You are special, right?

“What makes you so special?” It’s a question that is asked of high-performance salespeople all the time.

Of course, it never is actually asked like that. It usually sounds more like, “What is the secret to your success?” Sometimes it is asked with honest curiosity. More often though it is asked with an underlying current of jealousy. As in, “I’m smarter than you. More educated than you. Why are you more successful than I am? There has to be a reason…” But people can’t just come out and say that  of course, so they ask, “What’s your secret?”

You Can’t Hack Everything

Even if the person asking the question has the purest of intentions, they seldom like the answer. We live in a microwave world. Very few people have the patience to consistently work hard for success and understand it doesn’t just happen overnight.

Instead, we want to hack everything.  If you Google the phrase “Life Hacks” you will get +/- 10,500,000 results. We want hacks to improve our health (well besides eating right and exercise. Ain’t nobody got time for that.) Hacks for shredding chicken (seriously watch this video it works!) We even want to hack how to hang all of our tank tops on one hanger (I can’t make this stuff up.)  In a time where everything seems to be “hackable”, it is hard to come to grips with the fact that success is not.

I have been to about 50 sales conferences in my career. One of the most popular sessions at each of these conferences is when a panel of high achievers is asked to share the things that have led to their success. I have had the opportunity to personally facilitate several of these panels.  The things the panelists share are never earth-shattering or particularly novel. There is one thing that consistently stands out to me at every one of these events.  The high performers consistently work hard…. gasp! In that phrase “consistently work hard”, the word consistently is as important as hard.

During the five year period, I was running a sales organization of approximately 600 insurance agents, Bruce Tunze won the Agent of the Year award all five times.

• Every single time he was asked to give an “acceptance speech.”
• Every single time he stated that the secret of his success was he just went to work every day.
• Every single time he said, “If I can do it, so can you.”
• Every single time a majority of the audience thought he was holding back his secrets.
• Every single time they wanted his success hack.

Bruce never did give them a hack (one doesn’t exist) but he did give them the answer. An answer that they couldn’t recognize because it didn’t look sexy. It looked like hard work…. and consistency…. and longevity.

Bruce and I have at least one thing in common. If we can be successful in this business, so can you.

So?

Are you willing to consistently do the hard work? Are you willing to consistently improve your skills and learn your craft? Are you willing to GO TO WORK EVERY DAY? Are you willing to consistently embrace the grind? Are you willing to consistently do what it takes to stand on stage and have people ask, “What makes YOU so special?” When you get that chance I hope you will remember this blog article, laugh, and shoot me an email telling me that your answer was, “I just go to work every day.”

Your Turn

What are you doing consistently that will assure your success? Let me know by leaving your answer below.