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Failure Leads To Success

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The only path to success is stepping out of your comfort zone and being willing to risk. What keeps us from taking risks? The view that failure is a negative and the fear that failing will cause us shame and guilt. How would you act if you knew that failure is virtually your only path to success? We know this because nearly all successful people failed a lot. But they learned, tried a new way, and went on to succeed.

If you hear the word "failure," what emotion does it evoke in you? Guilt? Shame? Inadequacy? Not a pretty picture. Failure is the label we stick on unsuccessful ventures. It's practically synonymous with incompetence. The word alone brings up feelings of shame and humiliation.

When we fail, we automatically send ourselves bad messages. We discourage ourselves from trying again, because if we try we risk another failure. It's true that when you give up trying, you don't have to face failure anymore. But you'll have close to zero chance of achieving success. In order to really succeed, you've got to be willing to fall on your face a few times.

You didn't start out being afraid of failing or hating to fail. When you were tiny, failure didn't weigh you down with emotional sludge. When you failed as a toddler learning to walk, you had a good cry then you stood up, dusted yourself off, and kept on going. But somewhere along the way you learned that trying and not succeeding was bad. That it meant trying was bad. That it meant you were bad.

Your failures by themselves aren't so terrible, for the most part. It's how you think about them that gives them the power to shut you down.

When you fail, you experience two types of consequences: internal and external. The external consequences are what happen in the world as a result of your failure. The internal consequences are what happen inside you: the emotional impact of your failure. That math exam you botched your sophomore year? The external consequences were a bad grade and maybe a stern lecture from your parents. The internal consequences were those persistent little demons that whispered, "You're no good at math. You're too stupid to do this." The bad grade came and went—the little voices stayed.

Because our society views failure in a negative way, we learn to avoid trying new things. Instead of risking failure, we fall back into the comfort zone of the familiar, the tried and true. In order to avoid humiliation, we let fabulous opportunities pass us by. But if you're going to harness the power that lies within your failures, you'll have to change the way you think about them. Learn to see them for the gifts they are.

Failure is not just one possible path; it's practically the only path to success. It's necessary. It's required. You can't succeed without learning. And in order to learn, you have to risk failure. Learning doesn't happen in an atmosphere of fear. Why not? Because fear shuts down the experimentation process. People don't take risks when they're afraid. They won't try something new. And what is learning if not trying new things? You can't succeed if you can't grow. You can't grow if you can't learn. You can't learn if you can't fail.

Of course, there's a huge difference between appropriate and inappropriate risk. Not all risks are of equal value; not all risks are worth taking. Deciding the value of a risk is a skill like any other. Weigh the rewards of each risk against its potential outcomes, and look at the circumstances in terms of its impact on your inner vision.

You have to risk failure in order to learn anything. Whether you fail or not, risk-taking alone is a powerful learning tool. But the actual experience of failing is the fastest way to learn. Failure vastly improves your odds of success, particularly in the long run, because it tells you what to do—and what not to do—next. When you diagnose your failures and figure out where you went wrong, you're teaching yourself, literally by trial and error, how to go right. Failing is a great way to learn and grow.

Treat your failures as gifts. Whenever you fail, the universe has just handed you a piece of wisdom. Don't let it go to waste. Mine it for all it's worth. Ask yourself:

* What happened?

* What did I learn?

* What will I do differently next time?

"Life is a series of outcomes," says Simone Carruthers, psychologist and business consultant. "Sometimes the outcome is what you want. Great. Figure out what you did right. Sometimes the outcome is what you don't want. Great. Figure out what you did so you don't do it again."

The only time you've really failed is when you fail to learn from your mistakes.

Affirmations for FAILURE LEADS TO SUCCESS:

* I'm not afraid to make mistakes.

* When I make them, I take the time to learn from them.

* I believe failures are opportunities for growth.

"Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently." —Henry Ford

Failure Leads To Success

Here’s a checklist of questions to ask yourself to determine if you have the best chance of being successful with your sales lead programs:

Are you prepared to send requested information immediately?

Prospects have their own agenda and timeline, not yours or your firm’s. So, you need to be efficient and strike while you have the opportunity. Timing of your inquiry handling processes are of paramount importance. Your firm needs to respond to all inquiries quickly—the faster, the better.

Here are some questions to keep in mind:

* Do you know what to send in response to different types of inquiries?

