TAKE ACTION, TAKE THE SHOT
TAKE ACTION, TAKE THE SHOT
The New Year is always a perfect time to reminisce, look back on the past year, and reflect upon what went well and what could have been better.
Both on a business and a personal level, it makes sense to take stock of where we are in life; and where we are going; while remembering to be grateful for the freedoms and abundance we enjoy and can sometimes take for granted in this great country.
Many of us get out our pens and paper and start writing down our goals for the coming year. At least the intangible thoughts rattling around in your brain have now officially seen the light of day. This is a great beginning point, but let me ask, “What are you actually going to do to make your goals happen?”
Is simply writing them down enough, or are at some point do you have to step off the ledge and just take action? Whether it is beginning a diet or healthy living plan, making more sales and money, spending more time with your family, writing the next great American novel or whatever resonates with you; how will you physically accomplish your goal?
Here’s an idea, just do it! Life rewards those people that take action.
Look at all of the people that you may admire, and figure out what unites them. They are doers. They don’t wait for the perfect moment, sizing up every benefit versus negative, they just start acting upon their goal and what motivates them.
Whether it is business leaders such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet, Sir Richard Branson, or revered politicians such as Sir Winston Churchill, or Abraham Lincoln, or renowned scientists looking for cures such as Louis Pasteur or Madame Curie, and inventors such as Edison and Ford. What do they have in common? Great dedication and a litany of failures mixed in with their successes that never prevented them from accomplishing their goals and life’s mission.
Edison famously said: “Genius is 1% Inspiration and 99% perspiration.” With thousands of patents to his name including the light bulb, he should know!
See if you can guess which sports hero made the following statement?
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games; 26 times I’ve been trusted to make the winning shot and missed.
I’ve failed over and over again in my life, and that’s why I succeed.”
Incredibly, it was the great Michael Jordan, a man many consider to be the finest basketball player in the modern era, and someone who in spite of his six championship rings, understood the importance of not being afraid to fail.
So how about you, is fear of failure holding you back? If analysis is what you like, ask yourselves the following questions that Bob Schultz teaches at our Management programs:
1) If I do (whatever is being considered)…what are the absolute best things that could happen, or be a result of taking this action.
2) If I do (whatever is being considered)… what are the absolute worst things that could happen, or be a result of taking this action.
3) What solutions, systems, resources or people are available to me; or, what could I do that would minimize the worst things that could happen as a result of taking this action?
4) If I take this action, and use any or all of what’s referenced in #3, what is most likely to happen?
5) If I do nothing, i.e., maintain the Status Quo, what is most likely to happen?
6) Am I willing to attempt the minimized worst (#4), to be on track to have all, or a part, of the best things that could happen (#1) as compared to #5?
7) Decide
If you would like this free self evaluation form, please write to me at:
And write “MANAGING DECISIONS – MINIMIZING RISK”
Still not convinced? When teaching Closing, I always share the story of my amateur soccer career. Hailing from Great Britain, I love playing soccer and used to play a pick up game at eight thirty every Sunday morning, in an empty park in Miami. Being a defender, I hadn’t scored a goal in eight years (a long dry spell I admit!), when one summer morning the game started and someone passed the ball to me on the half way line. I took a wild shot, and as fate would have it the wind picked up. The ball sailed over the head of the goalkeeper who was still tying up his shoe laces and into the empty net. Goaaaal! I know, brilliant, feel free to applaud!
That day on the way home I was still marveling at what an invigorating feeling it was to have scored such a great goal, and was wondering why I hadn’t scored for so many years before? Then it dawned on me, I simply hadn’t taken the shot! How ludicrous, because as a salesperson I was always taking the shot, every time with every customer, resulting in an abundance of sales! Yet somehow in my so called soccer career I was analyzing way too much. What if I miss? What if I make a fool of myself? Let’s get over it! For in many instances “Analysis is Paralysis”, whether it is in sales or in life.
Click the link below to check out this wonder goal from a young man called Danny Rose, making his debut for my favorite soccer club in England called Tottenham Hotspur. He comes off the substitutes bench in the 80th minute of a 90 minute game, and is given his big break in a heated Lodon Derby match against our fiercest rivals. See what he does with his first touch of the ball!
As the great hockey player Wayne Gretzky said:
“I always miss 100% of the shots I don’t take.”
When it comes to sales what have you got to lose by narrowing down choices on the first visit and asking for the sale? Oh except for a lot more sales and money!
So coming into this New Year, make a pledge to your self to follow through on your dreams, however large or small. Make 2012 the year that you take action. Let’s look at what President Theodore Roosevelt said on the subject:
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much
nor suffer much, because they live in that grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
Theodore Roosevelt
So both with sales and with your life, don’t just plan a better future, create one!
