“Pragmatic Sales Psychology” short episode series, writing #20”
“The only real mistake is the one from which we learned nothing.” – John Powell
Here are some people who did not execute the definition of insanity. It was defined by Einstein as, “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” They learned from their mistakes then achieved greatness:
Walt Disney, who was fired by the editor of a newspaper for not having good enough ideas or a powerful enough imagination.
Thomas Edison, who tried over ten thousand times before successfully creating something that changed the world, the light bulb.
Fred Smith, whose college professor warned him about how unfeasible his FedEx idea was.
Steve Jobs, who after being fired from the company he helped create, Apple, entered the most creative period of his life.
Oprah Winfrey, worth approx 3 billion dollars, was fired in Baltimore for failing as a news reporter.
Elvis Presley, who was told after an audition with the Grand Ole Opry that he should go back to driving a truck.
There are many more high profile examples I could cite, and thousands upon thousands of business and sales people in local markets around the world who had to make adjustments before hitting pay dirt and achieving success. The take-a-way? If you don’t make the same mistakes over and over, you are most likely going to learn from them and subsequently grow.
Why would a sales individual make the same mistakes over and over? What could cause that scenario? One reason can be that they don’t realize or believe that changing is the best way to evolve into the best versions of their sales self. Another reason is that they may not believe in self-examination. Another reason could be laziness. Doing the same thing over and again, without putting it under magnifying glass and tweaking it, takes less effort and energy. Another could be a lack of sales fundamentals education. They may not be aware of the previously written rules or best practices documented by those on the Mt. Rushmore of sales fundamentals. Whatever the reason may be, allow me to emphatically state that there is no excuse. You MUST be passionate and detail oriented about your craft to excel at it. Those who value the lessons learned from mistakes along the way, large and small, use them for education and motivational fuel.
A short story before I close: My partner Joey and I had successfully begun Prospects International and sold many business people into the sales funnel we built. We were building an impressive list of new clients and doing a great job of generating leads, but we were not convinced that we were getting the prospects placed in our clients’ pipelines to divulge enough information about what specific products they were most interested in. We were scratching our heads because at the end of the form on our landing page (where people signed up and became a lead) there was an area for “comments.” What was the problem? The issue? We wanted to give the sales people fielding the leads more info about what the prospects were interested in, knowing it would help open up more back and forth dialogue. If the sales associates were on topic and positioning themselves to provide relevant information about the things the prospects cared to purchase the most, it would be very helpful to the sales process. The problem was that the prospects were only filling out the comment area about 20% of the time! We couldn’t allow this mistake to go on ad infinitum BUT we didn’t come up with the answer right away.
A couple of months went on with the continued light volume of product interest definitions being filled out on the form, until it dawned on us that we should change the word “Comments” at the top of the section, so we did. We decided to ask a question, a question that is interchangeable per SIC. In this case we were marketing for piano dealers so the question became: “What type of piano are you searching for?” BOOM!!!!! The results changed and people were happy to answer the question. The information that the prospects wanted could now be defined by the product type they wanted to consider. That was a total gamechanger! Now 80% of the prospects were telling the dealers what they were most interested in, which allowed the sales associates to begin dialogue in an area most important to the prospects. Success was achieved because we would not settle for allowing the same form, unsuccessful at gathering the most possible available information, to limp along in its initial format. We learned that using the word “Comments” was a mistake, and that by asking a question we could harvest more valuable information for the sales pros to work with.
Mistakes can be SO valuable, but repeating them can be fatal to the growth of a business. Never be so fearful or hesitant to change (as mentioned in a previous writing) that you stagnate. Don’t assume that, as the world changes you won’t have to. The things that used to work, or things that proved to be successful, can be taken away as the market evolves… translation; things can become mistakes that didn’t used to be, therefore your skill sets and craft needs to be examined regularly to see if there isn’t a new tactic or tool you should be employing.
You will be more effective if you are creative enough to make new mistakes to commit. Don’t be afraid to stretch out and try new things, mistakes are part of a healthy progression to your next higher level of performance; just don’t make the same ones over and over again.
I wanted to end with this quote: “Every end of every day is the most important time of that day because you confront with your past and you obtain a chance for tomorrow not to repeat your past mistakes!”
– Mehmet Murat Ildan
But I decided to end with this one from my grandfather who served in WWII and worked on the railroad for 45 years:
“I guess if you go through the whole day and don’t make a mistake…you stayed in bed” – Jacob Klinefelter
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