Seeking Motivation: How a Visit to the Library Can Change Your Life
We all need a little motivation from time to time, and sometimes it can come from the most unexpected places. One person who knows this better than anyone is Og Manadio, the famous author of the book “The Greatest Salesman in the World.”
Many years ago, I attended one of his keynote speeches in Austin, Texas, and was completely spellbound by his words. It was as if he knew all my secrets and was talking directly to me. He had the ability to touch everyone in the audience with his words, and for the first time in my life, I understood the meaning of purpose.
Visiting the library I am always reminded of the power of reading and seeking motivation in unexpected places. Og Manadio’s speech all those years ago still resonates with me, especially his message about the importance of reading and how it can change your life.
For most of us, the one thing we learned in school was how to read. And yet, we often forget the power of reading when it comes to personal and professional growth.
As Charles Tremendous Jones famously said, “You are the same person in 5 years except for two things, the people you meet, and the books you read.”
Og Manadio also emphasized the importance of seeking out the masters of success and the secrets to achieving it. And where can you find them? In the library, of course! From W. Clement Stone to Napoleon Hill to modern authors like Anthony Robbins, Chet Holmes, and Tom Hopkins, the masters are all waiting for you on the shelf, and they’re free with a library card.
In our fast-paced, digitally-driven world, it’s easy to forget the value of seeking out motivation and inspiration in unexpected places.
But as Og Manadio’s story shows us, a visit to the library and a good book can change your life. So, the next time you’re feeling stuck or in need of some motivation, head to your local library and see what treasures you can find.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
Be confident when you are talking to your customers.
In addition, don’t be the first to talk about the market, the bad news.
Why? Because you are confident that things will get better.
Letting your customers bring up their concerns is the door for you to discuss what you can do for them.
Because to you, it’s not about bad news, post covid; it’s what will happen when this is over.
Some of my best years in sales were after 9/11.
I had 65 staff in our Atlanta office, hoping they were okay and helping them through that nightmare.
We are not like our grandparents, who saved every penny after The Great Depression in case it happened again.
Now we can’t wait to spend money after a crisis.
Because spending money makes us feel better.
This time will be no different. Our job in sales is to relay this to our customers.
They need to be ready because this will end.
They need to be prepared.
Yes, what is happening now is real.
I get that, I have three other businesses other than my coaching business.
But the word for crisis and opportunity are the same in Chinese.
Even though I am worried about the days ahead, I am looking at the future. It’s no different for your customers. They need to look at the future and be ready too.
It’s our job to make sure they are looking for opportunities.
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, getting some help is always good.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
You are only ever Selling Yourself! “You want a course on selling? I’ll give you a course on selling. Do you know what you sell? Only one thing. You, you only sell you.*
You don’t sell products, you don’t sell services. You don’t sell products or services.
You sell the value of the seller.
The decision of the buyer is based on the value of the seller.
Let me repeat that.
The decision of the buyer is based on the value of the seller.
They make up their mind about you in the first three minutes. 180 seconds:
Is this person trustworthy?
Are they valuable?
Are they projecting the service that I want to buy?
Are they worth the money I’m going to invest in this?
In other words, they’re not buying products.
Your service may be on every corner
They don’t buy the Product or Service.
They buy the sales executive’s trustworthy value.
All sales are based on referral and renewal.
And you never close a sale, you open a lifetime relationship based on mutual trust and mutual value.
Once lost, trust is never regained.”
*Adapted from D Waitley.
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, it’s always good to get some help.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
If you’ve read my last few posts. You’ll see that I’ve been discussing the mistakes business owners make ( I have made every one of them- no kidding!) when it comes to getting the right salesperson on your team.
I want to give you as much value as possible, so here are three essential hoops (as I call them) that you might want to consider when it comes to employing new salespeople.
Structure Not Gut
Hoop 1- Company Culture Fit
Company Culture– While we believe that fitting in with the company culture is essential, as demonstrated in the graph on our FREE report, it makes up only 10%.
Don’t get too caught up in ensuring this is a significant part of recruiting.
Create a good job description.
This is a critical factor in hiring good salespeople. When you advertise for a salesperson, what do you ask?
How do you define the role? What are you looking for? What is the remuneration?
*Chet Holmes, one of my early mentors, always did this exercise when advertising for super salespeople.
Write down three initiatives that you would love to hire someone to do in your business.
Three only. Next to each one, do this:
What would it mean to your business?
How would it change your business?
Now list what you could afford to pay such people if they performed.
Do the exercise. This forms the foundation of a good job description.
Hoop 2- Structuring an interview – History of Success.
Once you get the CV’s for the position, look for a history of success. Somewhere, you can see a challenge, a life experience they overcame.
Structuring an interview- A structured interview process makes up 30% or a third of the process (FREE report). That’s a lot. In your structured interview, you should have some questions to ask after reading the CV. Here are a few to start with.
How do you function as a team?
How do you feel about operating in a team environment?
Do you like working on your outside of that team?
Can you tell me when you were asked to do a project independently? What was it?
These questions might get the process moving.
Challenge the candidate– You are hiring salespeople to do a specific job. Human beings inherently will do anything to avoid pain. However, in the business of selling, rejection is part of what selling is, and it can be painful.
If everyone got 100% of the business every time they presented a product, the salesperson would be out of business.
If you are hiring a salesperson to sell your product and prospecting is part of that, would you not at least ask them, “What happens when you get a ‘ No!’ – How do you react?”
Ask them this, and see what happens: “ You know what, I’m not convinced you are the right person for this job.” Observe their reaction. Do they sit there? Or do they do something that indicates they might do the same with a client?
Hoop 3- Assessment Tools
This also makes up 30% of the job evaluation- We take a lot of guidance from these types of assessments and go into more detail here: Download my FREE report. We used to call these the B.S. detector.
We carried these assessments out in my company specifically for the roles we were looking for, in salary and performance-based positions.
Our salespeople had to work alone. We had salespeople sprinkled worldwide, usually unmanaged, working in an unstructured environment.
We had to be clear on what we were looking for. That’s where traits/ behaviours come into play. We knew we had to hire for the task, not just the attitude.
In my next post, I explain what I look for in a salesperson and how I came to that.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, and expanded it into a global media sales and training powerhouse. He was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. His products and services are now sold in 23 countries and 11 languages, generating $350 million annually in sales for his clients. Mike sold the company in 2015 and now spends his time following his passions, including rugby and travel. His promise: “I can find thousands of dollars in your business within minutes – GUARANTEED” TRY ME!
