Last week, I had a conversation with Les, a 25-year veteran CFP. He admitted that he’d struggled with Sales Call Reluctance for the first few years of his career. Because he kept taking action and doing his best to serve his clients well, Les slowly developed notoriety in his market and enjoyed a reputation as a trusted advisor.

In reviewing his goals for the next three to five years, Les finally allowed himself to admit that his clients were aging, their children had moved away, and he needed to get back into aggressive, proactive business-building mode in order to sustain and grow his business. He asked about the steps involved in getting into proactive prospecting mode because he was once again experiencing Sales Call Reluctance.

Before reviewing the individual steps, a couple points must be highlighted. First, the key to overcoming the fear of prospecting is to fully accept the fact that it is NOT prospecting that causes your anxiety – it is your thoughts about prospecting that cause your anxiety. Breathe and let that settle in.

Secondly, a shift in mindset is required to overcome Sales Call Reluctance and make consistent prospecting part of your daily success plan. This shift occurs through awareness, choice and trust.

Step 1. Awareness begins with answering some questions: What do you want? What are your performance goals? I’m sure everyone reading this article is acutely aware of their 2011 performance goals and has written them down. If you have not written your goals down and are not reading them every day, commit to making this part of your daily routine. You will thank me later!

Step 2. Now that you have written down your goals, it’s time to examine the “why” behind what you want to accomplish. If you truly want to achieve your goals this year, set aside some time this week for this next step. I recommend that you isolate yourself in a quiet, safe, warm place with a blank notebook. At the top of the first page, write “Why?” Then begin recording all the reasons you want to achieve your goals. What is important about each of them? Keep in mind that your first answer is rarely the real answer. Continue writing, and do not stop until you are in tears. Yes, I mean literal tears. That is what I recommend: write until you have evoked deep emotional response regarding what is important to you. This is one of the most powerful exercises you can perform.

Listen to all the excuses you that come up for you, e.g., “I’m not an emotional type,” or “I have taught myself to be emotionally disconnected from my production.” I hear different variations on these from time to time. However, distancing yourself from your emotions is merely a coping mechanism that disconnects you from what is most important to you. Top producers are deeply rooted in their “why.” Every day, FAs are subject to potentially discouraging events and relationship challenges. When you are emotionally rooted in your “why,” you will quickly bounce back, experiencing greater resilience. The only way you are going to shift out of Sales Call Reluctance mode is to get deeply committed and emotionally connected to your “why.”

When most people sit down to start this exercise, they are tempted to answer the wrong question. Rather than “Why?” they tend to focus on “How?” Resist the temptation to get caught up in the “how.” Put the “how” aside. The “how” is the easy part. Horsesmouth archives and current articles are full of the best answers to “how” that you can find anywhere. Ignore the “how,” for now.

Stay on track with identifying your “why” and be as specific as you can be. Whatever comes up for you is the right answer, as long as it’s emotionally honest. It’s perfectly fine to want to be recognized by your company, your broker and/or your peers as a top producer, to have your dream home, or to enjoy luxurious vacations. I recommend that you type up your “whys” and read them every day, along with your goals. From your list, make a book or poster of images that represent your goals. It is important that the pictures resonate with you and depict exactly what you want. If you are tempted to dismiss this as a silly exercise, you do not understand how your brain works. What you think about, you bring about; what you focus on, you create. A top producing FA revealed that he has a private book with pictures of everything he wants in it. He reviews it daily. He has a dream business that grows more and more profitable every year.

Timothy Gallwey, author of The Inner Game of Work, defines awareness as getting the clearest possible picture of current reality. FAs have empirical knowledge of this, because you cannot move forward with a prospect until they have fully disclosed their current financial situation. Now it’s time to admit your current reality. Where are you right now with respect to your mega-priority performance goal? Wherever you are is fine. Breathe and be ruthlessly honest.

