Jonathan Farrington’s Blog

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

For” foolish consistency” read “dull routine”.

Routine – doing things by habit, subconsciously, without thinking – is the enemy of success.

The human mind is a computer. You programme your computer by the input you feed into it: learning, knowledge, experience and so on. If you programme your mind with images of failure, you will fail. If you build a bank of success images, your computer will direct you to success.

How do you build and input images of success into your computer? By creativity…by thinking.

The fruit of thinking is knowledge; and knowledge is the medium from which skills are built.
In skills learning, there are four steps:
Step One:

The Unconscious Incompetent. They don’t know that they don’t know. The salesperson that is making mistakes, but is not aware of them.
Step Two:

The Conscious Incompetent. They know that they don’t know. This is the beginning of wisdom. The salesperson that is aware they are not cashing in on their full potential and wants to learn how to improve.
Step Three:

The Conscious Competent. They have learned and are aware of what they have learned – and they use it! They know why! The salesperson who knows how to make a successful approach call and can programme and execute their presentation to achieve their objectives.

Step Four:

The Unconscious Competent. They have learned so well that they use their knowledge with a semi-automatic skill. Their skills have reached a level where they are no longer self-centred. They are free to devote their efforts to the needs of others. The professional salesperson who does the right things to get results, but functions without conscious attention to what they are dong or why.

Note that I say semi-automatic. Even the Unconscious Competent should have the ability and the sharpness to call forth self-awareness.

Purposeful self-awareness, plus a knowing application of skill, generates maximum personal horsepower.

The handmaiden of creativity is imagination. Imagination is the well that brings forth the new ideas that are essential to your growing success.

Well, the Top 10 Sales Articles bandwagon is rolling on at a fair rate of knots and is just one of those initiatives that become more exciting by the day. We announced the first article of the week last Sunday and what a superb inaugural winner it was. My fellow adjudication panel members and I were almost in unanimous accord.

It is called: “Rejection, Get Over It” by Alvin Day and published by Build Your Own Business. If you haven’t read it yet, you can do so here:

My guest, as I mentioned here last week, was the…. well I am honestly running out of superlatives to describe Nikki Owen – she was quite simply superb.

This week I am in conversation with Kim Duke, the Sales Diva, and I am really looking forward to a high energy show – think I will have an early night on Saturday!

If you have the opportunity to join us, please do,the details are here

Another of my expert adjudication panel buddies, Jill Konrath finally gave in!! This extract from: “Jill’s Jottings”

“I’ve been asked a gazillion times about when I’ll be offering an open workshop. Finally, I can say, “Now!” That’s right. On June 21-22nd, you can attend a Selling to Big Companies training program where you’ll learn exactly what it takes to crack into corporate accounts.
To get you focused on that one account you’d love to have as a customer, you’ll even have pre-work. You’ll leave with a strong value proposition, compelling phone messages and a plan for your account entry campaign.

If you’re ready to reel in the big ones, check out this upcoming workshop”.

That’s it , so as ever, wherever you are in the world – have a great week.
JF

Trackback URI | Comments RSS