This is the third in a series of articles that break down the exact formula you need to smash sales targets… no matter if they’re your own, or your teams goals.

If you’ve been following the series (and you should be!… subscribe here) then you’ll be aware we’re building up an acronym of steps. So far we’ve got G (Great beliefs) and R (Reasons to act).

Read on to find out (and profit from) the next step:

Today we’re all about:

Outcome Clarity

This is a really simple one and you’ve probably heard it before.

In fact, Outcome Clarity is the featured topic of everyone’s favourite personal development movie The Secret.

When you have Outcome Clarity, you know what success looks like.

It’s more than that. You’ll know what it feels, smells and sounds like!

The best sales managers know how to incentivise their teams and themselves… and they know it isn’t always as simple as offering an extra percentage or two of commission.

A real world client of mine wanted to offer a luxury car as a bonus to the top performing sales rep. My advice was simple: Take the team to the car dealership for a test drive.

Once you feel the contours of the leather seats and hear the engine purr (or roar)…. you’ve got Outcome Clarity.

The icing on the cake would be to snap a picture of the sales person in the car while they’re test driving it.

Back in the office, pin the picture right above their workstation so everyday they see where they’re headed.

Another fantastic take on Outcome Clarity is from Jonathan Fields. He wrote an article a while back, about motivating his daughter to study (check it out here). It elegantly explains the principal of Outcome Clarity with the added bonus of Jonathan’s brilliant writing style.

When your goal isn’t a car or a test drive isn’t easy to find, you’ll need a practical tool for creating Outcome Clarity in your mind.

The tool is here, pre-packaged for your convenience:

(answer these questions on paper)

How do you know when you’ve really made the sale?

Where will you be when you get final, total confirmation of your success?

What will you be feeling at that moment?

What would you look like? What expression would you be wearing?

(then visualise)

Step into the vision and see things out of your own eyes. What does the future look like when you’ve succeeded (made the sale)?

Now step out of the image and imagine it as poster of you in that moment.

Hang the poster in your mind.

Make the poster bigger.

Turn up the colours so they’re brighter… just like you can on a TV screen.

If you’re not feeling excited about making sales, it’s because you haven’t found your moment of Outcome Clarity.

It’s less about the actual selling and more about the moment the sale becomes REAL to you (or your team).

For many people, this could be the moment where they spend their earnings… or when they win the bonus incentive (like the car).

For more analytical types, it could be at the end of the month when a report of sales statistics is produced and reviewed.

It differs from person to person, but there is one thing you can be totally sure of:

All sales people need Outcome Clarity

Just like Great Beliefs and Reasons to Act…. if you don’t add Outcome Clarity into the mix, you’re not going to get even halfway decent sales results.

Make the objective clear and be sure everyone on your team knows what success tastes like.

What does sales success look like to you? Let me know in the comment section below…

I’ve got a fantastic idea for my business. I bet you’ve got a couple too.

My idea is a stroke of marketing genius that could help me have fun connecting with a bunch of new clients… and earn a pile of well-deserved cash, quickly and easily.

… So today I got started on it by checking all my favourite news sites, making a snack and catching up with an old friend on the phone. Then it felt like I deserved to watch a little television.

Suddenly, what’s left of the day has gone. Business hours are over. As I drove home, I told myself I’ll get stuck in tomorrow, after a relaxing evening and a good nights sleep.

The Self Sabotage monster strikes again!

This article uncovers the psychology of self sabotage and gives you practical tips on how best to overcome it…

Does this sound familiar?

If you’ve ever worked for yourself (or, let’s face it, for someone else) you probably know what it feels like to get stuck in a self sabotage cycle.

For me, it always meant coming to the end of the day feeling really fired up and motivated for tomorrow… but waking up only to procrastinate again.

At a psychological level, this kind of self sabotage could also be described as “motivation in hindsight”… since we struggle to take action in the moment, but also regretfully look back on all the wasted hours.

In my experience as a consultant (across different industries), it seems that this particular brand of motivational dysfunction is especially common among biz owners and the self employed.

The lizard brain explains it all

Outside of our conscious awareness, there is a mental program running which makes this illogical sabotage suddenly make sense.