Step 3. Write down all the good things you have in place, e.g., your current AUM, and be deeply grateful for clients who believe in you. What about your assistant? Write down all the reasons you appreciate your assistant. What about your manager? Your firm? Your office? Acknowledge your referral sources who generously introduce you to prospects. Write only the positive aspects and allow yourself to recognize the good. As Barbara Fredrickson states in her book, Positivity, “It is the sparkle of good things that awakens your motivation to change.”

Step 4. Write down your strengths. Why are you good at what you do? Are you an excellent communicator? How does your education benefit you? Your certifications? Do clients highly respect you and listen to your advice? Are you smart? Enjoy finance? Do you love the process of walking people through their financial goals and helping them design their financial futures?  Your confidence breeds confidence in your prospects and clients.

Step 5. What is your unique value proposition? Knowing it is not enough; you must write it down. This is absolutely vital. If you do not know how you are unique, stop everything else you are doing and immediately get busy on this. Excuses are unacceptable. Work at it until you arrive at the thing that makes you unique. If any other FA can say the same thing, you have more work to do. Your laser-sharp value proposition is as unique as your fingerprint. Get together with your manager, a friend, mentor, mastermind partner, a coach – someone who will assist you with this important exercise. You need to confidently believe this statement with every fiber of your body. Once again, your confidence will breed confidence in your prospects. Most pitches I hear from struggling FAs are nonspecific, vague, ambiguous – they aren’t landing clients because they do not know why their prospects should retain them.

Step 6. Get into action. The baseball game does not begin until the pitcher throws the first ball.  You must start pitching in order to get the hits.  You may pitch a few foul balls and strike out from time to time, but you will not be in the game unless you are consistently pitching.  The more you pitch the more chances of a home run.  Do not kid yourself on this step. The “how” will come to you. You have resources galore. Get moving and put your daily strategy into place. Does your past experience prove that seminar selling works? How many strategic alliances do you have in place? How many prospects do you have on your top 20 list? This article is not about the “how” of prospecting because you already know how. If you don’t think you do, go back to steps 2 through 5 and your “how” will come to you.

Step 7. Now it’s time for you to proactively prospect and self-promote. The fear of self-promotion is the fear that underlies Sales Call Reluctance. What is your relationship with self promotion? What immediately comes up when you read the words “self-promote?” What perspective do you hold about self-promoters? Is it positive or negative? If it is negative, how might you shift it? What are alternative ways to interpret self-promotion? There are 12 fears FAs experience when they start self-promoting. For example, some think that prospects do not like to be called on the telephone. They make excuses like, “The telephone doesn’t work. All I get is voicemail, and no one ever returns my call.” Others convince themselves that high net worth prospects are already dealing with another FA. Some believe that prospects are tired of being prospected. Just know that you are projecting your fears, prejudices and self-doubt onto your prospecting calls and the fear, prejudice and self-doubt is reflecting back on you.  It is important that you allow yourself to identify your perspective on self-promotion and your negative intruders so that you can stop the negative and develop new neuronets in your brain around self-promotion.

Are you willing to shift your perspective? Remember: It’s not prospecting that causes your anxiety, it’s your thoughts about it.

Let’s reexamine the perspective of “All I get is voicemail and no one ever returns my call.” Is that statement really true? Has anyone ever returned your voicemail? Oh, yes admittedly some people do. I wonder if you need some work on your voicemail messaging? What resources are available on voicemail messaging? When was the last time you listened to one of the messages you left? Would you return your call?  Remember 73% of a voice message is your tonality.  Maybe if you left a more compelling message that proves you have done your homework, along with a request that they call you back at their earliest convenience, it might work.

Eavesdrop on yourself and observe any contradictions. You are crystal clear on your “why,” you have a reason to prospect, you know you have a compelling solution for your prospects; however, your thoughts (negative intruders) are sandbagging your efforts. Identify your negative intruders and write them down.

Now it’s time to discuss choice. Can anyone choose a thought for you? On any given day, you have anywhere from 30,000 to 60,000 thoughts. When you are in prospecting mode, your habitual thoughts are like knee-jerk reactions – they come up automatically. The good news is that because habits are learned, you can unlearn them by becoming aware of them. Identify them, allow them to come forward, write them down. Now, what alternative perspective might you choose?

