“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”
Jim Rohn
This legendary quote stresses the importance of self-education and continuous learning beyond formal schooling.
We all know that a formal education provides the foundation. Self-education allows you to explore your passions, develop new skills, and adapt to changing circumstances, which ultimately leads you to personal and professional growth.
This also stresses the importance of being proactive in seeking knowledge and seizing opportunities for lifelong learning.
As we start off our time together, let's hit some questions head on...
- Do you know more about what you sell than your clients or future clients?
- Do they believe in you?
- Do they see you as a trusted advisor?
- Are you sharing meaningful and valuable insights of education?
Imagine your clients and future clients saying... Maybe I should listen to this person.
Self-accountability and self-education, it's the foundation of sales success.
The success you have, it's all up to you. The choices you make, the actions you take, combined with your behaviors, will make or break you in sales.
If you want to live a successful sales life, you must take your own education and learning into your own hands.
The sales landscape is ever-changing with new technologies, strategies, and customer behaviors. By taking extreme responsibility for your own education and learning, you stay well ahead of the curve, you adapt to changes, and you develop the skills necessary to excel in your sales career.
Whether it's studying new sales techniques, understanding your products or services better, or honing in on your communication skills, investing in your education will massively pay off in the long run.
Here's the deal, before you start self-educating yourself, you need to convince your mind that why is it so important for sales success.
YOUR JOURNEY STARTS WITH SELF-ENABLEMENT
If salespeople struggle to articulate their value, their story, or hold a meaningful business conversation, then they’re dead in the water.
Self-enablement, it's all about the skills and resources professionals develop for themselves, to make sure they rock those conversations when they get a seat at the business table.
Learning is the foundation, the core of self-enablement. It's about dedicating the time to enhance your knowledge about your clients, your future clients, and your industry.
It's about developing a new skill or enhancing the one's you already have.
Some of you might be asking...Where do I start? How do I become self-enabled?
Self-enablement starts with knowledge.
Here's something for you to reflect upon... Do your clients get smarter after they speak with you?
One of your most precious assets is your clients. I encourage you to spend quality time with your clients. And no, this isn't the dreaded, "I'm checking in, following up or I was in the neighborhood, so I thought I would stop by."
Quality time is about digging in deep. It's about learning something new about their business, their issues, their challenges, goals and initiatives.
Sales professionals become a student of their clients' businesses, are you?
EDUCATE YOURSELF
"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one learned in school."
Albert Einstein
Folks, the information is out there. And most of it is free, too. It’s crazy how much you can learn and grow your mind once you get into the habit.
The most valuable skill set you can learn in sales is how to learn. This one skill alone will help you flourish as your industry evolves.
Mirror moments...
- What new skill have you learned?
- How many books have you read?
- What podcasts have you listened to?
- What new things have you learned about your clients?
Are you starting to get what I'm cooking up here?
You must constantly and consistently seek opportunities to learn and grow if you want to thrive, survive and remain employable.
While that may sound cumbersome and frightening, it’s the cold hard truth.
As former U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki once said,
“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”
Let's face it, to remain competitive, you must stay sharp. With discipline, you must always be learning.
The next time the economy shifts, and your company’s leadership looks to make cuts, they’re going to evaluate which employers have the tenacity and motivation to keep up with the company’s changing needs and which ones have been complacent.
Self-education, it's the ultimate competitive advantage.
Self-education is empowering. It allows you to adapt to new challenges, innovate within your environment, and seize opportunities that other salespeople are overlooking.
If you want to get ahead in life, you must take personal responsibility.
This means taking ownership of your actions, decisions, and outcomes.
You must hold yourself accountable to YOU. It’s no one else’s responsibility to help you get to where you need to be; it’s yours and yours alone.
You are the architect of your own life. Are you taking proactive steps to shape it according to your vision and values?
SELF-EDUCATION, THE KEY TO YOUR SALES SUCCESS
You need knowledge to grow your mind. In growing your mind, you grow your sales.
