Stand Guard

“Stand guard at the door of your mind.” – Jim Rohn

To live a POSITIVE life we have to feed our minds positive thoughts.

We have to protect our thinking from negative influences.

Negativity is constantly knocking.

It’s searching for a way in.

We have to make a conscious decision to keep it out.

In a interview, Tony Robbins said learning to deal with negative thoughts was one of the greatest lessons he learned from his mentor Jim Rohn.

“Jim Rohn taught me a simple principle.” Robbins said, “Every day, STAND GUARD at the door of you mind. You alone decide what thoughts and beliefs you let into your life. For these thoughts will shape whether you feel rich or poor, cursed or blessed.”

We have to STAND GUARD.

In our 24/7 connected world, that’s no easy feat.

Negative is everywhere.

It’s waiting for us each time we log into social media.

Negative is on overdrive on cable news.

We have to curate the information we allow to influence us.

So much of what we are exposed to are sensationalized events that have nothing to do with us.

The tragedy 8 time zones away.
The celebrity that got arrested.
The shady politician screaming into the camera.

FOCUS ON WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL.

Everyday we all have important work to do.

Our job is to FOCUS on what we can control and ignore the noise.

Vince Vaughn said, “Don’t give a voice to things you’re not able to change.”

We have to STAND GUARD.

Keep all that useless, negative information from souring our thoughts and attitudes.

When we allow negative influences into out mind bad things happen:

Our attitude sours.
We get distracted.
We lose focus from the things that really matter.

If we pay attention to uncontrollable, negative events long enough, our thinking becomes negative.

Negative starts to follow us around all day long.

We have to feed our minds a healthy diet of positive information.

THINK ABOUT IT.

The information you allow into your mind affects what you think about.

What you THINK about creates your MOOD.
Your MOOD creates your ATTITUDE.
Your ATTITUDE influences your ACTIONS.
Your ACTIONS determine your OUTCOMES.
Your OUTCOMES become your LIFE.

Believing that we are unaffected by what we let into our mind is like saying what we eat does not matter.

Shut the door on the PEOPLE, EVENTS, & STORIES that try to pull you down and drain your energy.

Ryan Holiday wrote, “Cut the negative strings that pull your mind.”

Shut out the negative.

Protect your mind.

Improve your life.

#StandGuard

-Joe Ciccarone

http://www.SalesVibe.Net

Take The Plunge

“You have two choices, control your mind or let your mind control you.” – Paulo Coelho

There is a scene in the documentary “I Am Not Your Guru” where Tony Robbins jumps into a 57° plunge pool immediately after waking up.

Brrrr…

Robbins TAKES THE PLUNGE every morning to tell his mind that he is in charge of the day.

PROFESSIONALS get up and go to work.

AMATEURS wait to be in the mood.

Our brains are hardwired to keep us SAFE and COMFORTABLE.

They are not concerned about our SUCCESS.

When our brain spots a PERCEIVED threat, it tells us to go in the other direction.

This worked great 10,000 years ago when we were being chased by saber-tooth tigers.

Not so much when this same FEAR crushes our present day CREATIVITY.

Our minds will try to convince us not to:

Wake up EARLY.
WRITE that blog post.
Make that UNCOMFORTABLE sales call.

We can’t let our MOOD decide if we will execute or not.

There are ways we can PRIME ourselves to do the work that our minds are trying to keep us from doing.

4 WAYS TO TAKE THE PLUNGE:

WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COLD

Want to create your mood the moment you wake up?

Cold shower.

Standing in a cold shower for 30 seconds is an incredibly effective way to tell your mind who’s in charge.

CREATE ROUTINES

Before each Jiu Jitsu class, I head to the pull up bar in the back of the academy.

I do a set of 10 pull ups.

This routine tells my BODY & MIND that it is time to train.

No matter what thoughts are bouncing around in my brain when I walk in, after I hit pull up #10, I am totally focused on training.

FOCUS ON THE OUTCOME

Muhammad Ali said, “I hated every minute of training, but I loved being CHAMPION.”

For me, writing consistently is a struggle but I love having a WEEKLY BLOG.

I focus on how I will feel after I hit the PUBLISH button.

SCHEDULE & PROTECT

Each of us need to use some sort of calendar.

SCHEDULE what’s important.
PROTECT what we schedule.

If we don’t, life will eat our time for breakfast.

Robbins says, “When you train yourself to do it anyway, you will have a freedom that few people will ever find.”

There will always be things we HAVE TO DO that we don’t WANT TO DO.

Free yourself by taking MOOD out of the equation.

How will you tell your mind that YOU ARE IN CHARGE?

Feel the fear.

Do it anyway.

#TakeThePlunge

-Joe Ciccarone

http://www.SalesVibe.Net

The Gift

“Feedback is a gift. Embrace it.” – Anonymous

The fastest route to customer access is to provide REAL value.

A HUGE problem for new salespeople is that they have no clue what value looks like.

This killer question can help.

It allows your customer to share their top of mind thinking.

It provides a path to the real value they are looking for you to provide.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate…”

the outcome of your last chronic migraine patient?”
your confidence in your reimbursement process?”
the quality of the toxin training your residents receive?”

Any response less than a “10” gets a series of follow up questions:

What’s missing?
How would you change it?
What do you think the next step should be?

The difference between the customer’s answer and “10” is the VALUE that customer is looking for someone to provide.

The person who does gets the access.

If you are really brave, you can use a version of this question to see what your long time customers think of the value you are providing:

“Dr Smith, I have been calling on you for over 5 years. I am always looking to get better and be a better resource for you. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the value I bring to your office?”

Yikes…

This question takes guts.

This question helps you figure out where you need to be.

The answers will not always be pleasant.

It took me years to learn how NOT to get defensive when someone gave me feedback I did not want to hear.

Just remember, feedback is a gift.

Feedback shows you a better way forward.

Average sales people get defensive.

Good sales people embrace it.

Exceptional sales people seek out feedback to become more.

#BeTheException

-Joe Ciccarone

http://www.SalesVibe.net

The Big 3

“There are 3 things every successful salesperson needs: the right mindset, a refined skillset, and an effective tool kit.” – The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need

Mindset is everything.

We must dial in the right mindset before we go anywhere near a customer.

Below are 3 questions that will help you create a killer pre-call mindset.

These 3 questions are applicable to any selling situation.

Below each question is a micro question related to our customers.

Mentally rehearse these before your next appointment:

1) What can I LEARN?
- What’s been their experience?
- What do they perceive?
- What outcomes do they see?
- What’s most important to them?
- Where are they apathetic?

2) What VALUE can I bring?
- How comfortable are they with dosing?
- When do they hold off injecting?
- What muscles are they afraid to inject?
- How strong is their reimbursement?
- How efficient is their schedule?
- What are they working on in the new year?

3) What ACTIONS can we take?
- What idea can we agree upon?
- What 1 patient can we identify?
- Who can I connect this customer to?
- Who can this customer introduce me to?
- What project can we work on together?

LEARN what’s going on inside your customer’s head.

Bring VALUE to every interaction.

Facilitate ACTION.

Do these 3 consistently, take your access and influence to the next level.

#TheBig3

-Joe Ciccarone

What Do You Sell?

This week’s Vibe come from Anthony Iannarino’s new book “The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need.“:

· “Finish this sentence: “I sell ___________________.”

· If you answered with anything other than “outcomes”, you are wrong.

· Focus your conversations on your customer’s desired outcomes and watch your discussions & results take off.

Good selling!

– Joe Ciccarone