For example, a five-year CFP said to me today, “Nobody wants to talk to a financial planner. They don’t respect financial planners.” His negative perspective is costing him his career. He suffers from toxic role rejection Call Reluctance, meaning he is vastly uncomfortable in the role of a salesperson. He has some shifting to do, which might be difficult but is entirely possible for him as long as he’s willing to consider choosing alternative perspectives.

When you move through awareness, know you always have a choice, the most fantastic thing happens, you begin to trust the process and most important trusting yourself.  Self-trust is the foundation of any successful career.

The two CFPs referred to above are really no different from you. Each of you can have fantastic results if you work the steps, know your “why,” and deliberately challenge your negative interpretations/perspectives and choose alternative supportive thoughts that enable you to develop a positive perspective. The only shame in Sales Call Reluctance is living with it unnecessarily.

Connie Kadansky, MA, PCC is a coach, speaker and trainer specializing in Overcoming Sales Call Reluctance®.  She offers effective tools and training to diagnose call reluctance and assists salespeople in highly profitable prospecting.  Connie facilitates the Fear-Free Prospecting and Self-Promotion Workshop® globally.  For additional information, contact Connie at 602-997-1101 or visit her website at www.exceptionalsales.com.

1) Did you consider what your office says about you and your success?
2) Did you re-model or re-decorate?
3) Is it important that clients feel comfortable?
4) Is a nice, professional office important to building and maintaining professional relationships or will any type office do?
5) And if your office is professional and inviting, would it make sense for you to greet your cleints wearing a track suit?

While branding is not easy to measure, if even possible – it it easy to see that it is absolutely critical. Branding is you, your image, your value, your uniqueness and most importantly, what people remember about you.

A well articulated and nurtured brand will help people quantify who you are, what you do best and the difference working with you made it their life and business. How can you build a business without this level of identification and communication? You can, you’re just making it much more diffuclt fgor yourself and your company.

Jerry, a financial advisor, was building a clientele of up-and-coming professionals.  He was always diligent about asking for referrals.  One day, one of his clients — an architect — offered to arrange a luncheon meeting to introduce Jerry to a prominent local attorney from one of the community’s oldest and wealthiest families.

Jerry’s initial surge of excitement and gratitude soon dissipated, replaced by a deep-seated feeling of dread.  Jerry had grown up on the “wrong” side of the tracks, and even though he’d been to college and become financially successful in his own right, he felt completely intimidated by old money and social standing.  Jerry has alluded to these feelings a few times in the past, but his manager always responded with the same pep talk:  “High-net-worth people put their pants on one leg at a time just like you and me.”

Paralyzed by imagined inferiority

Intellectually, Jerry knew what his manager said was true, but it didn’t help at all, because he was entrenched in something that we call “social self-consciousness.”  It’s one of the 12 types of Sales Call Reluctance that cause financial advisors to avoid prospects with wealth, prestige, power, education, or social status.

Financial advisors know that in order to succeed, they need to be prospecting and getting appointments with people who are the ultimate decision maker.  Often, though, financial advisors who come from blue-collar roots or have been indoctrinated into a psychological caste system have a tendency to elevate upscale individuals to exaggerated heights of superiority and influence.

Financial advisors with social self-consciousness excessively admire influential or very wealthy people and feel inferior to them, and when they are in the presence of such people, they regress into debilitating behaviors.  They swing between feeling admiration and feeling intimidated, conflicted, and even awestruck.  They may clam up or begin to fawn on the person, unable to find a healthy middle ground where they can prospect successfully.

Diagnosing the problem

What do you do if you fit this description?  All the intellectualizing in the world will not resolve this fear.  It needs to be addressed emotionally and behaviorally.

First, you must take responsibility for what you are experiencing.  This is not the most popular advice.  However, it is really the only way in order to overcome social self-consciousness.

