No one but you is responsible for your actions. But are you taking responsibility for what happens to you? You decide the actions you will or won't take. You make your own decisions. And the things that happens to you are a direct result of those actions or inactions and decisions. Placing blame, making excuses, and denying the facts hurts you and keeps you from the sales success you want. Yet, you may find that the people who are supposed to support you just make things more difficult, and they don't do what they say they will. When you know this to be true it just means that you have to take on the responsibility and take action to get it done.



Getting angry is a waste of energy and it puts your focus on the wrong things. Your focus needs to be on getting whatever you need to do to succeed done in spite of anyone and everything else. Take control and develop a plan to work around incompetent people and systems.

But you had no idea the potential prospect would react that way. Really, if it's the first time that's perfectly ok. You just had a great learning experience. Take the time to think about what went well and where things started to turn south. Knowing what you know now what will you do to prepare to handle this in a better way next time?

If this is the second or third time, how many more times is it going to take for you to figure out that you need to do something different? There is this terrible misconception in sales that if something blows up in your face you need to keep doing it until you get the desired result. Hello, if something goes badly you need to learn to never do that in the same way again; or you can count on similar results.

Did you do what you did in that way because someone else told you to do it? What they told you to do may work for them and it may work for other people too, but if it doesn't work for you it doesn't matter how many other people it does work for. You have to develop your own way to successfully produce the results you want.

Your sales success must be based on your values, your behaviors, and your attitudes. If something doesn't feel right to you it won't feel right to your prospect either because they will sense your discomfort. Your inner voice signaling you that you shouldn't be doing this. Listen and respond. When you don't listen to your inner voice it usually spells trouble.

All buts aside the buck starts and stops with you. You are responsible for finding the way that's right for you to succeed in sales. You are responsible for taking the actions you know you need to take. And you are the only person who can really hold you accountable for those actions. Your actions are really all about your motivation. If what you're doing isn't motivating to you perhaps you should find something else to do. If it is motivating for you, once you figure out how to make it work for you it will be almost impossible for you not to take action.