-Peter Drucker

Are you ready to commit to making 2011 your best professional year yet? If so, grab a notepad or laptop, and let’s get to work. Take five minutes right now to fill in the blanks below.

Your 2011 PRECISE Commitment

I will make $______________ in 2011.

I will be rank #_________ in my company in sales.

I will close ________ sales a week.

I will prospect with ____________ new clients each week.

I will schedule _________ hours/minutes each week to do nothing but plan.

Now take that sheet and put it in a place where you will frequently see it. Let it remind you of the commitment you made to yourself. Next, schedule 30 minutes in your office during Christmas week to begin your planning for 2011. Think about where you should spend your time, who you may need help from, which clients you will spend more time with…or less time. In short, commit now and plan now. And when January 3 rolls around, you will not only have hopes and promises, but a clear path to get you to the TOP.

For sales tips and occasional creative yet random thoughts, follow Brian Sullivan on twitter @preciseselling. President of Kansas City-based PRECISE Selling, he delivers seminars and internet training programs on sales, customer service, leadership and presentation skills to companies of all sizes. Check him out at www.preciseselling.com.

Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.

- Oprah Winfrey

Do you notice a pattern in my weekly motivational quotes? I don’t do it on purpose it just sort of happens. It seems the greatest ones are about doing the right thing when nobody is looking. “So how on earth am I going to get that promotion if nobody even knows I am honestly and fairly outworking my peers and my competition?” you ask. Well don’t sweat it because you WILL get noticed…by YOU.

The more great things you do for the right reasons (noticed or unnoticed) the more you understand how valuable you are to your company. The first person that needs to believe is you. So this week, work longer hours, be more creative, come up with that solution, take that risk and surprise that customer. And don’t take short cuts to get it done.

By doing these things well, you will become more confident in your ability to perform at a high level. And once you believe in yourself, others will follow…and those barriers to “the top” will come crashing down.

Promise only what you can deliver.
Then deliver more than you promise.
~Author Unknown

October 1, 2008

Do you know anybody who makes a habit of breaking promises? And as you think about that person right now, what does your face look like? I bet you squinted your eyes, tightened your upper lip and felt a moderate surge of frustration. But don’t let it get you. In fact, feel that pain in your gut and make a promise right now to never make anybody feel like you do right now. Because if you go to the “promise breaking dark side,” you will have given up perhaps the greatest gift given to you…the ability to use words to consistently and positively influence others.

But living with integrity not only delivers what some might consider “touchy/feely” benefits. It also yields top individual and team performance which usually translates into more sales, more profits and more success. In his book, The Integrity Dividend, Leading by the Power of Your Word, author Tony Simons did a study of 76 Holiday Inn Hotels. The study showed that the average employee’s perception of how much the employee ‘s manager kept promises and lived by stated values, drove hotel profitability more strongly than employee trust, sense of fairness, commitment, or satisfaction. In short, keeping promises results in higher profits. And in the case of individual Holiday Inns, that meant an additional $250,000 annually!

So this week, whether you lead internal or external customers, keep your promises. Your customers and associates will trust you more. And when they trust you more they will become more emotionally attached to you and your company. And that attachment will translate into a very profitable Integrity Dividend” for years to come.

To learn more about The Integrity Dividend, listen to Brian interview author Dr. Tony Simons on his weekly radio program by going to www.preciseselling.com/Radioaccess.htm. As President of Kansas City-based PRECISE Selling, Brian delivers seminars, podcasts and internet training programs on sales, customer service, leadership and presentation skills to companies of all sizes. To find out more, visit him at www.preciseselling.com or email Brian at bsullivan@preciseselling.com.

“Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself.
Before you can move their tears, your own must flow.
To convince them, you must yourself believe.”
-Winston Churchill

One of the greatest gifts God has given us is emotion. By showing your emotion, it allows others to get a glimpse of what the heck is going on inside of that skin of yours. And when you give others the ability to see what is in your head and heart, your ability to positively influence them is greatly increased. Think of some of the greatest leaders in history and how they used emotion to convey their message. Now think of that big meeting you have this week where you are trying to influence others, and jazz that presentation up with some raw emotion. Let others see that you firmly believe what you are “selling.” It will be that expressed emotion that will mean the difference between attaining your meeting objective and falling just a bit short.