Observe your behavior with service personnel or other people you may feel are inferior to you in some way.  Some people who experience social self-consciousness habitually intimidate those they perceive as below them on the social ladder.  They treat these people just as poorly and in just the same way as they believe their own social “betters” have treated them.

If you find that you are rude or even somewhat rude toward people that you rate lower in social standing than yourself, immediately start going out of your way to notice how they contribute to society.  Notice their value.  Everyone, even the homeless person on the street, contributes to society in some way.  (For instance, seeing a homeless person may trigger others to be more grateful or more compassionate.  This is a valuable contribution.)  Begin to treat everyone, regardless of their perceived social standing, with courtesy and respect.  Extend pleasantries to everyone you encounter.  You will be amazed at the result.

‘Zap’ to interrupt habitual thought

Now it’s time to work on the day-to-day thoughts and behaviors that are standing in the way of your success.

Step 1:  Document your negative thoughts. When you think about prospecting someone you view as upscale and find yourself feeling intimidated, write down the thought that is triggering the intimidation.  Perhaps it’s something like these:

• “People like her get prospected day in and day out by salespeople.”
• “He must already be working with a financial advisor he really likes.”
• “These people are well networked; calling on them is futile.  They only work with their friends.”

Notice the story you are making up that is keeping you from prospecting.  This awareness is vital.  It is not prospecting upscale clientele that is intimidating you.  It is your thoughts about prospecting upscale clientele that are intimidating you.

As simple as this may sound, it is very profound.  Once you recognize that making up stories is what is making you miserable and casting you into intimidation and self-doubt, you take back the power to stop feeling that way.  Your freedom from social self-consciousness begins with your willingness to write down these pessimistic thoughts, or what we call “negative intruders.”

Step 2:  Observe your emotions. Once you have identified a negative intruder, notice your emotional reaction.  Are you stammering?  Does your brain freeze?  Is your speech monotone or overly fawning or apologetic?  Become a scientist of your emotions and behavior.

Be careful:  Many financial advisors get angry at themselves at this point.  They brutally criticize and chastise themselves for having these feelings.  This is a trap of self-sabotage.  You must break the habit of self-criticism.  It is always destructive, never productive.  When you judge yourself, you lose the entire effect of the exercise.  So just notice, without judgment.

Step 3:  Zap your negative thoughts. Get a wide rubber band and put it on your wrist.  Every time you spot a negative intruder, zap yourself with a gentle snap of the rubber band.  This will interrupt the habitual thought that is holding you back.  Zap every single time you have thoughts of being inferior to or intimidated by someone of higher wealth or social standing than you.

The thought-zapper rubber band is not to be used for punishment. It does not need to hurt, just sting slightly.  The purpose is to add a physical component to changing your habits of mind, your thinking habits.

Make no mistakes:  Feeling intimidated by important people is a habit.  No one is born socially self-conscious.  It is entirely learned.  The zapper will actually work on rewiring the neural networks in your brain that have been hard-wired to make you believe that upscale prospects are intimidating and that you are not worthy of their business.  A habit’s worse enemy is interruption.

If you are the type that would use the thought zapper as painful punishment, you are advised to not employ this technique.  It would be counterproductive and actually cause more self-sabotage.  (Go back to Step 2 and try to work on being nonjudgmental with yourself and others.  This will help you move on.)

Step 4:  Neutralizing the negative. Now that you have zapped, replace the negative intruder with a neutral thought, such as:

• “He probably gets lots of calls.  That means timing is everything.  I will be the first to call him today.”
• “Even if she is working with someone else, she may be looking for a second opinion on that new tax law, and I can provide potentially valuable information prior to her filing income tax returns.”
• “As well-networked as some people are, they can be open to meeting new people who have something interesting to present.”

The more you zap the habitual thoughts that trigger negative feelings about prospecting influential or wealthy people, the more you’ll break the hard-wiring in your brain and replace it with new neural networks.

