One of the most common causes of average summers in the Southwestern Internship program is an average belief level. If someone views themselves as a 3.0 student who gives 3.0 effort in college, it is highly unlikely they will graduate with a GPA above a 3.0. Our own limiting view of ourselves allowed us to work less, rationalize less than our best, and settle for the results we had predetermined as our “potential”. The same happens in sales.

Going into my second summer with Southwestern I wanted to hit some pretty high goals. I came off a summer where I had sold about 2,600 units and made $13,000. In a second summer I really wanted to sell 6,000 units. (This goal would have been about 7,000 with the current unit values that have been raised on products since my second summer.) This goal scared the heck out me. In fact in the org I was in the previous summer none of the student managers had sold that many books. Why should I be able to?

This was the point in the story where I allowed the math major side of me to take over. This part may bore you, but I promise it is worth reading. There are three components that go into how many units you will sell this summer. Your total presentations for the summer, your closing %, and your average package size. I know that this is nothing new to most of you. What really helped me turn the corner on my own belief level was figuring out what I felt confident I could accomplish in each of these three areas.

Looking back at my previous summer I saw at I closed 30% of my presentations in summer 1.  I had an average package of around 13. My average presentations were about 10 a day. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I could have my package size raise to at least 15 (really low for a student manager) and I was confident I would not get worse at selling and hopefully would get slightly better up to 33%. So if one in three families bought 15 units, every one of my presentations was worth 5 units. If I needed to sell 500 units a week to hit 6,000, I just needed to figure out how to get 16 presentations a day and 20 on Saturday to make 100 for the week.

From that point forward I dove all the way in on my approach. I practiced with managers on campus. I trained with my team. I video taped my approach to see what I was actually doing. I practiced with my DSM. I knew that 100 presentations a week was all I needed to focus on.The rest of the semester I didn’t care at all about 6,000. All I cared about was 100, 15, and 33%. I was confident I could do these three and I knew what they resulted in. I posted these numbers in my room, they were on the background of my computer, and I doodled them in class. By the time the summer rolled around these numbers were hard wired. When I left each house in the summer I said to myself, “Cool, that will be 5 units at the end of my summer.”. It made me focus on nothing but the controllables and kept me from getting too high or too low.

I ended up only have 11 1/2 weeks my second summer and I delivered 5,752 units. 2 units off from being EXACTLY 500 a week. I also sold an average of 5.02 units per presentation. I don’t think this was purely by chance.

So forget about all of your preconceived notions in regards to “what you are capable of” in terms of units. Instead sit down with your manager and figure out what you are capable of in regards to the three key components. Get their advice on how to increase in the area you most need to increase in. Once you come up with numbers you are confident in and a game plan to improve pre-summer, dive in!

The end result will be much better than you ever thought possible.

As a biological engineering major, my possible summer internships options were pretty slim.  Every company I contacted wanted me to have some experience in the field before they would even consider interviewing me.  Sadly my four years of lifeguarding wasn’t impressive to them, so I faced a lot of rejection whenever I applied.  “How am I supposed to have experience as a freshman?” I would often ask my roommates.  They too had impressive resumes built on years of dedicated work in the food service industry, so they offered little help.    My assigned college counselor offered me more and more engineering firms to contact, and I applied to all of them only to hear the same response time after time.  “Try again when you are a junior or senior” became a popular expression around my dorm room. 

Then I made one of the best decisions a college freshman can make.   I applied for internships outside of my major and a whole new world of opportunity opened up!  There are lots of opportunities to students willing to try something new and different.  I looked at sales internships, investment companies, entrepreneurship opportunities, and many others.  I ended up getting a challenging job where I would run my own business for the summer.  After completing the summer, I found that my skills I had gained during the summer were priceless.  I now had engineering firms seeking me out and contacting me for jobs!  They saw my engineering knowledge combined with the sales skills I had learned from my internship, to be highly sought after and worthy of their time.

