The 5 Things We Can Control

In sales, as in life, we control very little. The good news is -- those things that we can influence are under our direct control.

There are only five things in this universe that we can control as sales professionals--or as people for that matter.

In my previous position as an advertising sales manager for a team of print sales professionals operating in five nations across four continents, I encouraged my people to spend their time, energies and brain power on the things they could control.

If they were spinning their wheels on matters over which they wielded no influence, it was wasted time and effort. Lets take a look at the laundry list of matters over which we exercise little to no control.

I had to remind them that they had no control over the state of the economy in the nation in which they were selling. So dont waste time worrying about it. Yes, pick up the daily paper and read about it so as to be well informed, but dont waste time focusing on the matters beyond our control.

I would stress to them that they had no impact on how well their prospects company was performing. The company was either profitable or not. We could not change that. We could, however, ensure that we spent more time researching the companies available to us in the marketplace and direct our energies toward the more profitable enterprises. But we could not influence whatsoever the fiscal health of our prospects.

The price of our ad space and the readership of our media were out of our control, too. The prices came from on high and the readership was in the hands of an entirely other group of people. The product and price were what they were and we had to sell what we had.

We could not leverage our power over the person on the other end of the phone when we rang them for an appointment. We had no control over what was going on in that persons life at that moment. We might have reached them on an up day or a down day. All we could do is pick up the phone and call them with a pleasant, sincere and professional demeanor.

We could not determine if the prospect accepted our invitation to join the many other sponsors of our advertorial reports, but we most definitely were the ones who decided whether or not we asked them to do so.

We could not influence the traffic, the geo-political situation, the competition, the nations telephone system, the local currencys exchange rate to the US dollar, the prospects familiarity with our media prior to our contacting them, the level of that companys involvement in the country where the paper was published, the prospects reaction to our proposal, nor the weather of the day.

In other words we controlled nearly nothing. And neither do you.

Do not despair! Because, the good news is: We control the things that we have direct influence over. If of sound mind and body, all people control five things.

We can determine what we do with our hands.

We decide in which direction we place our feet and walk.

We exercise control over the words we allow to escape from our mouths.

We choose the objects upon which we rest our eyes.

And we can have direct influence over what thoughts we entertain and nurture in our minds.

Aside from these five things, we control absolutely nothing in this great universe.

We can pick up the phone and dial. We cant control what mood the person on the other end will have.

We can choose sincere, professional and compassionate words when that person answers, hence altering for better their mood, but we cant guarantee that. We can only choose our words wisely.

We cant control the fiscal well being of the prospects, but we can place our feet in the direction of the local chamber of commerce and conduct in-depth research on the top companies in the country.

We cant influence all the bad we see in the news but we can divert our eyes to rest upon the beautiful and wondrous things that exist in this universe. We can focus our eyes on a good book or a peaceful landscape instead of a trashy TV program.

And we can foster wrong, defeatist, negative attitudes, or we can choose to develop new thinking and fill our minds with positive, loving and hopeful ruminations.

We have no control over most everything in this universe. But we can control what we do today.

Steve Parkins is President of PICKS Training & Consulting and helps companies to sell, lead and communicate in the global village. An accomplished sales leader and a published journalist and writer, Steve is a 20-year veteran of global sales and marketing, leadership and communications training.

He has lived in Asia and Europe and worked in over 40 nations on six continents, bringing a unique international awareness to his training. He has conducted direct sales to C-level executives in over 2000 organizations around the globe and has trained hundreds of others in the arts and sciences of direct sales, leadership and communications.

His extensive experience in selling to C-level executives in virtually every industry provides clients a senior level, dynamic, energetic, humorous and worldly training consultant with broad commercial awareness and executive presence.

Steve continues to consult companies on selling, marketing and managing global sales teams while providing formal corporate sales, leadership and communications training.

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