As a sales professional, do you take full responsibility for your actions? Do you take full responsibility for what happens to you? You are responsible for your actions, your decisions, and what happens to you. Blaming yourself or anyone else, using excuses, and denial only hurt you and keep you from being able to succeed. But the people who are supposed to support you just make things more difficult, and they don't do what they say they will. Ok, so you know this to be true. That just means you're responsible and as a responsible person you take action to get it done yourself.

When you focus on being angry and blaming others and what doesn't work you can't be focused on what does work or how to make it work. That misplaced focus is keeping you from getting the results you want and from succeeding. When you know you can count on others count on yourself and devise a plan for getting the things you need done handled. Develop your own systems and resources to accomplish the work and get the sales you need.

Have you ever been surprised by a prospects reaction? If you're new or it's the first time you've ever gotten that reaction recognize that you've just had a great learning experience. Now that learning experience may not have been pleasant, but you need to evaluate it so you can prevent it from happening again. Think about what went well and then try to pinpoint when things started to change. As you think about that try to figure out how you can prepare to handle this reaction in a better way the 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.

You're probably doing what you're doing because someone else told you to do it. They may have even told you that it works for everyone else. You'll be told to do a lot of things that supposedly worked for someone else, but if it isn't working for you it doesn't matter how many other people it does work for. You have to find the things that do work for you and then do those things.

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.

When you understand what motivates you it's much easier to take action. You alone are responsible for finding a way to succeed in sales that's right for you. You are the only one who can take the actions you know you need to take. Only you can hold yourself accountable for your actions. Motivation is what causes you to either take actions or to avoid taking actions. When you know what motivates you it's almost impossible for you not to take action.