Please know that I am a practicing Catholic and not a Buddhist. My understanding of Buddhism is basic so misinterpretation should not be insulting but rather attributed to the beginning of the path of understanding.
That said, I have studied Buddhism and found many theories and lessons that translate directly into life and career. At the end of the day Buddhism and all religions are about finding inner peace. When we find inner peace we are the people that others want to work with and buy from. Our empires are built from the inside out.
The purpose of this blog is to share some of those insights and give you some food for thought so that you too can find inner professional peace. This blog post sets the table for others to follow which detail the teachings of Buddhism as applied to sales and ultimately career growth. We start with the Four Noble Truths.
It is the nature of life that all beings will face difficulties, through enlightened living one can transcend these difficulties, ultimately becoming fulfilled liberated and free.
The Four Noble Truths:
1 – Life is difficult
2 –Life is difficult because of attachment. We crave satisfaction in ways that are inherently dissatisfying.
3 – The possibility for liberation from difficulties exists for everyone.
4 – The way to realize liberation and enlightenment is by leading a compassionate life of virtue, wisdom and reflection.
#1 – [Sales] is Difficult
We all are faced with challenges. Sometimes challenges find us. A bad economy, new disruptive technologies and business models, deal killers within organizations, contacts changing roles are all uncontrollable variables. If you do have a rock solid sales process that produces consistent results then your difficulties should be from new initiatives to grow faster, bigger and better. If you don’t have challenges, if you don’t have difficulties and you aren’t playing the game.
Accept pain. Accept difficulties. Our jobs are hard. Sales are not easy. No two sales are exactly the same. Strategy and game play is always in effect. This is why we earn the big bucks (HA!). This leads us to Truth #2:
#2 – [Sales] is difficult because of attachment. We crave satisfaction in ways that are inherently dissatisfying.
Good sales professionals set goals for themselves that are higher than anything that they have achieved before. Have a good year? Make the next one better! It does not matter if last year’s economy was better than one or if the stars aligned for you where a huge client signed. Find a way to do what you did last year and then do more!
That should be our attitude and goals but it also is a cause of dissatisfaction and pain. We need to set goals, strategies and measureable activities to achieve these goals and then let them go. Forget about your goals. Know your destination, plan your trip and then concentrate on driving. You will get there if you just drive. Driving is easy. Driving is the here and now. Be in the here and now.
A friend/mentor of mine passed along this advice: You can’t control your results but you can control your activities. You don’t know when a deal is going to close but you can concentrate on filling the pipeline with deals that will eventually close. When you do this you may go through droughts where the deals are not closing, but, then one day it is your phone ringing with deals you are winning. The dawn of a new day changes from drought to monsoon. You don’t control when that happens but you do control how hard it will rain when it does. That is all based on you activity, your driving.
Recently my sales process which was producing exceptional year over year sales and new client wins had the plug pulled on it due to lack of funding. Needless to say I was upset. My destination and goals stay the same but my car was taken away.
I was upset until I realized that my dissatisfaction and stress was due to the attachment to my method. By letting go to this attachment I was able to find peace and regroup to come up with a new strategy, a new path to reach the same destination. I found peace by letting go of my attachment to a method and setting a new strategy with new tactics to achieve my goals.
Are the results not there? If the activities are right let go of the results and focus on the activities. If your sales process is disrupted, let go of the attachment and reinvent.
#3 – The possibility for liberation from difficulties exists for everyone.
Yes. Everyone. Even you. Especially you since you are still reading this.
#4 – The way to realize liberation and enlightenment is by leading a compassionate life of virtue, wisdom and reflection.
Compassionate Life of Virtue – Always act in the best interest of the client. Sell something with value and find ways for everyone to benefit from it. Everyone means your client, your company and yourself. Remember that the client has the money so they do come first but you also have a responsibility to make a profit for your company. Be good to everyone and they will be good to you.
Wisdom and Reflection – Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment. Wisdom is the collection of your smarts, education and experience. To get the most out of all of these is to have time to step back and reflect. Think about things from many different angles. Challenge yourself mentally. Day dream. Take time to review and learn from your wins and losses. I do mine at the gym or when running, walking or snowboarding. Use time when you are away from offices, family and when your blood is pumping. Exercise helps the thought process.
References:
Awakening the Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das: http://www.amazon.com/Awakening-Buddha-Within-Tibetan-Western/dp/0767901576
Lama Surya Das home page: http://www.surya.org/
No comments:
Post a Comment