Behave Yourself

So often, salespeople are looking for one piece of advice that will help them succeed in the
world of selling and business development. They seek a magic bullet that will take them
to the next level.

Well, here it is - BEHAVE!

It's the easiest thing in the world to understand, and the hardest thing in
the word to implement.

So what does this mean? It means setting behavior goals, creating plans to achieve
those goals, and implementing a set of consistent, controllable activities aimed at
accomplishing the plan. While every company's world is a little different, you probably
already know what those controllable activities might look like: go to networking functions,
call clients, build referral partnerships, ask for referrals, make cold calls, exhibit at trade
shows, run prospecting seminars, make follow-up calls.

Sales training involves working with salespeople to help them implement improvement
strategies in the areas of attitude, behavior and technique. For virtually everyone and
every company, behavior is the most difficult to change. In a few short months, perhaps
even weeks, people can recite - and even role-play - many of the new techniques they
have learned in the training process. But changing behavior, getting them to consistently
do more of the right stuff, which usually takes longer.

The commitment level of the individual and/or the corporation's management generally
dictates the rate of behavioral change, and ultimately, improvement in results. When a
business owner states, "We WILL change our selling behavior, we WILL track and
measure it, we WILL do what we need to do to be successful," and then stands behind
that belief through his or her actions as a manager, the improvement in results are
dramatically expedited.

Regardless of what type of business you run, focus on BEHAVIOR first - Without it, nothing else will change.

Richard Isaac
Sandler Authorized Licensee