selling yourself why professional

Is professional development part of your goal to increase sales?Yes, I know you are busy, there is not enough minutes in the day, you are working with more demands and less resources and worse yet your company does not provide any additional sales training coaching (self improvement) opportunities. However, maybe this story may help you to reconsider the importance of a professional development action plan.Two lumberjacks in the late 1800's were vying for a coveted prize - a top of the line quality axe. Each had to fell a very tall tree with many branches. At 8:00am, the starting gun discharged and both men began climbing up their respective trees. Then about 20 minutes later one of the lmberjacks came down and disappeared for about 5 minutes. He reappeared, scrambled up the tree and resumed cutting. Another 20 minutes later, he returned to the ground, disappeared and came back in 5 minutes. This behavior continued all morning long and into the afternoon.By early afternoon, the crowd was quite confused since the other lumberjack was significantly ahead. Then as the early evening shadows started growing, the tide began to turn in favor of the man who took a break every 20 minutes. Suddenly, one of the trees fell. The winner was indeed the lumberjack who stopped every 20 minutes.When he received his prize, he was asked about his somewhat strange behavior. The man smiled and replied that to win the prize the blade of his axe had to be at its best. To achieve that goal, he had to keep it sharp and so his breaks were devoted to honing the blade on his axe.Now think about you as a salesperson. Substitute cutting the tree as earning a sale. The coveted prize is your commission. Your axe is your selling skills. How sharp are those skills? Possibly the reason you are not realizing your goal to increase sales is because your sales skills are dull. Sales Training Coaching Tip: You are responsible for your own self improvement and professional development first and foremost.There are many resources from daily to weekly ezines to free e-books on sales in today's technology driven society that can help you keep your sales skills honed. Of course you may need to assess those marketing and selling skills and again there are free assessments to more formal ones such as the Attribute Index.Henry Ford best summed up life with these words: "If you think you can or you think you cannot, either way you are right." My only 2 cents if you think you can, then ensure that positive thought with a action plan to turn those thoughts into measurable results.

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