It isn’t enough to master the sales process.
Sure you need to find leads and turn them into opportunities and deals. That’s just good “horse sense”.
And there are ways that you can improve your skills at moving through that process.
But selling isn’t enough.
Getting good at selling will guarantee that you don’t fail too horribly.
In fact, you’ll probably make some serious coin for yourself.
But it might not be the level of success that you really want for yourself.
It’s just not enough. It’s not big enough.
On April 20, 1964 in Pretoria, South Africa, Nelson Mandela stood at the witness dock before the Supreme Court. He, along with nine others, had been charged with sabotage against the Apartheid Government in South Africa. The prosecutor was asking for the death penalty .
Standing at dock, Mandela delivered a moving speech that ended with the following words: “I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination…. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
Despite his impassioned address, Mandela would be sentenced to life in prison.
He would emerge from prison on February 11, 1990 – more than 27 years later – with a task unfinished. It would take four more years and tremendous international pressure to accomplish the mission that Nelson Mandela had spent the last three decades of his life behind bars believing in.
He would later receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
Belief was the difference.
You can know your pitch and you can present brilliantly.
But sometimes people aren’t buying what you are selling.
They don’t want to hear what you have to say.
In fact, you are in their way. What you are selling isn’t just annoying or unwanted, it’s unwanted.
Which is why selling stops working.
Because a process and even the best plan break down without human spirit.
Without belief you give up. You stop caring as much as you need to.
You stop winning.
And the only thing that can solve this is belief.
It’s in your head and in your heart.
And together they make you quite unstoppable.
Sell some. Believe even more.
