Sales Legends are incredibly focussed. Not just on winning the deal but on exploring new business within the client, thus simultaneously developing their future and enhancing the client relationship. They are also appropriately focussed on their personal affairs, thus living a relatively well organised and stress minimised life.

Again, we need to take a holistic view of focus to ensure a good life balance for the busy sales executive. To maximise effectiveness everywhere in your life, you need to be focussed on what is important at that moment in time. You need a clear vision and understanding that your priorities are in the right order, and that they take place of focus at the appropriate time. Simply put – when at work focus on work, when at sport focus on the sport, when at home your focus is on family, friends and relaxation.

Your order of priority needs to be adjusted according to where you are, so for example at home your first priority should be your family and relaxation but a second priority is your work, as they can sometimes overlap even with the best laid plans of mice and men! You need to be able to switch quickly from one to another, and back. This way you will minimise stress, and overload.

At work your ...

There are many sales people out there, similarly there are many actors out there, what they share in common is that only a very few make it to the top.

Sales Legends are not born. They are not made. They develop from the results and actions of people with the talent, who have the passion and the commitment to learn. They have the tenacity to apply what they have learnt intelligently in the field. They sweat in training, actively seek out and adopt mentors, and then motivate themselves to keep practising until they truly excel at their profession.

Why are there so few?

I challenge that it is because many will settle for ‘good enough’ and believe that to earn more money, they would have to work much harder, give up lifestyle or do things that are unethical. Some even change companies to get lower targets. In my many years of sales leadership experience, ‘good enough’ seems to be interpreted as somewhere between 85 and 110% of target achieved every quota period.

The problem is, too many of you are sitting out there in your comfort zone, happy enough with ‘good enough’. Yet if I
could reach out and touch you with the magic wand of motivation, you may amaze yourself. You could exceed all your own ...

You are probably as fed up, and frustrated, as I am with corporations to whom you entrusted your hard earnt money, and who are not returning solid results, but instead trying to confuse you with beautifully scripted results and announcements that portray a positive future and a one time exceptional (usually poor) result. These promises for a bright future though, never seem to materialize with funds in your dividend account, except in the good times, do they?

How often are the questions asked: WHY are there ongoing one time exceptions? Who just one quarter ago did not expect what should have been expected? Why are there redundancy round after redundancy round in some large companies? Why were all those people employed in the first place? Can someone in a very senior position not plan more than three months ahead? Where is the holistic leadership, the sound planning, and the real understanding of what contribution the human resource is making, or could make? Does anyone senior in that organization touch, and really listen to the people who are in the trenches of commerce, or do they only consult their trusted circle?


In the preparation of a recent proposal, I learnt that an entire division had been laid off redundant due ...