If you are in sales and you treat it like, well just a job, you will never succeed. You have to do it with intensity and passion and seriousness. This is the life you chose. This is how you make your living. This is what you do to put bread on the table. This in some ways is what defines you, or at least defines one facet of who you are.

You owe it to your company, the people who pay you to give 100%. Actually, you owe it to yourself to give 150%. It takes great effort to be great.

One of the things I have learned in this life is this, “When you wake up in the morning, if you don’t have a burning desire to change the world…then don’t bother to get out of bed.”

There is no reason to not want to be the best at what you do. There is no reason you can’t be the best at what you do.

As one famous person once said. “People do not fail, they just quit trying” 

So many times, when I am coaching salespeople I am surprised by their lack of imagination and ambition. I find that in almost all cases these folks are just discouraged to the point of being out of ideas. 

These salespeople are qualified, and talented, and they want to do a good job, but it’s really just that they seem to have run out of popcorn.

Most of the time my job is simply to help them get their mojo again. Getting them excited, rekindling their passion and then helping them to get moving in the right direction with enthusiasm. Kind of the same way that the best professional athletes all have their own sports psychologist to keep them mentally astute and fired up enough to deliver the best playing performance possible.

Here are some of the things I say when I am coaching a salesperson who is looking to get unstuck from a rut of their own doing.

1. 1. Remember what winning was like? Re-capture that feeling. What was your best day in sales? What was it like when you scored that big order? Relive what you did to win that order. What were some of the strategies and tactics you used? Remember them and use them again.

• Value your worth. Think about how you got to this point in your life. Think of your own experience. Your one status in the company and in the industry. Remember that you are somebody. That you matter and what you do matters.

• The future is in your hands. No one can determine your future but you. What you have to do is set goals, some easier ones at first so that you gain the confidence that comes with accomplishment and then loftier ones as you go along till you are finally achieving solid results again.

• Remember that sales is all about confidence. The more confident you are, the better you will do. In fact, the more confident you are, the better you come off to your customers and the more sales you will win in the end.

• Read books that can get you excited. You know the kind of book that inspires you to get creative, to come up with new and useful ideas of your own. Anything by Jeffery Gitomer, Seth Godin or Tom Peters will do this for you. If you are going to take your career seriously you have to work on it. You have to spend time betting better. 

• Study the habits of successful people. Look for the traits they have. What are their routines and habits? Find inspiration in what they do to be successful

• And finally, realize that you are the captain of your own ship. It is up to you which direction you go in. Your success is entirely in your hands. There is a grand feeling of liberation that comes with that realization.

Great salespeople rely on themselves. They have to come to realize and accept the fact  that their success is in their hands and that the more they take their career seriously the better they will do.

It’s only common sense.