Negatives into positives

I usually get really pissed off when, after lengthy phone calls and deliberating, a company decides not to go ahead with an event. I know that this is something they should be doing, and yet, they have not been convinced. Or they don’t have the money, or they don’t want to take the risk. I have countless ways to handle their objections, but the reality is, not many companies are willing to spend $35,000 for the privilege of making millions. Strange but true. 

Major blow out today. A deal that would have been worth $49,000, and around $6,000 in commission in my bank. I was so excited about the call back I had butterflies. They were seriously on board. But the inevitable happened, and they decided not to go ahead. Something about them being unsure of their strategy for 2012. Whatever. 

The thing is, I didn’t get half as wound up about this as I usually would. In fact, I barely even cared. I just got straight back on the phone. Decided it was their loss, and I can probably pitch them in a few months time and maybe get them on board. It felt great to not be affected by the loss. The positive attitude I adopted on Sunday is a lasting one, any anger I felt, I simply put into the next phone call I had, got “all up in their grill” as my Director said, and had a fantastic call!! I challenged him to see why this wouldn’t work for their business, and he had nowhere to hide. Sometimes that’s the way you have to be with CEO’s, I don’t often adopt this approach but it looks like it works. We’ll see when I speak to him tomorrow.

The moral of the story: Instead of sulking when a deal doesn’t come through, make yourself see how much bigger the loss is for them than for you, move onto the next project, and put all of your energy into making that one count.

The Tony Robbins Realisation

Sunday 4^th September 2011

Its a sunny afternoon in the wonderful city of Sydney. I have chosen to be here. I have been away from home for 13 months now, 6 of which was spent travelling in south east Asia, and the past 7 have been spent living and working in Sydney as a Sales Executive for a global company, selling sponsorship packages for events. It is presenting me with a lot of opportunities, which is the reason that 2 months ago I decided to stay for longer than originally planned.   

Yet for some reason I feel like I'm crumbling under the pressure. I want to do well, but I have attached negative connotations to my situation, and it is holding me back. I have this idea that sales is not who I am, not who I want to be for the next few years of my life. But if I look at what I want to achieve in the next 10 years of my life, isn’t it just a means to an end? A way of being able to turn what was initially a backpacking experience into something that will progress my career? And the means, well it’s not a bad gig I’ve got here. I work with great people, and I know fundamentally that I am learning important skills, things that I will be able to use in the future to create success in my true passion, helping the developing world.  

Sales is a hard game. You have to be strong willed and resilient to succeed, and I’m not so sure I have those qualities. I hate what feels like constant rejection, KPI’s are a drag and somehow your expected to keep on going, like a robot. But I don’t want to give up. I chose to do this, and with promises of promotions and big pay cheques, I know its in my best interests to overcome the stress and turn it into something good. But this past 2 months have been hard for me in that sense. The rejection is becoming too much, its getting me down. I spend 11 hours in the office, come home, eat dinner, go to bed and then I can’t sleep. Its not a good pattern. But the reality of my current situation is that I have to finish what I started, or go back to square one. My visa restrictions mean that I either work here or go back to the UK and start again. Which would be OK- my friends and family are there, but I would feel like I have failed myself. Because I would have given up the moment things got tough. Sure, I have people telling me how great I am at my job all the time, my colleagues, director and even the global CEO. But I know I could be better. And what is greatness when you don’t truly believe it for yourself? What I truly believe is that I have the potential to be great, to really make a difference in this world. But that’s not going to happen without hard work. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. Well I haven’t been born “great”, or had “greatness” thrust upon me. I am just a regular person. Which means that without a doubt, I can achieve greatness, if I try hard enough. I think that’s something we should all believe about ourselves.

So what do i have to do to right now? Stop feeling so stressed out and down about the small things. Like the endless rejection when I call companies that don’t want to talk to me. Like having no companies to call in the first place. They are the types of things that get me down on a day to day basis, and if I let them, the domino effect will ruin the good thing I’ve got going here.

So this blog is going to document my journey. Right now, I am on the cusp of failure or success.  I either put everything I have into doing well, or I give up and go home. I have decided today that I am not going to fail, when all the opportunity is right there in front of me, why would I? The only thing stopping me, is me. This is something I have been told over and over again, and it needs to change right now. I have started reading a book that in the first few pages, has inspired me to be powerful and change the things I want to change in life. "Unlimited Power", by Tony Robbins. It uses NLP techniques, something I was already familiar with, and believe to be very inspiring and practical. I’m going to document how my attitude to life changes, in the hope that people in similar situations decide to do the same. And even if no one reads this, Its a great way for me to process everything; my thoughts, successes and failures that will inevitably result from this.