You want to be a top producer, but you're stuck where you are and you don't know how to get any better. You've done what you were supposed to do, but you aren't moving up. You're frustrated and exhausted and you realize you don't know what you don't know. As long as you continue to do what you're doing now you'll stay stuck and frustrated. The very success that got you where you are today now has you trapped at that level.
At this point you aren't where you want to be, but you're comfortable enough that you've grown complacent. Complacency and comfort are dangerous places to be. You know how to get where you are, but you don't know what you don't know about getting to the next level.
If you aren't moving forward you're moving backward. It's ten times harder to regain momentum than it is to keep momentum going. Top producers spend a great deal of time improving on the fundamentals of sales and marketing even though they do it very well already. Plus top producers don't do the things that industry experts tell them to do. There is a very good reason for that. Top producers don't cold call, they don't use general marketing communications, and they don't waste their time networking at chamber events. No one handed them any breaks. Top producers became the best by learning from people outside their industry.
It may seem confusing that they would they turn to people outside their industry for help when they could tap into the top producers in their industry. But when you think about it the answers become obvious: the best doers aren't necessarily the best coaches and mentors, the best aren't likely to want to share their secrets and have you directly competing with them, and even if you tried to clone them it wouldn't necessarily work for you because you aren't the same people.
Top producers establish their own uniqueness in the market. You have to follow and understand a sales systems so you stay focused on the prospect. That doesn't mean using a presentation. The sales system you use should keep you focused on the prospect. You can't help a prospect to buy if you don't stay focused on what they want.
Perhaps one of the most important things a top producer understands is that if you want to sell you have to stop selling, and learn how to help people buy. It takes work to learn how to help people to buy. But top producers are never afraid to work on things that have a high pay-off rather than spinning their wheels on a low value activities that produce nothing. And isn't that what you're doing now?
About the Author
About the author: Cheryl Clausen can help you get unstuck. Find out how how your Sales Skills measure up. Could you succeed faster if you just had more time? Enhance your Time Management Skills, check this out.