Passionate Promotion & Accurate View Of Your Abilities: Getting Your Business Spine in Line -- Part 2 of 3

Reposted to compliment the video “Effective Social Media Marketing Video#2: How To Passionately Promote Without Pissing People Off” in the next post.

(Originally posted in July of 2009. Brief review included of Part 1 to get you up to speed) As I mentioned in Part 1, if you invest the time and effort into your business then we need to find ways to get the optimal results out of that effort. Those payoffs need to not only be monetary but they must also provide us with what I call “emotional paychecks” as well.  If in the end it’s all about money then you are forced (believe it or not) to muffle your emotional inner voices whose needs demand to be met as well.

Let me start by stating that we must be in business with the ultimate desire of being both financially successful and personally fulfilled by the path taken in order to naturally perform at a high effort level to reach our goals. To make certain we perform to the highest standard consistently, our belief system, abilities and business opportunity must all be in line.

For the sake of review the “Natural High-Performance Model” are the elements that must be in-line or “in congruence” in order for ones effort to naturally be consistently maintained at a high level.

 They are as follows:

1. Your Honest View of Selling/Marketing (Passionate Promotion)
2. Accurate Self-Assessment & Belief In Your Abilities
3. Your Core Values
4. Your Motivated Commitment to Daily Activities
5. Your Total Conviction In The Service/Solution You Provide To Your Customers
6. Your Business Opportunity: Accurately Assessing If Your Business/Current Role Is Congruent With The Information You Provided For Elements 1-5

How You View Your Abilities: See The Lion Inside!

I prefer discussing the second of the two components first, referring to that of having an accurate self-assessment of your abilities. You can’t perform any action unless you believe you have the tools or the ability to self educate and obtain the tools in your toolbox to do it. There are two influences that affect our self-assessment. The first is internal. If you haven’t evaluated your strengths and abilities or taken a skills inventory in a while then take some time to really contemplate and write down what your perceived strengths are. This inventory of what you enjoy, what you’re good at and where your passions lie will tell you where education and training need to come into play in order to fill in those areas where you are lacking knowledge and confidence.  Recognize that there will be functions that would make you feel rewarded and fulfilled yet you might not be presently equipt to perform them.  That doesnt mean you need to do something else instead, but rather allow that passion to ignite a desire for self education which will unlock the door, allowing you to confidently do what rewards you.

Your Perception Of Passionate Promotion Is Paramount!

The key to effectively promoting your business will be negatively influenced by a warped external perception of the act itself.  This is where we let social stereotypes affect our self-perception. Nothing can muffle a voice quicker than when someone feels they should feel embarrassed to be in the profession they’re in or to make the career choice they’ve made. I am going to take a little more time discussing this issue because I believe this type of misperception is so prevalent and it can be a killer of so many direct sales businesses (yes it’s a pet-peeve of mine). We cannot underestimate the impact that our views of what we do affect our daily sales/marketing performance.
I remember seeing a survey several years ago that was done among average and below average producing direct sales distributors, asking them what images came to mind when they thought of a sales person. The results were alarming. The first images were either that of a used car or insurance salesman. That’s right, they thought of the two professions that had the worst stereotypes in their own line of work! Is there any wonder why 97% of business owners fail in the direct sales industry? They had unfortunately taken their “non-buyers” perception on as their own without being aware of it.
This is also true regarding inaccurate perception of the specific industry or business model. If you’re engaged in direct sales (aren’t we all), network marketing or a Multi-level model you will take on the exact same stereotypes, which result in feeling as if you should be embarrassed about what you do or how you conduct your business. The fact is: we must believe that passionately promoting our business in whatever industry or business opportunity we’ve chosen, is a noble profession that creates value and helps our customers, in order for us to meet their needs effectively.

You cant lie to yourself enough to be successful if deep down inside you’re ashamed of selling what you do and who you are.  The quickest way to change that misperception is to think of the people you’ve helped and the positive stories others could tell about how you’ve impacted their lives in a positive way. If they were never told about your business then they would’ve never had that experience.  
We all fall into social stereotyping especially when it comes to defining our views surrounding sales. There are negative elements in any profession but we don’t always let them define the group as a whole. We don’t truly believe that all Corporate CEO’s are corrupt or that all CFO’s misreport their company’s annual revenue to their stockholders. We don’t think that plane travel is unsafe just because one crash, yet we visually define a salesman as a disingenuous, pushy and annoying person in a “shady” profession who is willing to say anything while performing a function that is both disingenuous and annoying to others. If that is not re-adjusted to an accurate perception, we then take on the misperception of that role when performing those activities. It eventually becomes incredibly difficult to persuade someone to believe that we can best meet their needs. Every time we would hear a negative reply we would think we were just annoying them in the same way.
WE NEED TO STOP THIS MINDSET IN ITS TRACKS!! This will paralyze your ability to grow your business!  There are countless people out there to help that will be robbed of that if you allow yourself to believe a lie and not stand for what you truly believe in. (I’ve said before business growth typically mirrors your personal growth. This is a perfect example of that)

So, other than correcting your view of passionate promotion and the accurate view of  your abilities, what other factors will sidetrack your effectiveness to market your business?  Take a quick review of the ”Natural High-Performance Model” and ask yourself which one can be removed, ignored or misaligned and not compromise the effective self-promotion of your business to others?  The answer is: not one of them can be out of line.  Each component in your business life is dependent opon the other for you to reach your full potential as an entrepreneur.

The “Business Chiropractor’s” recommended treatment has to be followed exactly. Doctors orders!  So stop by the front desk on your way out and they’ll schedule the 3rd appointment of your treatment series. (feel free to search & read the final post in the series: “Avoiding The Domino Effect: Getting your Business Spine In Line Part -3″)

Your Coach & Fan

Patrick Daugherty

The “Biz Coach”

CEO of Learn2earn it now Training & Support

Author of:  “The Success Steps For Building Wealth Online” for Online Marketers AND  

                 ”The Success Step Training System” For Network Marketers

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