So to all underclassmen who have a lack of experience, but are ambitious enough to search for an internship look outside of your major this summer.  There are great jobs, even careers that have been started by students who took a chance and tried something different.  But beyond all else, you only get four summers in college (or five if you are on the hard partying course plan) please make the most of them.  It is never too early to start get ahead in life.

“Goals. We all make them to start the new year. And forget them by Valentine’s Day.

“So here’s your excuse to stop working on your Personal Goals for 2011 right this moment. The reason: They might make you a less effective leader.

“The fact of the matter is that personal goals can come at the expense of something more important: making others around you better by making them your priority. That’s the word from Harvard Business School professors Robin Ely and Frances Frei, and Anne Morriss of Concire Leadership Institute.

‘That doesn’t mean leaders are selfless. They have personal goals — to build status, a professional identity, and a retirement plan, among other things,” the authors write in the current Harvard Business Review. “But the narrow pursuit of those goals can lead to self-protection and self-promotion, neither of which fosters other people’s success.’

“This may be one of the hardest things you will do as a leader. After all, self-protection is the ultimate brain hard-wire. So to downplay our own needs can feel dangerous, according to Ely, Frei and Morriss in their article, Stop Holding Yourself Back.

‘But all breakthrough leaders find ways to tame their security impulses. Most are amazed by the energy and meaning they discover when they no longer define themselves by their personal needs and fears.’

“OK, so you should have at least one personal goal this year: Make others better. Your commitment should be to make another person, or your entire team, better in some way. At problem solving, or prioritizing, or communicating with customers. Then get them the resources they need to get to work.”

What do you think about Silverthorne’s other-centered goal setting idea?  I welcome your thoughts.

To the point of this post: I ran across a bNEt blog which agrees with Pink’s findings.  Click on this link:  http://www.bnet.com/blog/salesmachine/why-sales-goals-and-diets-dont-work/11650?promo=808&tag=nl.e808

If you are a sales manager, a VP of sales, an artist, a business owner or someone who is just trying to lose weight, it would be wise to read and ponder Pink’s latest book.  The old “carrot and stick” mentality regarding contests, work, compensation and motivation needs an overhaul.

Here is Pink describing this Drive thesis at a TED conference.  Click here.

Thoughts?

I was conducting a webinar on how to have a I Wanna Win finish, and it reminded me of the greatest finish I witnessed in swimming history–the U.S. men’s 4 x 100 relay at the Beijing Olympics.   Do you remember?

At the 50 meter halfway mark, Jason Lezak peered through his goggles at the lane to his right and briefly lost hope. 

“The thought really entered my mind for a split second,” Lezak said. “There’s no way.” 

The anchor swimmer took off from the blocks well behind Frenchman Alain Bernard and, after sprinting for 50 meters, had not closed the gap.  Bernard, who began this race as the world-record holder in the 100 freestyle, had not put the race out of reach — something he all but guaranteed by declaring the French would “smash” the Americans in this event. 

When he flipped and pushed off the wall, he was still half a body length behind.  As a Masters swimmer, I can tell you that is huge in a sprint race. The United States was going down and taking Phelps’ quest for eight gold medals with it. 

But just as quickly as that glimmer of despair flitted through Lezak’s mind, it was shoved aside by fresh determination. 

“I changed,” he said. “I thought, ”That’s ridiculous. I’m at the Olympic Games, I’m here for the United States of America. I don’t care how bad it hurts, I’m going after it.’  I just got a super charge.”

Lezak closed the gap and out-touched Bernard by .08 of a second.  Less than a blink of an eye.  The greatest comeback I have ever seen at the Olympics.  People went crazy.  I went crazy.  It was very cool, unless you were French.  Here is a link to a video of the whole race: 

Are you in the final stages of your school year?  a big multi-faceted B-to-B sale?  building your team for the summer?  This is the time when people give up a little, and think, “no way.”  Decide it’s important to hit your goals–you may not have millions of fans cheering for you, but finishing strong(ly) is a great habit to adopt.  Your thoughts/comments are welcomed!

“Why do you suppose it’s so difficult to match one’s behavior and decisions to their goals? If life is all about habits, why is it so easy to form bad habits and so difficult to form good ones?”