Step 5:  Change your behavior. When you do eventually make the call, remember that many high-net-worth people employ assistants, or gate openers.  Notice my choice of terms:  gate openers.  Many salespeople think of these assistants as “gatekeepers” and get into defense mode prior to making th  eir prospecting calls.

Instead, think of them as gate openersand treat them just as you would treat the high-net-worth client.  Tell them exactly who you are and the purpose of your call, using an engaging statement that piques their interest.  Don’t go off on an internal campaign about receptionists and administrative assistants and how rude they are to salespeople.  This is a great time to practice treating everyone with respect and noticing their value.

When you attend events of any kind, seek out the people in the spotlight, introduce yourself, and initiate a conversation.  You do not need to think of yourself as prospecting at this point.  You are simply conditioning yourself to meet the people who used to intimidate you.  And you just may find out that they are pretty cool people who are more open — and more human — than you thought!

Be patient

There is no overnight fix for social self-consciousness.  After all, it didn’t develop overnight.  It has been with you a long time.  But the sooner you start with these types and techniques — all of which have been proven to break the logjam of call reluctance — the more quickly you will start to feel comfortable with all types of people, regardless of their wealth or social standing.

As Rudyard Kipling reminds us in his famous poem “if”:

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none to much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And which is more you’ll be a Man, my son!

It’s build on an Aesop fable that goes something like this.

A farmer’s son, is daydreaming as he walks to town with a pail of milk balanced on his head. His thoughts: “The milk in this pail will provide me with cream, which I will make into butter, which I will sell in the market, and buy a dozen eggs, which will hatch into chickens, which will lay more eggs, and soon I shall have a large poultry yard. I’ll sell some of the fowls and buy myself a handsome new suit and go to the fair, and when the young ladies become amorous, I’ll puff my chest and toss my head as I pass them by.” At that moment, he tossed his head and lost the pail full of milk. His father admonished, “Do not count your chickens before they are hatched.”

As children and young adults we take countless uncalculated risks.  As we mature and grow wiser, we learn from our mistakes, and the mistakes of others, and we become increasingly risk averse.   Since the beginning of time — well at least since Aesop in 600 B.C. — the wise and mature sentiments have been “look before you leap”, “once burned, twice shy” and, “don’t count your chicken before they are hatched”.

If you think about that, it becomes easy to understand why those of us who are prepared to take risks — calculated risks — are the ones who are most likely to reap fortunes.

The financial fiasco of 2008 and 2009 are quite literally behind us.  Some of us will choose to batten down the hatches and never put ourselves in a position to have to deal with that again.  Others will look into the future at the opportunities that are presented while so many are shaking in their boots.

The time may never be better invest in your future.  If we go back to Aesop’s fable; the chickens are hatching and it’s time to do something with them.

If you are experiencing Sales Call Reluctance, you have choices to solve your prospecting problem.
1) Hire someone else to make your prospecting calls. A small number of financial advisors have done this very successfully. They found the right person to make the calls. However, there are thousands of war stories about hiring one telemarketer after another that never produced any result.

2) Rely on your current clientele and network to refer business to you. A small number of savvy financial advisors have worked hard over the years and have been very successful. However, with the natural attrition of any business, most experienced veterans have found that this model is not enough to keep them ahead of the curve — especially in this current economic climate.

3) Settle for mediocre business and bump along the best you can.

4) Take on your Sales Call Reluctance issues intelligently, which starts with admitting that you are not prospecting. Then recognize that it is not prospecting that causes your anxiety and spins you into self-doubt. It’s your thought about prospecting that causes your anxiety that triggers self-doubt. Start watching your thoughts like a cat watches a mouse. Notice how you are projecting negativity onto the call before you even make it. This can be disconcerting to recognize at first. However, it is the start of disciplining your thoughts and can be absolutely transformational. For example, when you are ready to reach for the phone and you stop and start checking email for the 200th time for the day — immediately tune into what is it that you are choosing to think that is causing you to stop. Then immediately pivot to another thought, i.e. “I have clients who are confident in my abilities.” (you construct your own replacement thought) Sound a little complicated? It is and can be — however, it doesn’t have to be. It is entirely possible for you to overcome your Sales Call Reluctance and start earning what your are worth!

