Resiliency Is An Entrepreneur's Main Ingredient
- By Ramon Vela
- Published 09/5/2008
- Sales
- Unrated
Ramon Vela
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Like me, I'm sure you know a lot of people who want to succeed. Business owners, entrepreneurs, sales and marketing folks, blue and white-collar folks alike; we all want more than we have now, whatever that *more* happens to be, for each person.
The whole thrust of what my company's services and consultations are about is to help VAR's (Value-added Resellers) succeed. Helping them get *more* leads, more sales, more revenue, etc.
However, I think that we, the sales and business community, can make the mistake of being more concerned about collecting tips and techniques for success rather than collecting what my mentor, Dan Kennedy, refers to as "behavioral characteristics".
When experiencing challenges in business and life, we need to corral all the resources we have but, bottom-line, talent and education (regardless, from Harvard or the local city college) are a far second to *character*. Character shows up when trouble comes; do you quit, do you give up; or, are you resilient?
My company has been growing at a fast pace. This growth is fantastic; however, with it comes a whole new set of challenges. Those who are experiencing this know what I mean. There is a lot of pressure. To have your butt on the line and to have enormous pressure is not for the meek. However it is essential to succeeding, especially for a business owner or entrepreneur.
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Having your own business is the ultimate "sales" job. You have to always be selling. If you have employees, you're not only earning commission day in and day out for yourself but for all the others dependent on your success. Now that's what I call pressure.The whole thrust of what my company's services and consultations are about is to help VAR's (Value-added Resellers) succeed. Helping them get *more* leads, more sales, more revenue, etc.
However, I think that we, the sales and business community, can make the mistake of being more concerned about collecting tips and techniques for success rather than collecting what my mentor, Dan Kennedy, refers to as "behavioral characteristics".
When experiencing challenges in business and life, we need to corral all the resources we have but, bottom-line, talent and education (regardless, from Harvard or the local city college) are a far second to *character*. Character shows up when trouble comes; do you quit, do you give up; or, are you resilient?
My company has been growing at a fast pace. This growth is fantastic; however, with it comes a whole new set of challenges. Those who are experiencing this know what I mean. There is a lot of pressure. To have your butt on the line and to have enormous pressure is not for the meek. However it is essential to succeeding, especially for a business owner or entrepreneur.
Another type of resiliency, within the behavioral characteristics family, is the ability to truly understand sales - and accept its reality. When I see a sales rep who doesn't do their prospecting, who expects every lead to be a prospect wanting a quote, who expects every lead from the marketing department or vendor to be a prospect ready-to-buy, then I see that they shouldn't be in sales. It takes resiliency to be successful in sales.
Napoleon Hill, author of *Think and Grow Rich* said that you have to have a "definiteness of purpose". You have to know, feel, and expect every sale to be closed.
Zig Ziglar, sales guru, describes the successful sales person's attitude: "you've got my money in your pocket, and I've got your product in my briefcase, and I ain't leaving until we make the exchange."
Resiliency is not the only characteristic but if you look at all the great entrepreneurs in the world and in history and you examine their personal characteristics, resiliency is certainly one of them. It helped them come back when others wrote them off.
Study the great entrepreneurs and business leaders who have stood the test of time and collect behavioral characteristics. It can pay off in millions.