As entrepreneurs, most of the activities we regularly procrastinate (via self sabotage) are the significant, high impact tasks… like my marketing idea… or any sales stuff you’ve been putting off.

The tasks are significant and high impact because they help our businesses grow in leaps and bounds. Successfully achieving these tasks is what makes us entrepreneurs and enables us to remain happily unemployable.

Taking action on these tasks means leaving our comfort zone. It’s scary – and our lizard brain understands this and makes sure we know it.

We ask questions like:

“But what if my attempt fails?”

“What if they laugh at me?”

“What if they hang up the phone in my face?”

It’s really fear that causes entrepreneurs to sabotage themselves with procrastination.

Employees don’t suffer from this as much, simply because the impact of failing is not so huge. Plus, few employees are required to complete tasks far outside their comfort zone.

Want the secret to winning big in business?

Overcoming self sabotage is what separates the mega-successful entrepreneurs from the wannabes.

Growing a business takes bravery and a commitment to action, in the face of fear and anxiety.

If everyone could take game-changing action (make the cold calls, do the presentation, publish the sales-letter etc) then everyone would be an entrepreneur.

Loads of people try to make it big with their own business, but the few who are truly successful (in terms of freedom, wealth and global impact) are the ones who overcome self sabotage by realising what it truly is:

Fear of failure

Here are a few tips for mentally reprogramming your lizard-brain to eliminate crippling fear.

These are all field tested on my real-world clients and are proven winners. Use any or all of these techniques to destroy the hidden fears that cause self sabotage.

1. Outcome clarity (like “The Secret” – only practical)

Create a clear, visual image in your mind of what “success” looks like for your procrastinated task.

Most self-sabotage begins by people unconsciously making images of failure in their mind (this is where the fear comes from).

Counter-act this useless mental habit by taking 5 minutes to visualise a sparkly, colourful image of success. Pick the exact moment in the future you’ll want to celebrate the most, then turn it into a gorgeous poster in your mind.

Feel the feelings and live the experience internally… then take immediate action to turn the vision into a reality.

2. Task chunking (baby steps… even a baby could do!)

Many of my previous clients got hung up trying to do everything perfectly, all at once. A project like launching a new website would quickly dissolve into an enormous, overwhelming mess.

Chunking tasks into minute, manageable steps enables you to commit to taking small actions. Importantly, you can also congratulate yourself for every completed step along the way.

“Build a website” turns into “Meet with a graphic designer, write the home page copy, pick a great hosting company” etc etc.

Less scary – more doable.

3. Disaster planning (know what failure REALLY means)

Ironically, this technique is the total opposite of my first suggestion. The contraction doesn’t bother me though, because I know that it’s possible to do both:

Give yourself a reality check by answering the question “Whats the worst thing that could happen here?”

Even if you’re gambling your children’s college fund on something, the worst case scenario is usually not even close to real apocalypse.

Work out what total failure would mean, then quickly brainstorm ideas to mitigate this.

By shedding light on the real risks involved in business, we destroy our brains ability to turn those risks into enormous bogeymen.

Use this technique once, then quickly move on to positive thinking and action.

What other techniques do you use to overcome self-sabotage? Let’s expand this list (with your help) in the comment section below…

I was recently invited to give a talk on the basics of leadership – at a closed door corporate event which one of my clients hosted for their retail management staff.

It was out in the mountains – I got to fly back to the city while the managers face three days of leadership/team metaphor… a.k.a. Gruelling physical challenge.

The very cool, diverse group of people helped me figure out (and apply real world examples to) the following psychological criteria for exceptional leadership.

Best of all, it’s a acronym (who needs another numbered list anyway?):

G – for “Great Beliefs”

Before you lead any group of people to do something extraordinary, it pays to equip them with a set of awesome, empowering beliefs that allow them to get the job done.

Inspiration and motivation are irrelevant here – before we start playing with those Jedi mind tricks, you must first instil the beliefs that make the job possible.