Connie Kadansky, MA, PCC

I help financial advisors get their “ask” in gear.

Here’s a generic example first and we’ll apply it to financial services a bit later on. Think about toothpaste. Its basic function is to clean teeth. Pretty boring stuff right? NOT! Through our ever increasing need for choices, toothpaste’s purpose has expanded over the years to: prevent cavities, freshen breath, whiten teeth, desensitize to heat and cold, brighten smiles and even heighten sexual prowess.

You can walk into most department stores and be faced with an entire mind-numbing isle of selection on shapes, sizes, flavors from this list: Aim, Aquafresh, Arm & Hammer, Colgate, Crest, Darlie, Doramad, Elmex, Euthymol, Gleem, Ipana, Kolynos, Lion, Mentadent, Oral-B, Pepsodent, Sensodyne, Signal, Sozodont, Stomatol, Therabreath, Tom’s of Maine, Ultra Brite, Zendium.

That’s just toothpaste. Imaging being sent to the store for toothpaste, salad dressing and cereal. Essentially, you would be faced with more than 2,000 choices. And, the choices are getting bigger every day.

The common misconception is that choices make things better, they free us up and we are more satisfied as a result. In truth, the exact opposite happens.
Here is what selection and choice does: (Start thinking of these in terms of your practice.)

1. Too many choices can create paralysis to the point of no decision being made at all. Or, more specifically, the decision to make no choice and simply put the decision off. It has been shown repeatedly that when the anxiety and risk of making the wrong decision exceeds possible benefit, then the go-forward decision is simply postponed to tomorrow, then tomorrow, then tomorrow and eventually the decision never happens.
2. When faced with a variety of choices, after a decision is made, people are more easily dissatisfied with their choice. This is because it is easy to imagine the benefits and rewards we might have achieved had we picked something else. Buyer’s remorse or regret are more prevalent when there are a multitude of choices and the most minor malfunction, or lack of performance is quickly compared to the utopia that would have been provided through a different decision.
3. Given hundreds or even thousands of choices for a product or service, our expectations increase significantly when it comes to the rewards of our decision. We believe that surely, with so many choices and options, the decision we make will meet our exact need. In reality, that is rarely the case. Our expectations increase in proportion to the number of choices we have and as a result, the product or service rarely meets our excessively high expectations.
4. We blame ourselves for bad decisions. Surely, with all the choices out there, there is a product or service that is perfect for us. As suppliers push decisions onto consumers, the consumers take ownership for “betting on the wrong horse.” As a result we are even less satisfied with our decisions and even more reluctant to make a decision the next time.
   

   So what does all mean to people in the financial services industry — an industry where clients have access to an almost infinite array of choices?

   You need to balance your client’s need to be informed and be part of the decision with their need to feel comfortable with the decision to the point of not even thinking about it again after the decision is made.

   There is really only one way to do that. With full disclosure in mind, inform them in the simplest terms possible and help them make the decision. Take ownership for the decision whenever possible and keep them informed as to the results. The more work you do in assisting the decision, the less work they will be compelled to do and the happier they will be in both the short and long term.

   Reducing choice to increase satisfaction, retention and even referrals seems counter intuitive. Speaking of choices; simplifying decisions for your clients is a choice only you can make.

In October of 2009, the Association of British Insurers called on the European Commission to deliver a framework for removing remuneration bias as well as other changes in the way retail investment products are sold. How long will it be before this is a reality in Europe and North America? Or better yet, how prepared will you be to change the way you’ve always done business?

The ABI urged the EC to:

- put the needs of consumers first when thinking about any new regulatory framework for PRIPs at a European level;

- recognise the importance of increasing consumers’ savings and encouraging a competitive environment between different product types and manufacturers;

- focus on the economic purpose of a product, rather than its legal form – equivalent products should have equivalent regulatory treatment;

- recognise that consumers want, need and deserve a regulatory framework for selling practices that focuses on their needs, treats them fairly, enables them to understand the sales process and ensures that financial advice is not biased by remuneration arrangements with product providers.

