Action is All

When he strode into the room in his thousand-dollar suit, I knew that George Choriatopoulos meant business. He was poised and very purposeful. He looked at each one of us intently. No joking around. We sat around the boardroom table in his Parktown office, each of us wondering what was going on. He ripped the Goals Program off the flipchart, calmly crumpled it up, and threw it into the bin. Then he leaned forward, resting his fists on the huge oak table. “Gentlemen”, he said softly and with great intensity, “every week we meet here to discuss our sales and plans. You’re all independent business owners. I am not your boss. But we meet to encourage each other and to mastermind. Time is valuable to all of us. From today, I don’t want to know about all the leads and deals you have ‘In the Pipeline’. I don’t want to hear about what you’re working on or whom you’ve met. I only want to know one thing, and then you can all get out of here until next week. This meeting will take just five minutes. HOW MANY SALES DID YOU EACH MAKE LAST WEEK?”

Salespeople are in the habit of making excuses and promises when they’re not delivering results. We’re all good at it. After all, we’re salespeople, right? And often we lie to ourselves about what is really going on. We talk about our plans and goals, but what really matters is results. I don’t care about schemes and dreams – I care about results. Intention and goals are important, but outcome is more important. If I say I will do something or produce a certain result on a certain date and I don’t, my excuses are of no importance to you. You can’t bank excuses or promises. Your accountant doesn’t want to know about potential and opportunities. The bottom line is real money. This is real life and every day gone is gone forever. This is not a dress rehearsal. Let’s get real serious about getting real results. Winners will allow one or two slipups, but sooner than later they will cut bait and stop working with you if you don’t produce.

I once trained the insurance salespeople in 91 banks simultaneously on a conference call. I asked them, “Can any of you double your sales next month?” they all replied that it was impossible, given their busy schedules and past results. I then asked if it would be possible to double their sales if their families had been kidnapped by terrorists and they knew without a doubt that their families would be murdered if they didn’t double their sales in a month. Guess what? All of a sudden it was possible! I asked what they would have to change and do differently and stop doing, and we could create an action plan to accomplish 100% sales increase without calling in the terrorists. Think about it: How badly do you want to double your sales? What are you prepared to do? By your FRUIT you will be known. Talk is cheap but money buys the Jack Daniels. Action is all.

Join the Action Takers of the DollarMakers Joint Venture Forum: www.DollarMakers.com

Robin J. Elliott