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A Roller Coaster, you may say…

I have changed careers, jobs, aspirations so many times in my life, and I always felt there was something missing to complete my goals professionally: Mastering Sales! In the end, there was always something missing, or something I couldn’t fully figure out about mastering sales techniques, mindset, and simply becoming “it”. So, what was missing after all?

Yes, that’s right. I’ve heard it a ‘Brazilion’ times: You have the personality, the rest you can learn, and my internal voice used to tell me: ‘Yeah right! Keep dreaming’… Popular sayings? We all know most of them: ‘No one can learn sales!’, ‘People are born sales people!’ I even heard the tale of two brothers, that went something like: ‘Do you see these two brothers? One is a natural salesman, the other had to study to learn. There is a difference in the way they sell, can’t you clearly see one was born with it???’ The truth is, I feared sales… I feared it as if it was a real giant monster that was ready to eat me alive or keep me locked in a cage until I would starve to death. And sales has been the monster I created since my monster was born.

Recently I challenged myself to jump on fire and fully immerse myself into a make it or break it straight sales commission part time consulting job. Then, I started to see it all unfolding very clearly. The obvious, I mean. The obvious we all know and do nothing about what we know besides knowing it… And it that was so in my face that I couldn’t see it. Try putting the palm of you hand touching your nose and count your fingers. You know you have your fingers, but you can’t really count them in reality, can you?

In the way I experience it, mastering sales comes mostly from survival and hunger! I may not know how to fish, but boy, oh, boy… If I am starving and I need to feed myself and my entire family, I will instinctively learn how to fish. Two options, I have to make it or make it and nothing else matters!

Theories and being book smart is great, but truth be told, there is no book, no guru, no coach and NOTHING in this world that could show you the way if you are not willing to walk your path and get moving. You will certainly get absolutely no results keeping your thoughts unmatched with your actions. It is ludicrous! I once heard someone saying while taking a personal and professional development training program: “No one can pee for you!!!” – Nope, no one.

In this dive in opportunity I put myself through, I am messing up, I am making mistakes. I am falling and rising back up! I complain a ton and then study my internal dialogue to see what’s truly there, to be able to get out of my head and disappear into serving others. I am once again learning something from scratch even though I knew some things from a few books and tapes. And you know what I am finding? Sales is not a “born with” exclusive quality one may have. Let’s hypothetically consider I was one of these “born with’s” that never actually dared to practice what I was gifted with. What a waste of talent, don’t you agree?

Reading a book and learning “techniques” without a real world application, to generate trials and errors will never do it. In the example I gave earlier about these two brothers, it is very simple: one had way more hands on opportunities to learn, than the other. Most importantly, the first embraced the opportunities and went for it. It is mostly necessity is that makes us MAKE IT and tons of practice and willingness to mess things up. Being successful is about drive, survival, and an incredible eagerness to beat our own limitations. Will you fail? FOR SURE!!! And if you stand still and feel that your life is already as good as it can be, and get into the dangerous comfort zone, you will definitely not have the fuel to push things through. What side are you in?

‘How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice.’

To sum it all up, practice will turn you into a “naturally born” sales master! It is only by practicing, making huge and small mistakes, facing the fear and looking at it in the eye to say “watch me”, it is those things that really make it or break it. These actions will “suddenly” help you learn until it runs in your bloodstream…

I am having a bitter sweet experience, I love, I hate, I am in, I quit… Everyday!!! I am giving myself an outstanding opportunity to reach for more, an opportunity to regain myself and learn to manage my internal state from a whole different perspective, to empty and deal with my nothingness as it fills up causing an internal state paralisia.

Today was a terrible awesome day and I asked the Creator: What is my lesson here today? Again, love and hate… I had top sales opportunities that became future seeds… I was with my customers 100% making sure they received all they needed to my current capacity to give as I learn and improve my skills… Some changed their mind, or something came up last minute, or they simply couldn’t pay and get approved for financing… So what is my learning today? – I asked again, this time getting frustrated!

‘Trust the process, be patient, serve and serve more, plant seeds, save for the times when you cannot harvest, learn to deal with the total unpredictable, get coaching and follow the coaching. Keep on going, and don’t ever stop if you are breathing.’

These are my learnings for today. For this past weekend. For this moment in time.

What did you learn from your successes and failures today? It is interesting what we can find when we stop the noise and just notice the learnings, while being fully grateful for everything.

You may not know the answer to all your why questions. I may not know also… But a leaf does not fall from the tree if it there is no reason.

What are you challenging yourself to achieve this week? What is your internal state telling you and what actions are you taking?

Peace and make it outstanding!

Coach Cris Repolês.

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