Getting (or Staying) Motivated With A Positive Attitude

Paul Ferrier — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:06:09 +0000

I have had this same question posed to me several times over the last year and I thought it would make a good blog post.

It’s no secret the last year has been very difficult for people personally and professionally. The good thing, however, is that the economy is looking up and the downturn has produced a lot of opportunity.

But here’s the question: How can I stay motivated when things are hard?

For me, motivation is assisted mostly from attitude. Keeping an upbeat attitude is key even when you feel like you’re getting kicked in the gut over and over again.

What else is a big motivator? Money. You need it to survive, and you really need it for your business to survive. So here’s a quick way to think positive and get motivated.

Start by thinking about how much money you NEED to make to pay your bills and be happy per year (that’s X). Something very realistic.

Once you know what you need, define how much money, on average, you earn (PROFIT – that goes to your paycheck) per sale of your product or service (that’s Y).   There are lots of other variables here, but that’s not really the point. Just looking for a number that’s close.

Then, do the math.

X/Y=Z (Z is the number of sales you need per year.)

After defining your target market/audience, find out exactly how many businesses out there match (if you don’t have this, you can get it from the Chamber of Commerce, trade associations, etc).

Ok, enough of the boring stuff. Here’s the motivating stuff…

So let’s say for the sake of argument (and math) there are 5,000 businesses that could potentially buy from you. And let’s say on average you earn $400/sale. And let’s say you need to make $100,000 to be happy and make it worth while. You’d need to make 250 sales throughout the year to hit your goal.

Out of 5,000 businesses, you need to capture 5% of the market.   To make this happen, you’re going to need to make 1 sale out of every 20 businesses.

But here’s where the attitude thing comes into play. That means 19 out of 20 can tell you NO and you’re still going to hit your goal! When they say no, don’t take it as a negative. Thank them for their time and know you’re one call, email, appointment closer to getting that one you need.

Few people like to make cold calls because of the fear of being rejected. It’s the fear of someone saying NO. But with the right attitude and understanding of what your overall goals are, you can turn that NO into something very positive.

Another way to think of it. If your sale is worth $400 and you average 1 sale out of every 20 businesses, you can divide the sale up between the 20 businesses and value each contact at $20. So when they say no, it doesn’t get you down because you know you just earned $20 as you get closer to the next yes.

Hope this helps!
Paul Ferrier

Mindshare Web Marketing Mentors» Sales

Getting (or Staying) Motivated With A Positive Attitude

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