Read full articles – Article 1 | Article 2.

Download the Packaged Retail Investment Products (PRIPs): New Ways of Thinking

Obviously it wouldn’t be great marketing to put up a billboard that announced to the world: “Hey – deal with me – I’m the same as everyone else”.    Or would it?   Imagine a marketing campaign where the audience was told: “You may as well pick me because I’m just as good as the next guy so, why not?”

Okay – hang onto your chair – here’s some news you aren’t going to like.  The truth is, most service companies are pretty much exactly the same.  We can find a hundred lawyers or accountants or financial advisors in any small city and they all say the same thing.

We’re different and here’s how:
•    With us, it’s not all about the money.
•    We care about our clients.
•    We don’t take shortcuts
•    We are experts
•    We take the time to understand your needs
•    We make sure your needs are taken care of
•    We make the complex simple
•    We take the worry out of your decisions

If this sounds familiar, it’s because it IS familiar.

I did warn you that you wouldn’t like it.  Okay, I can hear it now; the denial.    It’s like the 5 stages of grief:  Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance.   Companies will not and cannot become truly different in the eyes of their clients until they accept the fact that there are hundreds, even thousands of similar service providers in the same market that are ALL telling their clients they are unique – for exactly the same reasons.

So what’s the point?  The point is that MOST businesses do indeed possess some degree of uniqueness. The important thing to remember is HOW to position that uniqueness to their best clients and prospects. Businesses can no longer afford to market themselves as unique the same way everyone else does – prospective clients simply won’t believe it.  Think about how many times in a day or week you see and hear marketing campaigns built on saving time and money.  It’s old, it’s worn out and it isn’t believable, even if it were true.

In general, all similar businesses are, well… similar.  All audiences believe that and telling them differently won’t convince them otherwise.  The proof of the pudding, as the saying goes, is in the tasting.

What is the answer then?  The answer is incredibly simple.  So simple in fact that it risks being scoffed at.

Each business has one or two things that will be ever-so-slightly different than their competitors when it comes to their target market.  You need to leverage that difference in a way that has both real and potential value to your best clients. The eureka moment comes when you integrate it as part of your brand.  Make sure you visit our articles on Branding for ideas on how to do that.

Here are some tips to help you right now:

1. Take a deep breath — it will slow down your mental processes that are overactive and chaotic, creating your anxiety. (Yes, it’s not prospecting calling that is causing your anxiety, it’s your thought about prospecting calling.)

2. Make sure that both of your feet are on the floor as you close your eyes and take a second deep breath.

3. Think of a current client who really believes in you and you are part of their inner circle. Keep thinking of them until a smile comes across your face.

4. What is the value you provide for this client? What do they say about your products/services? Be specific. Ease yourself into allowing yourself to recognize your value. Jot down the key points.

5. Pick up the phone with the thought of this client in your mind and that you are simply going to find your next client.
You can re-train your brain to prospect consistently.

Connie Kadansky, Exceptional Sales Performance, Sales Call Reluctance trainer/coach: 602-997-1101 www.exceptionalsales.com — connie@exceptionalsales.com

DO YOU HAVE THE RIGHT MAKEOVER MINDSET?

Making over your business is not for everyone, especially those who are timid or complacent. If you’re okay to continue doing what you’ve always done and getting what you’ve always gotten, you can stop reading right now. This article will not interest you or serve you. But, if you truly want to make a lasting change in your business, this article will be that wake-up-call you’ve been waiting for. It will challenge you and point you in the right direction.

A makeover should mean more than just dusting-off and tweaking what could be.  It should mean “If I could do this all over again the right way, what would I do?”