Great, useful beliefs include:

“It’s possible to change things”

“My actions can and will make a difference”

“I already have or can find the resources (resourcefulness) I need”

R – “Reasons to Act”

Basic rule of behaviour psychology: No one, not even someone already on salary, will take any action unless they have a sufficient “reason why” providing psychological leverage.

Equip your team with multiple “reasons” why they can, must and want… to take action. Scary asshole bosses traditionally go nuts with threats when it comes to “Reasons to act”… and they may even get results! However, the best (most consistent) results happen when there is healthy balance of carrot (cos positivity is cool) and stick (cos we live in “reality”).

Ask yourself and your team questions like:

“What is the cost of not doing this?” … and…

“What is to be gained by taking action now… as opposed to next month?”

O – Outcome Clarity

This gets included simply because most folks forget the important parts of goal setting. Tangible measurements of success… plus, total certainty of when, where and with whom (more important than you think) are what well-formed “outcomes” are all about.

This is the stuff that makes “The Secret” work.

Practical approaches to turning a lame “goal” into a laser-precise “outcome” include asking:

“What will it look like when I have this?”

“Where will I be/What will I be doing the moment I realise I’ve achieved my goal?”

The more vivid and emotionally compelling the better.

W – Wilful Action

Simultaneously the simplest and the most regularly overlooked “essential ingredient” in the recipe for leadership success. Wilful action is getting up and doing it – once you’ve got all the other stuff.

Many times, people with the right beliefs, reasons, outcomes and even skills (see below) will still sit around waiting for someone to go first!

This is where you, the one who doth utter “Simon says”, stands up and leads! It isn’t called leadership for nothing.

S – Skills

This is where the technical training and real life “school-of-hard-knocks” stuff comes into play. Don’t bother leading folks who are incompetent. Invest time (and money) in first giving your people all the know-how required.

They don’t need to be masters – that comes with the actual “doing” part.

The best leaders are always already masters – they lead with so much more integrity by being able to say:

“Come, follow me down this road… I know the way.”

Got a question? Think something is missing? Want to know how this could apply to your specific leadership situation? Reply in the comment section (just scroll down) and we’ll figure out the answers together…

There is a psychological “a-ha” (I call it a “Eureka” moment) that every successful entrepreneur just “gets” at some point in their career. Usually just before they absolutely master the science of achievement.

Thing is, it isn’t easy to “get”… it fact, it is one of the most painful lessons you’ll ever learn.

The secret lies in knowing this, expecting the hurt… and then going for it anyway. Really, the lesson is all about embracing pain.

Let me explain…

I’m in the zone. Hurtling at high speed straight down a super steep ridge… slicing and dicing snow into a huge cloud of powder behind me. Clearly, I am the the coolest thing skier on the whole mountain today.

Just when I’m feeling the most confident, everything changes.

Before I can blink, I’m airbourne and the crashing down the hill. In a motion described by experts as “tomahawking” (picture a spinning ax), I flip head over heals and finally come to a not-so-graceful halt with my head buried in the snow.

My entire body is aching like I just finished a bar fight with a 300kg gorilla. I try to get my breath back and simultaneously realise I’ve got snow all through my mouth, nose and trousers.

Worst of all, I have absolutely no idea how this even happened!

When you’re speeding along in business, sometimes you’ll fall flat on your face. It’ll happen so fast that it’s hard to pinpoint the cause.

Ultimate learning:

1. You now know where your learning curve is…

2. You now have the feedback you need to know when to start paying extra attention

See, as soon as I fell down the mountain, I limped back to the hut for a warm drink and a moment’s thought.

I realised that I hadn’t been focused – my attention was on performance (going faster and faster) and I wasn’t paying attention to the conditions underfoot.

This lack of focus in the right places caused me to catch a ski in a patch of soft powder. End result = me flying!

The ironic thing? Powder is supposed to be “ideal” for skiiers, but because I wasn’t paying attention, a pocket of this perfect snow totally ruined me.

The ultimate, ULTIMATE learning:

Without falling over, we cannot learn. The more spectacular the fall, the more neccessary and urgent it is to make the learning.

All really good skiers who know how to go fast, are always (as I learned) keeping an eye out for variable snow conditions.