Good stuff!  Let me lob this out to the crowd before I proffer my thoughts…any ideas?  Please comment.

Take a minute: Look at your goals.  Look at your performance.  See if your behavior matches your goals.

Simple and obvious, but for a college student, this was a profound thought.  Most students begin each term with high expectations: “This semester (unlike the others) I’m going to all my classes, and I’m gonna get a 4.0!”  After a few weeks of the academic grind, combined with increasing “social activities”, they are faced with a dilemma–do they sacrifice the fun and buckle down to hit their goal, or do they simply amend their 4.0 goal down a bit?  (“Nothing wrong with a 3.0.”)  Do they say no to pleasing activities to achieve pleasing results?  You’re right!  There is a lot of goal amendment going on as you read my blog.  (“My 2.5 GPA is still better than my roommate’s!”)  If a student wants high grades, but they’re out consuming adult beverages & participating in a self-induced barf o’rama until the wee hours several nights a week, something has to give–and it’s usually their goals.

I talk to rookie Southwestern Company students who begin with seriously high goals for the summer.  The first week their battle cry is: “I’m going to make $20,000!”  Week two: “$10,000 is OK!”  Week three: “$3000 would be fine.”  Week four: “Breaking even…victory!”  They either elect to change their sales behaviors and effort upward, or they adjust their goals downward.  Thankfully, most stay motivated and change their performance to match their goals.

So how are your sales compared to your sales goals?  Do they match?  More thoughts to follow….

The reason people do not reach their true potential is because they subconsciously build barriers that cause self-doubt.  They don’t believe they can hit high goals.  The three most important characteristics for breaking belief barriers are commitment, control, and confidence. 

1. Commitment is doing the work–putting in the effort with no excuses!  Top producers do not make excuses; they stay committed. 

When I think of commitment, I am reminded of a time when I was selling books door-to-door with The Southwestern Company.  While in Missouri that summer, I had over ten flat tires in three months!  I had so many flat tires I started timing myself with a stopwatch as if I were on a NASCAR pit crew.  So I find myself in the middle of nowhere, on a mile-long driveway (scenery common to that area).  The driveway passed through a canopy of trees.

As I was changing the tire trying to beat my pit crew record time, I noticed my arm looked like my skin was crawling.  Upon further inspection I realized I was completely covered in ticks!  I don’t know about you, but when people ask me what my favorite critter is I don’t say ticks.  So what did I do?  I reacted the same way any other rational human being would-I flipped out!  I stripped down buck naked and threw my clothes in a plastic bag so ticks would not get in the car.  

Then I drove to the nearest gas station.  I hopped out, but realized I’d better put my pants back on.  So after that embarrassing act, I ran into the gas station with no shirt and no shoes.  An older lady looked at me and said, “Son, what’s wrong with you?”  I replied, “I’ve got ticks!”  So I grabbed a razor and ran to the bathroom.  Now as I was looking at myself in the mirror and trying to pick the ticks off, I had a deep sense of doubt.  I wanted to quit what I was doing, go home, and use this as a reason why I didn’t hit my goal.  But, something inside of me said No.  I had committed to my sales manager, my friends, parents, and (more importantly) to myself I was not going to quit on a single day, week, or month.  So I shaved the ticks off one by one.  I went on and finished my day.  That day was not my most productive day, but it was my most important because after that experience I knew nothing would stop me from fulfilling my commitments from then on.

We find ourselves in different situations everyday.  After reflecting upon that extreme example of what it means to be committed, I found that sometimes we cannot do anything about the situations in which we find ourselves.  In order to reach our Maximum Earning Potential, the level of commitment we need to have should be deep enough that it goes past being committed to someone else, and the dedication to the goal is based on personal accountability. 

Soon, we will dive into the second success factor for obtaining Maximum Earning Potential—Control.

Dustin Hillis is Co-Founder of Success Starts Now!  He was a phenomenal salesperson as a student dealer with The Southwestern Company, setting the company record in 2004 and making over $97,000 in a single summer.