The One Percent Principle
What separates leaders from followers? What makes an average sales professional good, a good one great, and a great one rich? One percent. Just one percent, why, because the top one percent is willing to put forth that one more percent of effort that the others just aren’t willing to do. For example, do you stay late to make that one more phone call, send that last email, ask that last question to really get your prospect to yes, or do you only go ninety-nine percent of the way?
In this article I am going to expound a little on this concept and why that one percent does make a difference.
In this market/economy we can all agree that it is not as easy as it once was. We all have to be willing to get one percent better. As sales professionals, we are the lifeblood of every single industry in the world! We are the needle on the monitor to adjust the profitability of our respective companies. Of all the departments we are the one percent that has a direct effect on whether the doors open or close. Because before the product is even built and used someone had to get sold in order to get the money to start up, or someone had to see a value in what it is that you are selling before it even hit the open market.
As you can see, what we do is mission essential.
With that in mind, how does that one percent affect me and you? It’s really simple. As sales professionals, we are often faced with choices. The choice of taking the next chance or just sitting, the choice to procrastinate or take action now, the choice to make that one more phone call or to head on home. We all know what we should do but are we doing it? Taking that final step to achieve that one percent is tough because it is normally the thing that you don’t really like to do that much and the thing that is typically the most agitating. But we must learn to make the choice to get that one percent better.
We should choose to be one percent better than the people who complain about the economic times and how no one is walking through the door. We as sales professionals have to see the bright spot in every situation. Why get stuck with the others when we can make a difference in what we do? Negativity hurts us all. Consider this: if you go to your next prospect with a negative attitude you will likely get a negative result.
However, if you are able to beat that back and be positive you will be that much closer to a close.
Even if the prospect does not buy because the budget does not allow it, they will keep you at the top of the list when it’s to purchase they will call you first because unlike the other ninety-nine percent of the people you did that one extra phone call and that one extra email above and beyond the norm.
People complain about the prospects and leads drying up but the truth is that they are not doing the extra one percent to water the ones that they have to help their own cause. So clearly that extra one percent can help in sales in ways that are essential to our survival. Paving our way to our own success is just that. Making the effort to get one percent better. But it can go further.
Imagine if you told your significant other that you love them just one more time before you left for work. Or, you hugged your kids one more time before you left for your office. Just one more percent of your time volunteering or teaching someone to read. Saving just one percent more for that vacation or retirement. How much better would the world be if all countries recycled just one percent more. We exercised one percent more. I am certain that by now you all get the idea. We could really change a lot of things not just professionally, but also personally.
In conclusion, we all can increase our lives in one way or another. We can all add one percent improvement to each of our lives somewhere. Strive for that one percent, make that one percent, become that one percent.