Sales professionals have a deep burning desire to learn. It means having a real love for discovery and self-development. It's about being curious and open to learning from failure.
Said Seth Godin,
“Sure, education is expensive, but living in a world of ignorance is even more expensive.”
How willing are you to dig in and get messy with learning? Become responsible for your own education. Hold yourself accountable. Do the things to make learning appealing, relevant, useful, and rewarding.
Claim responsibility for your learning. Take learning seriously. Take the learning bull by the horns and wrestle with it.
To pave your own way and craft your career, a drive to continuous learning is a must. It's the key to powering a good life both personally, and professionally.
Failing to continually learn leaves you ill prepared and unequipped to survive in this current business environment. Failing to do so simply causes regression.
A sense of staleness and complacency can begin to invade if you don't find ways to invest in yourself.
Sales professionals commit to lifelong learning while sales reps find excuses why they can't.
Self-education means to stop accepting who you already are and start living in a way that embodies who you want to become.
Think about this and how this applies to your sales career.
- Do your clients feel confident in you after they speak with you?
- Do your clients believe you are the go-to-sales professional in your marketplace?
No other way around it, you grow through education. It is how you become a smarter, stronger, more capable resource to your clients.
It's how you make more money, enhance your career and make more of a difference to your clients.
Unless you are willing to accept continual mental decay, you can’t coast the rest of the way in your sales life.
Taking control of your own learning is empowering. Instead of relying solely on formal training or external sources, self-education enables you to pursue the knowledge and skills necessary that tie directly to your goals and aspirations.
By embracing self-education as a fundamental aspect of your professional development, you can unlock new opportunities, achieve higher levels of performance, and ultimately, drive greater success in your sales career.
I will leave you all with this...
When's the last time you had a conversation with a client or a prospect and heard,
Wow, this was one of the best conversations I’ve ever had!
Andy Paul nearly didn't make it past the sales training class in his first job after college because he was seen as too introverted and analytical. Yet, over the past three decades, he's excelled as an author, sales leader, speaker, and consultant by embracing his distinctive style and approach. He has helped improve the performance of sales teams handling products ranging from multi-million-dollar communications networks to sports memorabilia, working with startups and Fortune 1000 companies. With experience across global markets and various sales channels, Andy now shares his insights to help businesses build successful teams and reach their goals.
SHOW SUMMARY
In this episode, we interview Andy Paul, renowned sales expert and author of ‘Sell Without Selling Out’. They discuss how the sales landscape is evolving in the current "post-trust" world. Andy advocates for an approach that prioritizes understanding customer needs and offering genuine value rather than leading with a hard-sell pitch. This conversation explores how sellers can redefine their roles to help clients clarify their goals and solve challenges through human-centered connections. Together, they emphasize that sales professionals who act as trusted advisors will not only achieve their quotas but also transform the perception of the sales profession itself.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Authenticity Over Tactics: Buyers value genuine connections and are tired of sales tactics that don't address their needs.
Helping vs. Selling: True sales success lies in understanding the client's goals and providing valuable insights that guide their decision-making.
Reinventing the Sales Process: Sales stages must align more closely with the buyer's journey, focusing on solutions rather than pitching products.
Weak Ties & Strong Ties: A salesperson can provide new perspectives and insights by acting as a weak tie in the customer's network.
Slow Down to Sell Faster: Building relationships and deeply understanding the buyer's needs might require multiple conversations, but it's essential for building trust and winning business.
QUOTES
"Selling is not helping. Selling is selling. Helping is helping. Both are required, but we need to get them in the right order."
"If buyers are talking to you, it's because they need to. So you need to figure out what they need from you."
"Sales professionals who see themselves as trusted advisors will transform how their clients see the sales profession."
Learn more about Andy Paul:
LinkedIn:
/ realandypaul
Learn more about Darrell and Larry:
Darrell's LinkedIn:
/ darrellamy
Larry's LinkedIn:
/ larrylevine1992
Website: https://www.sellingfromtheheart.net/
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