NEW HOME SALES BOOT CAMP ®
NOVEMBER 2011
New Home Sales boot Camp (r) November 2011 - Graduation Cheer!
Bob & Roland Having a Ball at Boot Camp
Roland,
I’ve written 6 agreements since I returned, 2 have credit snags but that is OK because at least the closing process worked. Most of these clients had shopped competitors prior to my meeting them, which makes the sale that much sweeter.
I would have to say the “mini closings” that I’ve been doing through my presentation have been extremely helpful. I also have answers to my top 10 objections memorized and am able to deal with those swiftly and precisely. In addition to that, I pick 1 new technique per week and try to perfect it.
I pretty much have every step I take and every word I speak thoroughly rehearsed at this point. Extremely confident (thanks to you all) that at this point I’m much more prepared than any of my competitors.
Best regards,
Richie Eubanks
Keller Williams Realty River Cities
Here is a picture of Bob and me with Richie at the program.
SALES HEROES
Bob and I are so blessed to work with so many of you from all over the country and, in fact, the world, so it is always hard to narrow down just one Sales Hero or team every month.
Having said that, this month we would like to give a special mention to the sales team at Schaeffer Family Homes who have been working with us for a short period of time but quickly “take action” on what we discuss, with great results. Led by owner Jason Schaeffer and Director of Community Management Christie Redner here is an excerpt of an email we just received from Christie.
- Across the board we are finding success since teaming up with Roland and Bob. They have assisted us in hiring 3 new sales associates, which have allowed us to keep our sales offices open 7 days a week and drive up the amount of traffic we are seeing.
- We are having our best month of sales in 4 years with 9 sales written this month!
- We took away SO MANY amazing ideas from Boot Camp. One was to create a “Home of the Month” that we marketed in all of our communities and website. Within a week it was under contract! I’d like to add that we have been trying to sell this home for over 6 months with no success until now.
- The on-site training with Rolandis extremely valuable. Our sales team, even those that we thought would have trouble adapting to the new training were able to role-play with him to try out the new planned presentation and get comfortable using the system and phrases. I attribute much of our success to this. One can repeatedly be told how to do something but until they try it out for themselves, and are given feedback on how they did, they will not have the confidence to do it while in front of customers. We have made our whole sales team into believers of role-playing!
Christie Redner ~ Director of Community Management
Schaeffer Family Homes
Here we are role playing something we call the “Closing Game” with Heather asking me for the sale, and then managing the objections that Anita and I were throwing at her, and asking again four more times until she made the sale. Like all training, this is about taking action and creating what we call “muscle memory” for Closing. By the way, Heather did a great job, and since the training began a few months ago, she, along with her new associate Britney, has already made 7 sales.
- Heather Role Playing The Closing Game
- Max Learning How to Close At Boot Camp
- Max Saying “Ssh Class in Session!”
Thank you again for the honor and privilege of working with you and your companies this year, and we wish you a healthy, happy and abundant New Year.
Happy Selling,
COACH ROLAND
Roland Nairnsey
Senior Vice President, Training & Development
Bob Schultz and the New Home Sales Specialists
2300 Glades Road, Suite 400W
Boca Raton, Fl 33431
Tel: 561-368-1151
4 Responses to “TAKE ACTION, TAKE THE SHOT”
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Love the idea of action. You can read, study, go to seminars, listen, but if you don’t put what you have learned into action, it is meaningless! Have a Merry Christmas!
David,
Always a pleasure to hear from you. Totally agree that it is not what you know, but what you do with what you know that counts! I have always found that “Action cures anxiety” as well. Just getting started makes you feel better and leads you closer to your goals.
Hope I get to see you this year.
Take care,
Roland
Roland,
I wish I had another boot camp! closing game? Do you have any kind of link for this?
Terri
Terri,
Lovely to hear from you. How are you doing?
No real link to the Closing Game, but it simply works like this.
1) Find a Role Play partner.
2) Sit them down and take them through a formal Recap Close: Architectural style (highlight 5 USP’s) , floor plan (in depth review with highlighter, confirm 5 personal choices), home site or condo location (confirm 3 USP’s), included feature sheet, Customer worksheet showing their home, on their home site with their luxury choices and the highly affordable (approx) monthly investment.
3) Ask for the sale
4) Manage the role players objection and then ask again using a different closing statement.
5) Repeat until you reach five requests for the sale, at which time the role payer capitulates and proceeds with the sale.
Hoowah! You have now created real “Muscle Memory” for closing and are developing your very own Closing Persona!
See how easy it can be? By the way feel free to call me if you need any more help.
Truly,
Roland