For most people, starting over can be exciting at best and intimidating at worst. It’s all a question of perspective.  To achieve greater results, by an order of magnitude, means taking risks and being passionate about the rewards.   It also means going through a mental makeover before the physical makeover starts. One thing is very clear, if you want to move forward to bigger and better, getting more of things you want and doing less of the things you don’t want, a positive mental attitude is the only answer that will serve you.

“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” -Thomas Jefferson

A Makeover Mindset (MM) is how we describe the frame of mind of someone who knows with clarity and certainty that the thinking that got them to where they are today is not the thinking that is needed to take them to the next level of success and happiness. MM is the “aha” moment when you know for certain that you need to STOP dusting-off and tweaking.  MM is only achieved when the understanding is clear that something very different needs to happen.  Something big.  Something worthy of being called a makeover.  Unfortunately,  “aha” moments are often fleeting inspirations for most of us unless there is focused and sustainable action.

A MM can only be achieved when there is a realization, a revelation if you will, that there is a third “M” – Madness.  Madness is the depletion of energy and expenditure of time and resources on repeating the same thing we’ve always done to just maintain the status quo.  Madness is working harder and longer just to maintain your current success – your plateau.   Most every successful business owner and entrepreneur has gone through long hours and heavy lifting, working hard and diligently to achieve that success. The Madness is continuing to do those same things just to maintain the current level.

It’s worth spending a moment on inspiration.  At some point, most successful business owners have been caught in a moment of inspiration to make a huge change, and yet, nothing came from it? Think about a great book you may have read where you were consumed by the storyline and potential, feeling like change was necessary and paramount.  Then what happened?  Many entrepreneurs sleep on it, consider it and move on to “more pressing matters”, the “day to day”.  The fleeting infatuation with MM ends and the Madness lives on.  To escape it, you need to seize the moment and take directed action.

In my career I’ve had many “aha” moments, many of which I’ve not been able to embrace and sustain. It’s a deflating experience when your next “aha” is that you haven’t been able to sustain the greatest “moments” for change in your business and your life.  I’m speaking from experience.

But I finally understand it, how to escape the Madness forever and never look back. It’s been one heck of a journey. The quest for magic solutions for achieving extraordinary success is a tiring, expensive journey. It’s a road paved with promises and compromises. Although there have been exhilarating moments, I wish I could have done it differently. Although I’ve gained incredible insights from my failures I’d much rather have know how to do it right many years ago.

I WANT TO SHARE THE FORMULA FOR SUCCESS WITH YOU

Success is about vision, focus, awareness, accountability, starting and quitting. Yes, I said quitting. Quitting the right things will free you to pursue only that which drives you towards achieving your vision.

Here’s my challenge to all of you who are either immersed in the Madness or have flirting relationships with the “aha” moment that will catapult you. Here’s the juice!

Define your Vision.  Then, quit anything or everything that doesn’t clearly move you in that direction. Embrace highly focused activities and your greatest leverage points. Seek new thinking. Take action. Begin with the end in mind. Find the right partners to help you focus and hold you accountable. Build momentum every day, every week, every month, and every year until your vision of success becomes your reality.

TAKING ACTION IS A DECISION ONLY YOU CAN MAKE.

Here’s what starting looks like:

1. Take the free SuQu Mindscan Assessment. Understand your thinking strengths, leverage points and areas for improvement. Take the MindScan at www.freedomarketing.com/MS.
2. Find a coach and/or mentor to help you find a sustainable mindset and someone to hold you accountable. We’ve worked with some amazing business coaches and tactical referral coaches who we’d be happy to introduce you to.
3. Create a SuQu Map with your business coach. Begin with the end in mind and work backwards so you know exactly what is needed to move towards success. Focus on sustainable momentum. The coaches we know will guide you through the SuQu process.
4. Make sure you have the right partners to help you build systems and processes, define your message (brand), identify your ideal client, develop your marketing, and generate an endless flow of ideal prospects through introductions.

If you need helping putting this all into perspective call me at (905) 579-7724. I’d be delighted to talk this through with you. But don’t call until you’ve taken the Mindscan.

Here’s to YOUR LIFE – BEYOND THE MADNESS!