This is something beginners don’t need to know about. When you’re slowly cruising down a slope, sudden ice or powder (or change fullstop) is easy to deal with.

… You make a few changes to your technique and keep on cruising!

It’s only when you’re on the fast-track that you need to watch out and utilise lighting-fast reflexes to adjust to the conditions.

Learning this is something I would never had the opportunity to do, had I not skiied (stupidly) fast in the first place.

When I go really fast, I realise that the chances of a fall increase dramatically. Still, I consistently ski to my absolute edge because that is the only way to rapidly increase skill.

I know to expect pain.

The big secret: If you’re not looking forward to the pain of falling over, you’re wasting your time and the pay off probably isn’t worth it either.

Anyone who finds skiing boring isn’t going fast enough. Anyone who finds skiing hard isn’t falling over enough.

Make your life, hobbies and business easy – Discover your absolute edge and push yourself beyond it. When you pick yourself up again and keep at it, you’ll soon realise that your personal “edge” is getting bigger and bigger….

As a Master Practitioner of NLP I get to meet a lot of people who have jumped on board the self-development/human-potential movement. More often than not, these people are big believers in “the power of positive thinking”.

What they don’t know is that, at a psychological level, positive thinking and affirmations can cause major damage to your thinking and ability to get motivated. Ultimately, positivity can damage your results – in life and business.

Read on to find out the one technique that eliminates this problem – it’s roughly thirty times more effective than positivity…

The secret is simple: Instead of affirming positive “beliefs” try asking yourself questions that produce positive answers.

A huge number of people discover pop-psychology and start practicing the worst kind of positive-thinking.

They tell themselves they are healthy, wealthy and fulfilled. They repeat it as a mantra, over and over. The idea is, through repetition, to slowly drill the message into one’s unconscious in the hopes that results will be forthcoming. 

Problem is, while they’re busy affirming good stuff, they’re not actually doing anything. I’ve never known a single person who has been hit on the head by a bag of money while meditating.  

A nasty incongruency begins to develop: The unconscious mind receives repeated messages about how happy, healthy and wealth you are, but knows that it isn’t the truth.

Talk about internal conflict! Your unconscious mind isn’t stupid. All it’s going to do is learn to tune out the un-true affirmation chatter and get back to focusing on reality.

Second bad news: In the meantime, reality isn’t going so well. Positive thinkers bottle up their frustrations and sit around thinking happy thoughts. Smart go-getters use negative emotion as leverage to take immediate action.

Ask better questions!

By asking oneself clever mental questions, you can actually direct your unconscious mind to come up with clever, positive and empowering answers.

A mental dialogue of empowering, unconscious Q & A lends itself well to action and then results.  

Example:

By internally asking, every morning: “How much positive impact can I have on the bottom line of my business today?”

… you are forcing your unconscious mind to focus on positive, practical actions that will improve your results.

The secret is in the question and the presupposition it implies: By asking “how much” you force your unconscious mind to quantify… zero or “nothing at all” simply isn’t an option!

You could ask yourself:

How much fun can I have today?
How much have I got to be grateful about?

All questions like this will transform your state of mind and the results you produce. Rapidly. Positive thinking takes years of frustration to apply properly and doesn’t even come in close in terms of effectiveness.

Smart questions beat positivity every time. You heard it here first.

The movie the secret did a fantastic job popularising “the law of attraction” and introducing new people to the entrepreneur’s self-help movement.

One area where the film went wrong is the presupposition that the law of attraction was the number one line in the sand between those who are successful business and those who aren’t.

While utilising the law of attraction (and a $%&*load of action) is important for business & financial results, my experience has taught me that there is another, more important factor, that will determine your success.

The mindset of millionaires

Having been consultant to some exciting (and profitable) businesses, I’ve identified a differentiating belief and attitude that sets the truly successful apart.

Gratitude

When you have gratitude for the cards that life has dealt you, it is possible to tap into the motivation and inspiration that will drive you to extraordinary success.

People who are grateful to their parents, their education, their country of origin, their luck, their networks and friends tend to view “changing the world for the better” (often achieved through business) as an obligation.

Most of us see it as an opportunity – something we can always take advantage of tomorrow, not today.