It’s been scientifically proven that a task that is repeated for 21 days consecutively would form ones habit. As human beings we are creatures of habits, and these habits tend to be constructive or destructive.
Sales habits are no different, and in fact, it is a pre requisite for any successful sales rep.Self development is vitally important to me, irrespective of whether this is career related or personal. My self awareness “voice” is always alert and never fails to highlight when I’m in my comfort zone.
I recently attended a sales event which was primarily focused on helping sales reps build their confidence, through learning from the experiences from other sales reps and sales leaders. During the question time, I was curious to understand what each of the speakers were doing differently, and how we all could potentially enhance our attitude.
So you guessed it, I proceeded asked the question:
You’ve all shared some tips and experiences in what makes you successful however, like an iceberg, can you share the 80% of your habits that we do not see?
The entire room was silent, it was almost as if no one had ever thought of this question. One of the speakers grabbed the microphone and proceeded to sharing her habits that is unseen and thankfully, the rest followed.
After the event, I had several people approach me and congratulate me on my question and how insightful it was. The founder and host of the event also approached me afterwards and mentioned he will be starting a series on habits, by interviewing successful leaders.
Others said if really sparked a “lightbulb moment”, they asked what my habits were as they felt it wasn’t the first time I’d been asked this question.
My answer, “Yes it wasn’t the first time, and when I meet like minded people, I ask this question. As someone with a growth mindset, I’m always interested in learning and adding to my pool of knowledge”
Here is what I shared with them:
- Start your day well – I’m usually up around 5am, I spend the next 2 hours on myself. This involves some moments of silence, and visualisation to reflect on my goals, my year, my quarter etc.
- Time to journal, read and review my side hustles. Time for the gym or home fitness with my wife
- By 7am I’m wide awake and ready for the day. I spend 30 minutes preparing for my day ahead, revising my task for the day and having the right mindset.
- During my commute I either blog or do some reading.
- I launch into my day by 9am and by midday, I feel energised and feel I have had a head start compared to the majority.
- Throughout the day I always have my notepad in my phone to gather ideas and ensure these are recorded. We all have hunches and one needs to be self aware when these are downloaded onto us and ready to record these.
- During my daily commute, when I’m out and about hiding clients, I make a conscious habit to interact with anyone whenever the chance arises. You’d be amazed the value of these interactions, not least another way to expand your network.
- Ensure I’m ticking along my daily actions in my diary once I complete them. You can call me old school but I prefer it this way.
- I arrive home in the evening and after dinner and spending some time with my wife, I spend sometime debriefing on the day I’ve had, I spend the hour before bedtime to catch up on other side hassle activities.
Progressive daily improvements leads to significant gains over a period of time. This was an extract from Zappos to urge their employees to improve 1% each day;
“If you start out with $100 at the beginning of the year and you were able to increase what you have by 1% every single day, at the end of the year, you would have $3,778.34 = $100 * (1 + 1%) ^ 365. That is 37.78x what you had at the beginning of the year. Get that 1% every single day!” — Zappos
Lets all get that 1% everyday!
To our Growth
Mike