* Do you have electronic versions for those who want the information by e-mail or via downloads from your Web site?

* Do you have adequate supplies of printed materials ready for those who prefer them?

* Do you have the people, systems and processes in place to get the requested

information out the door quickly?

Are you prepared to capture all inquiries in a database for ongoing nurturing and qualification efforts?

To avoid having any of the golden sales opportunities represented by your inquiries fall through the cracks, you need to capture all of your inquiries in a database so you can properly manage their fulfillment, nurturing, qualification and distribution. With this in mind:

* Do you have the database ready to go?

* Do you have the data entry people or outside services lined up to get the inquirers into the database?

Do you have a program in place to “qualify" sales leads before sending them to your salespeople, reps, dealers or distributors?

If your business-to-business marketing-for-leads program is to succeed, marketing, sales and corporate management need to share a unified definition of qualified sales leads. If you all agree from the start on what a qualified lead is, then deliver leads that meet that definition, your sales team will be able to effectively and efficiently follow up and close more sales.

* Have you agreed with sales management on which questions to ask in order to determine which leads are qualified?

* Have you agreed what information is required to know which sales contacts to route the qualified leads to?

* Do you have proactive programs in place to contact and qualify your leads?

Do you have a process in place for distributing qualified leads to sales contacts as they are identified?

Sales leads are worthless unless they are quickly handed off to the right sales contact for follow up. Your lead distribution process has to be well defined and ready to go—in advance—so as to prevent delays or misdirection when leads are qualified and ready for sales attention. It also has to be easy for your salespeople, reps, resellers and distributors to access the qualified sales leads and manage their lead follow up.

* Is your sales leads program designed to get the leads into salespeople’s hands without delay?

* Have you made it easy for your salespeople, reps, dealers or distributors to use?

* Can they access leads over the Internet?

* Does it integrate with their existing contact management or email systems?

Do you have a program in place to nurture or cultivate your not-yet-qualified leads?

Salespeople generally focus on those one-in-four sales leads who are ready to buy soon. However, research shows that three of four sales come from longer-term prospects who are frequently ignored by sales. As these longer-term leads represent the lion’s share of the potentional sales, your sales lead management program must be designed to help nurture the longer-term leads until they are qualified as being sales-ready opportunities.

* Does your company have a prospect relationship marketing program in place to keep in touch with these longer-term prospects, using email, fax, mail and phone contacts, until they are identified as being qualified and ready for sales attention?

* Do you know what messages to send as part of your prospect relationship management program?

* Do you know how often to contact prospects with these messages?

* Do you know what offers to use to get them to further identify their needs and situation so you can determine if they are ready for sales?

Do you have a program in place to measure and track the results of your various sales-lead generation, cultivation and sales follow-up programs?

A marketer I know recently reported to her management on the results of the company’s lead generation programs: Awareness of their company and its products among targeted prospects more than doubled; the cost per qualified lead delivered to sales by marketing dropped by nearly 40 percent; 58 percent of the opportunities in the sales pipeline were found first by marketing; and 48 percent of the sales closed; and 62 percent of the revenue during the past 12 months came from marketing-generated leads.

The result? She got a bigger B2B marketing budget and senior management no longer doubts marketing's contribution to the company's success. Can you answer these questions and show your management how your lead generation programs are contributing to your company’s success?

* Can you determine your cost per lead, cost per qualified lead and cost per sale?

* Do you know which lead programs generate the highest return on investment?

* Do you know which nurturing techniques worked and which didn’t?

* Can you prove to management that your lead generation programs are paying off in increased sales and market share?

Refer to this checklist of questions to guide the development or improvement of your company’s sales lead management programs and processes and you’ll have the best chance of being successful.

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Both Jim Hartley & Mac Mcintosh are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Jim Hartley has sinced written about articles on various topics from Family, self improvement and motivation and Family. SuperCamp summer programs fill up fast. Parents, go to now to learn about enrolling your so. Jim Hartley's top article generates over 18100 views. to your Favourites.

Mac Mcintosh has sinced written about articles on various topics from Lead Generation, Debt Reductions and Marketing. M. H. “Mac" McIntosh is described by many as one of America’s leading B2B marketing consultants and an expert on the subject of sales lead generation (. Mac Mcintosh's top article generates over 3600 views. to your Favourites.

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