In this article I’m going to be talking about habits, really the actions and behaviors that we’re taking on canvassing, event marketing, and really all our face to face marketing activities to generate leads, appointments, and sales.
I think this is a really important topic because those who have been with me for awhile really see that we focus on the right mindset and actions that are required to thrive in generating leads and sales. I have people from all types of industries promoting all different types of products, services and this applies to everyone.
An advantage I bring to the table and why so many of my private clients and students are as successful as they are is because of 2 reasons; first I help them see the bigger picture and secondly study what successful people are doing. Then I’m able to bring proven successful methods for them to implement. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?
So the question is are the best marketing and sales people in the world the most motivated?
Not entirely.
I study, talk to and observe successful people and I find they’re where they are today as a result of their habits. Your habits determine fully 95% of your behavior. Everything that you are or that you will ever accomplish will be determined by the quality of the habits that you form. By creating good habits and becoming goal oriented you can become successful and live a prosperous life.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit.” Aristotle
The motivation that creates your action and habits comes from your mindset. Therefore your mindset creates the motivation towards the action and the habits that you do over and over again. Successful people have a passion for what they do, but that passion, if it’s not accompanied by taking action, is really useless. It’s really your habits more than anything that will lead to your success. So that’s what I’m going to focus on here, those habits that you’re doing and really your behavior, your action and habits, come from your mindset.
It was interesting, I was looking at a book and it was from Charles Duhiggs called The Power of Habit. One thing the author mentioned is so much of our behaviors are really related to our habits. He mentions the body’s natural and unconscious responses to triggers, whether that trigger starts bad habits such as over eating, biting our nails, or prospecting and sales mistakes, these are patterns that explain a lot of our harmful behaviors. If you look at habits, they form in the following cycle. There’s something that triggers the habit, then we come up with a routine. Then with that comes a reward. So next were going to look at those bad habits, how to eliminate those or replace them with good habits to help you become better at generating leads and sales.
Bad Trigger – The Need to get Leads and Sales
Canvassers and salespeople struggle the most when slipping into the mindset of, “I have to get the lead”, “Get the appointment” or “make a sale.” This is a trigger, one of the worst triggers. What happens is our intellect, our training, and our skill set becomes subverted when that ‘need’ for a lead, appointment, or sale triggers us. It’s amplified when you’re behind on quota, or you need to make more money. The pressure of the outcome drives the performance.
The ‘need’ to get leads and sales can also be to fill up your ego. The ego-driver is your need to brag or be showered with recognition. These are all bad performance drivers or triggers because they subvert your real objective, to serve the customers. The ‘needs’ I just described are self-serving and don’t serve the customer.
Ultimately you push the prospect away because your ‘need’ and theirs are not aligned. Prospects must feel in alignment with you, connect with you, or you won’t stand any chance at all of capturing them as a qualified lead. If you’re getting a lot of objections or responses like, “No thanks, I’m not interested”, then you know what I’m talking about and you’re probably trigging the bad habits in your presentation.
Change the Reward and You Change the Routine
For example, when you’re canvassing, a ‘need’ or ‘desire’ to get a lead or make an appointment is the driver behind YOUR actions; it sets up your routine. The prospect is able to see this clearly, even when you can’t. It completely sabotages your objective and results. For you, the motivation is getting the lead or appointment, that’s your reward. You have to eliminate the need, or desperation, to get the lead or appointment. Change the reward to helping the prospect make a good buying decision and you change position from being a sales person (in the eyes of the prospect) to a consultant, an advisor or problem solver. The new reward is consulting, helping them make a good buying decision. The outcome is the same, getting the lead or appointment, but the reward for you is different. You could call it, as Dan Kennedy does, the delayed sale, but, from my experience, there’s not much delay. The change in your routine is merely a change in your positioning (mindset).
Bad Trigger – Lack of Opportunity
There are 2 ways to perceive a glass of water, as half full or half empty. Your position on this concept will tell me a lot about your mindset. I mention it as basis for what I’m about to share with you.
In working with canvassers, especially those who’ve been on the job for many years, they’ll state that the opportunity in their area, or the potential for new sales, has dried up. Often this thinking can occur when a canvasser gets in a slump, not seeing leads or appointments for an extended period of time. This can lead to the first trigger I wrote about, the ‘need’ to produce leads. It then will turn to looking to defer the blame on them for lower productivity to something else. In this case, the ‘fact’ that all the ‘good’ leads are gone.
