripts, “The Ultimate Book of Phone Scripts.”  Get over 220 Brand New Scripts to help you easily get past the gatekeeper, set appointments, overcome objections and close more sales. Visit:  http://www.mrinsidesales.com/booklaunch.htm and get over $400 of FREE Sales Bonuses by Jeffrey Gitomer, Tom Hopkins and more!!

Do you have an underperforming inside sales team?  Talk to Mike to see how he can help you and your team reach your revenue goals.  To learn more about Mike, visit his website: http://www.MrInsideSales.com

I get asked, over and over again, what the one secret to my sales success was.  Was it dedication and commitment, some ask?  Was it perfecting my sales skills and being better at it than my competition?  Was it old fashioned persistence?  Was it that I got better leads”?  (By the way, I didn’t.  I got all the regular ‘green card’ leads like everybody else).  What exactly was it that made me the top 1% of all sales reps in my career?

My answer to that question is two-fold.  First, all of the above was true.  I was completely committed to being the best at what I did, and I learned and perfected all the sales skills I could, etc.  I’ve written about this before in my bestselling book, “The Real Secrets of the Top 20%”, and in hundreds of articles I’ve written over the years.  

But that alone wasn’t what drove me to perform at my best.  

In fact, while learning and using the best skills is highly important, it’s only half of what you need to excel.  It’s the other half of the equation of success that makes the real difference – having, reaching, updating and setting worthwhile goals – in all areas – is what is needed to drive and sustain the kind of effort to truly change your career and your life. 

Now I know you’ve all heard about the importance of setting goals, and I’ll bet you’ve probably all set some goals from time to time and even reached some of them.  But here’s the million dollar question: Do you have specific goals, right now, written down in all areas of your life that you’re affirming on a daily basis, and visualizing several times a day? 

If you’re like most people, the answer is no.  And the reason for this is you’ve probably never been taught, or had a structured program, for keeping you motivated long enough to reach and then re-set meaningful goals.  

For a FREE goal setting plan, along with videos and everything you’ll need to learn how to do this, simply Click Here 

Everything changed when I learned the secret and the power of setting achievable and meaningful goals.  In fact, goal setting is still what drives me to get up in the morning and do what I do.  My vision of my life in the next year, next two years and five years and beyond is so exciting, so motivating, so dynamic, that I can’t wait to get out of bed in the morning and go to work! 

Is that how you feel, too?  If not, then I’d like to invite you to the 100 Day Challenge.  The good news is that it’s completely FREE, and it’s the missing ingredient to the success you desire.  

Ask any top producer (or top performer, athlete, or leader in any profession) what their immediate and long term goals are and they will tell you – in vivid detail.  You see creating a vision is what enables you to use the skills and ability and techniques that you may already have. It’s also what motivates you to get these skills and perfect them if you don’t.  

Having a believable and attainable vision for your life is the key to a successful, purposeful and happy life. 

That is the ultimate answer I give when people ask me what the secret to my success in sales (and life) is.  If you want success in your life as well, then start by defining what that means to you today and for tomorrow, and set manageable goals to begin moving toward it.  

Remember, you will move toward and bring into your life what you are focused on every day.  My question to you is: Have you taken the time today to define, or redefine, exactly what this is?  If not, then take the FREE 100 Day Challenge today!

A couple of weeks ago I was flying back to Los Angeles from Chicago, long flight, late at night.  The good news about my seat was that it was an exit row (nice leg room), the bad news was that it was the center seat.  As I marched through the aisle with my carry on, I looked forward toward my seat and saw that I would be sandwiched between two, big guys.  Oh the joy of traveling… 

Luckily, once we got off the ground, the guy to my left fell asleep, and the guy on my right was busy finishing a detective novel.  Once he was done he picked up a new book that drew my attention.  It was called, “Younger Next Year” (See it here). As he turned the pages, I would scan the headings and look at the graphs, and by the end of the flight I was sold on what I saw.  When I got home I ordered it and am almost through reading it right now. 

So here’s the deal: the book tells you everything you probably already know but aren’t doing: that you should exercise more, eat well, etc.  But what makes it different are the reasons it gives for doing these things.  And more specifically, it makes a bold claim: 

That instead of getting older and losing strength, stamina and flexibility, you can actually reverse this and become “functionally younger” next year than you are right now.  You can actually change the decline curve that we all assume is true about aging and live the last half or last third of your life in better shape and with less restriction and disease than 90% of the population right now.  That’s significant. 

OK, so what does this have to do with sales?  Well, everything really.  I remember when I was struggling to make sales all those years ago, and I remember how my physical body mirrored my attitude and performance:  My diet was horrible (donuts, pastries and lots of coffee for breakfast), my lunch was the nearest Chinese restaurant for the luncheon special with soup, and for dinner I would have as many beers as courses there were on the menu… 

Exercise?  That wasn’t part of the plan.  As a result I was out of shape, low energy once the coffee wore off, and my attitude was pretty poor.  I was on the slope of decline the book talks about but I was only 29 years old! 

I’ve written a lot about what changed for me (learning and committing to using the right skill set, adopting the right mind set and using affirmations, etc.), but one thing that also made a huge difference for me was that I committed to changing my diet and to exercising five days a week.  I can’t tell you what a difference that made (and still makes) for me.  

If you are looking for some reinforcement to begin or resume an exercise program, then I encourage you to click here and read about this book: Younger Next Year.  It has given me a renewed focus and my energy level and attitude towards business, family and my future is off the charts again.  I can’t recommend it enough.  

Here are some key points as to why exercise is so important for you: 

* A man who is thirty pounds overweight, smoking a pack a day but exercising every day, has a lower statistical mortality than a thin, sedentary nonsmoker. 

* Nothing you are doing in the Next Third of your life (between 55 – 85) is as important as daily exercise. 

* Genetics are only 20% of what determines how you’ll age and what will happen to you.  80% is up to you! 

* We can prevent 70% of what we think of as the effects of aging and disease by simply exercising daily.  

There is a lot more in this book and regardless of your age (physically we stop growing and getting stronger around 29 years old and the decay starts then…) you will benefit from reading this book.  (Heck, it’s only $7.43 on Amazon.com!).  

And best of all, your sales will benefit as well!