Breaking it Down to the Ridiculous

My Uncle Carmine always said, “If you want to walk back from the market with money, first you have to walk to the market with olives.” The trip, from his little village, to the market in Favara took four and a half hours, and he only made a few dollars profit on each round trip. So, I asked him once, “But Uncle Carmine, how did you get so rich?” He answered, “I made a lot of trips.” “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” We have all heard this expression so many times, in so many motivational speeches, that it has lost its power. This is unfortunate, however, because this statement demonstrates what is arguably the most important concept in the world of sales. Picture your life as a path, with a starting and ending point. You begin a sales career with no money, no income, no customers, and no business. At the end, you want to have a ton of customers, a huge business, employees, a house, money in the bank, your family taken care of, and your retirement provided for. The task of getting from the starting point to the finish line, the task of succeeding in a sales career, can seem so daunting, that you won’t even want to begin. So how do we do it? How do we motivate ourselves to do the seemingly impossible? When you want people to perform you “dangle the carrot in front of them,” or you “show them the money.” But how do you motivate yourself when the carrot is so far off and you can’t see the money? Remember that motivation, whether your are motivating yourself or others, is just a form of negotiation. When I was working in China, I learned that the Chinese would never walk in, on the first day, and ask for the world. Instead, they would only ask for an inch, which you would gladly give them. Then, the next day, they would ask for another inch. And when they got that, they would ask for another inch…and so on, until they gained the entire world. When the Chinese negotiator asked for that first inch, he wouldn’t divulge that his plan was to conquer the whole world. Instead, he would break his request into smaller and smaller pieces, until they were ridiculous. “We are old friends.” He would say. “You want to maintain good relationships with your friends don’t you? So, why not give me just one inch? Is one inch too much? Surely a man in your position could afford to give up one inch to preserve a good relationship.” I have seen Chinese business men who seem to operate on a one thousand year timeline, returning to the negotiating table, over and over again, asking for the smallest, stupidest concession. When the negotiations were finally done, the other party left the table wearing nothing but a barrel and a pair of suspenders. By breaking it down to the ridiculous, you can gain anything. Break your request down to such an infinitesimally small unit, that the person you are negotiating with can’t say “NO.” So, how does the concept of breaking it down to the ridiculous relate to your personal motivation? When you are standing at the beginning of that thirty year time line, where you are starting with nothing, and hoping to end with millions, don’t ask yourself to do thirty years worth of work. And don’t ask yourself to earn millions. Break your request down. Break your goal down into sub goals, smaller goals, partial goals and series of goals. Break your goals down until they become ridiculous. Breaking it down to the ridiculous, just like any other sales strategy, will only work if you are doing excellent tracking of your activity. You must employ a system of accurate record keeping, documenting your sales efforts: calls made, door knocked on, referrals asked for, mail sent, email sent, presentations attempted, presentations made, cases opened, cases closed, and average commissions earned. And of course, to monitor your progress toward your goal, you need to know what your goal is. Make your goals stated, attainable, timely, and challenging Start with your final salary goal for the year. Let’s say it is $100,000. Next, let’s assume your average commission is $200. You need to make 500 sales in order to reach your annual salary goal. Don’t ask yourself to make 500 sales on the first day. BREAK IT DOWN! There are 50 working weeks in a year. So, you need 10 sales per week. So, on the first Monday of your new life, only ask yourself to make 10 sales that week. If this number seems to daunting, then break it down further. Ask your self to make two sales per day. Still too much? Ask yourself to make one sale before lunch and one after. Look at your activity. How many calls do you need to make one sale? Is it 200? Then ask yourself to only make 200 calls before lunch. If this seems too much, break it down, ask yourself to make fifty calls in one hour. Surely 50 calls in one hour isn’t too much. Probably two-thirds of the people you call won’t even be there. So, all you are asking yourself to do is to talk to about 15 people per hour. Is fifteen too many? Ask yourself to call 25 people in a half hour, and talk to 8. Twenty-five calls per half hour, that equals one call per minute. One call per minute is not so bad. Every call you make, where you don’t reach someone or where you get hung up on, puts you ahead of schedule. If you track your dials closely, you can get excited. “I have only been on the phone fifteen minutes but I have already made twenty calls. I am way ahead of the game.” Remember that sales is a marathon, not a sprint. The activity you do today gets you that much closer to the house, the money, the retirement, the airplane, whatever it is that you want. Hang pictures of the dream house, the plane, and the money over your desk. Every time you feel call reluctance or activity laziness, just ask yourself. “Twenty-five calls in thirty minutes, is that too much to ask in order to get my beach house and my Porsche?” Break it down to the ridiculous, and your sales day will be easier to swallow.