Abundance Mentality
The opportunity is there; you just need to get past the slump and your negative perception of it. I can tell you right now with canvassing, you can go through and drive through neighborhoods and look at house after house there will always be a majority of prospects in the neighborhood that are qualified. You just haven’t met them yet! For example, if you’re an exterior remodeler, this is really easy because you can drive down the street and see that they might need a roof, windows, siding, a driveway; all kinds of stuff. That’s pretty easy to do to recognize the huge opportunity available to you. Even if you sell products or services not recognizable from the street I could guarantee you if I did a survey of every home in the neighborhood the majority would have a need or want for your products or services. There’s a ton of people we still haven’t even talked to or maybe we talked to them and it was a year ago and things change. They weren’t ready at the time and still haven’t done anything. Now they’re ready to do something.
You have to look at the size of your market. Look at the pipeline. Look at the opportunity and remind yourself, there is abundance. To think there isn’t is small thinking. That’s thinking of poor people to justify why they’ve failed. They say stupid things like “Oh, the market is like a pie and there are only so many slices available of that pie.” Or “there’s only so much room at the top.” Unfortunately we’re fed this B.S. through the media and politicians because that helps them keep power. However successful people know how the natural laws of the universe and the mind work. The only limits of progress are what we limit ourselves. There has never been more opportunity than now. Overcoming the bad habit of thinking there is limited opportunity is overcoming it with an abundance mentality.
Bad Trigger – Losing Your Cool
Another bad trigger to overcome is losing your cool. I have never sugarcoated what we do as anything less than challenging and difficult. It can be frustrating and irritating at times. We have all had a bad day, a tough day, confronted with an irate prospect or have something dealt to us that’s really out of our control. It’s the nature of the beast. It’s the unexpected adversities that can set us off. None of us are immune from it. Face it! Get over it! Under no circumstances, lose your cool.
Overcoming the Unexpected to Stay Cool
Every day there is something new in our vocation. Change is the toughest thing you’ll experience in this profession. However, develop the success habits I teach and the rewards are endless and abundant. Training and practice is what keeps you going in adversity. The Marine’s success in battle against unimaginable difficulty and challenges is because of their training. Professional boxer Mohammed Ali said it best, “I hated every minute of training but I said don’t quit, suffer now, and live the rest of your life as a champion.”
If you’re a member then you’ve made a conscious decision to be successful. You’re among only 1% of others in this industry who are working to better themselves, practicing for success is a habit that makes you successful. Author Lucas Remmerswaal says, “Winners make a habit of doing things that losers don’t want to do.” San Francisco wide receiver Jerry Rice says, “Today I will do what others won’t so that tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.”
You have to recognize your habits and work to create better ones through your training so that triggers don’t take control of you. You are now in control…. so don’t wait take control of your success.
How Do You Develop the Success Habits Prospecting?
I’ve written and spoke about it before. My entire canvassing system is designed not to be salesy. My system is meant to position you as an advisor or consultant. From the introduction to confirming the appointment it’s all choreographed to lead you and the prospect to a predetermined outcome. All too often though I see canvassers rush the entire process. In my previous sentence I used the word ‘choreographed’ intentionally. That’s what my presentation is, a choreography. It’s a script to be delivered naturally. Actor Robert DeNiro, likely one of Hollywood’s highest paid actors gets himself into character before he plays a role. He’s acting a part and that requires him practicing all the areas to deliver a great performance. DeNiro works on facial expressions, body language, voice tonality, pacing, memorizing the lines and probably a lot more. In canvassing each person’s presentation is unique to their personality but it must be merged with the character you’re playing. If you’re in tune with the character you’re playing (advisor/consultant) and have practiced it you develop a confidence in canvassing. An entire presentation can be sabotaged by your nervousness, you’re performance anxiety, or, as I mentioned as trigger #1, your ‘need’ to produce a lead or appointment. Nervousness drives us to speed up or freeze up. As a result the prospect is confused and not comfortable with you it creates ‘fight or flight’ response from the prospect. Being conscience of the common bad habits and how to overcome them will springboard you into success.
We all have distractions and setbacks. Hopefully after reading this article you are aware of these bad triggers and habits. Now you can avoid those bad triggers and overcome them with the right types of habits and reinforce with positive rewards so you can get everything that you want in life and more.
Committed to your canvassing success,
Chris Thompson – The Canvass King