I've decided not to worry about RESOLUTIONS. Instead, I'm focused on the EVOLUTIONS just waiting for me in the future!
As a teenager, my first job was as a telemarketer after school. Learning to communicate with strangers was an eye-opening experience. The purpose of the call was to get people to listen to our offer, agree with it, and commit to taking action - completing the sale and enjoying the benefits of our products and services. In many ways, the sales call was like repeating a New Year's resolution with every customer, getting them to decide to move from their current situation to a "better one" before the clock ran out on the call.
After the first few days, I wasn't sure it could be done.
I'd taken the training. I understood the features and benefits. I had an answer for every objection ready to go. I truly believed the customer was better off if they would just AGREE to take action. But still, I couldn't make a sale.
"You're trying too hard, too fast," said a successful colleague when I explained my frustration to her. "Asking people to make a decision isn't like flipping a light switch."
"But I don't understand," I said. "They agree that they'd be better off. They see their risk and benefits we offer. They get it, but they won't act."
"Not in two minutes," she said. "But over a day or two. Sometimes it takes a week. Important decisions take time. They're not robots. They're people who need to get used to the idea that they're making a good decision."
"But they'll be better right away," I insisted. "Why would they go slow?"
"Well," she laughed, "They're actually going pretty fast for someone envisioning a new version of themselves. Besides, the goal isn't to make it happen once - just one sale. We need to help them sustain it so they will renew the sale every year.
To help them benefit every year - forever!"
Great growth should stick. Not just a decision to try this-or-that for a while, to wait-and-see what happens. More than a resolution. It's about a commitment. One that becomes part of the "new" year, and the new YOU, for every year going forward. As I started to consider this perspective, things began to change.
A month later, my sales steadily increased. I learned that the "sale" had less to do with our products and more to do with "who the customer wanted to become" with our help. I stopped trying to get them to decide on the first call. Instead, I committed myself to helping them grow into the decision naturally, giving them time and reinforcement, over a few calls, even a few weeks. And what happened incredible:
The sale wasn't the beginning of their growth,
but the RESULT of it!
First we start with RESOLVE.
The growth happens as we EVOLVE.
Say to yourself, "It's just the start of the journey -
Time and patience won't ever detour me!'
To make the sale permanent it takes time,
To become the person who really shines!
The New Year happens between two minutes.
The New YOU happens over two mindsets.
Best wishes
for the best YOU in 2022!