Hi everyone. Welcome back. It’s Pat here. I wanted to talk today about a really important topic, and it boils down to mindset. That’s really where I’m going with this today.

This topic was prompted by an event and an experience I had last week, and I know you can all relate to it. I was speaking at a business expo in Hamilton, Ontario. I was one of the presenters; there were only two on stage. My presentation was about Stop Compromising and Make All the Money That You Want. It was a full house, standing room only, and I had a booth in the trade show.

After my presentation, I went over to my table and I was approached by two gentlemen working for the same company; young, enthusiastic, real high-achieving type individuals that I love to have conversations with. They came over to my table and they were asking me more about mindset and how did that fit in with growing a business, and how could that help them and what more could there be? We got into a really interesting conversation about sales calls and, more specifically, how the two of them, in running their start-up business, had to get psyched up. Those were their words, “We have to get psyched up Sunday night to go in on Monday morning to make sales calls to grow our business.”

They’re committed to this, they are focused on it, they schedule it and they do it, but oh my gosh, I could feel the heart palpitations just as they were describing it to me. It was really fascinating to hear their concerns and their struggles with making the sales calls.

These guys were very personable and they knew their stuff, and they have a great solution for the market. I’m not going to tell you who they are. We got into the conversation and here’s what it boiled down to. I was asking them to think back. I started asking them the Five W’s questions:

• Why are you in business?
• What is it you bring to the market?
• Who is it you serve?
• Who is your ideal client?

Now that’s where they got hung up, right there, on identifying their ideal client. As I’m saying all the time, you need to figure out are you a Walmart or a Nordstrom? Are you a Tim Hortons or a Starbucks? Because you don’t use the same language and the same approach to those two different categories of customers, so they were really hung up on who is my ideal client?

They said to me, “We serve everybody.” I said, “You can’t serve everybody because you have to use different language.” Have you ever seen anybody go into Starbucks and say, “How much is that latte?” Never. It doesn’t happen, and it’s the same at Nordstrom’s. People don’t look at the price tag. At Nordstrom’s, they know what they want, they go in, and they get it. Boom. Problem, solution, done, out of there.

I was talking to these two young men about growing their business. They were clear on their ‘Why’ and they were clear on the solution that they bring to the market. The ‘Who’ they got hung up on, and the ‘When’. We were talking about their schedule, their sales calls, their energy. My clients also know I talk all the time about knowing your energy. Are you at prime time in the morning? Or are you at prime time late afternoon?

I’m a morning person. That works for me, and quite honestly, that expression that the early bird gets the worm holds true for me. Many of you know I start my day, one hour on revenue-generating activities. Not email, not looking at Facebook, not going on social media. I get to my desk, I’ve got my list, I’m focused, and I hop into the call.

These two young fellows were saying to me, “We start Sunday night, we get all psyched up and we get all stressed,” and the anxiety, for sure, comes across in their voice and on their phone calls. We’re having follow-up phone calls this week about mindset because it’s all about mindset. When you are clear on your Five W’s, why are you doing what you’re doing, for whom do you do it, what you bring to the market, and where and when that you’re doing business, and you get clear on that, that right there will eliminate a lot of the fear, the anxiety, and so on.

It really does boil down to your thought process around the fear aspect, the fear of rejection. Many of you take it personally. It’s not personal. It has nothing to do personally. It is probably about the way you’re presenting your information. Perhaps you’re not clear and concise in your phone calls, and therefore it comes across in your voice, so clarity is key.

Confidence is key. How do we get confidence? By doing it over and over and over again. Many of you have learned how to drive a car. You’ve learned how to play a musical instrument. It’s the same thing with sales calls. Get on the phone and do it, over and over and over. As my clients know, in the beginning, a few years ago, when I relaunched my business and I was on sales calls, I struggled too. I’m human too. Here’s one thing that I did, and I share with my clients because I’m an open book. I knew, after one particular sales call, I knew it didn’t go well because I didn’t get the sale. Secondly, you know, right? And I knew.

We had recorded the call and sent it to my coach. We reviewed it and I got back on the phone. I called this person back at the end of the day and I said, “We had a conversation earlier and, quite honestly, it didn’t go the way I had hoped it would, and I take responsibility for that. Could I have a do-over with you?”

So we did the do-over, we had the call, it went well, and I got the sale, but here’s the other piece of it. It’s not just about your fear of rejection, which often ties into clarity and confidence, but it also ties into the fact that you make it all about you, and it has nothing to do with you. The solution you bring to the market, you’re the vehicle. You’re just really the methodology. It’s not about you. It’s about your prospect’s pain, the solution that you bring, and bringing it together, but only when you speak clearly and confidently about that solution.

Then here’s the other part that gets in the way. You don’t ask for the sale. You don’t make the ask. There were sometimes in the last year or two that I would call people – I do follow-up with people from five, six, seven years ago because sometimes it’s the timing, and when I call back and I say, “Hi, it’s Pat. Just checking in to see how you’re doing. What can I do to support you in your business?” I can remember a few times that people said, “Oh my gosh. I can’t believe it’s you. What perfect timing. I’m so happy you called. Yes, you can help me.” So I asked for the sale. That’s really the point that I wanted to make.

Back to these two gentlemen I met at the business expo. For them, talking about getting psyched up for the sale, I laid it out for them and I laid it in a clear template to get clear on your Five W’s, then get the list in front of you and make sure these are your ideal prospects.

Like I said, if you are a Nordstroms type representative, you’re not going to be making phone calls to Walmart shoppers. That doesn’t make any sense. Are you going to get rejected? Of course you are because you’re in the wrong place with the wrong people. So you lay it out in a template, get clear on those Five W’s, you boost your confidence by doing this every day, every day, every day.

This is not just a once in every now and then situation. You do it every day and you get to the point where you don’t have to get psyched up. You’re excited, you’re not psyched and, yes, there will be rejection, but it’s not about you. It could be about the timing. It could be about so many different things. Those are the points I wanted to make today.

Many of you get hung up in the whole mindset thing. You have not built your skills around goal-setting, rejection, resiliency, flexibility, the whole self-talk piece, let alone planning and risk-taking.

I want to invite you. I am hitting the road. I am coming to three cities and I am going to be behind closed doors with you. I’m offering a day-and-a-half workshop on mindset, which is all of these things I’ve just talked about, marketing, and money, because it’s about making money in business, and that’s where many of you stumble and fall as well, or you’re stuck.

You’re not charging what you’re worth, you don’t know how to determine your value, and so a day-and-a-half with me, behind closed doors, just me, rolling up our sleeves. This is limited to 40 people in each location.

I’m coming to Halifax in mid-September, I’m coming to Toronto at the end of September, and then we’re going on down to Syracuse in the middle of October. I’m going to put the link below. Click on the link to get more details, but seriously, what perfect timing to get yourself set up for success for the last quarter of the year. You and me behind closed doors.

It is about mindset. It’s not about getting psyched up. It’s really shifting the way you think. A lot of people are out working on their physical fitness, but you don’t work on your mindset, your critical thinking skills, and that’s what I’m going to be teaching you.

It’s going to be mindset, marketing and money, a day-and-a-half with me in three different cities. Come to them all if you want, but it goes back to these two gentlemen that I met at the business expo last week who were just all hung up on the whole business, getting psyched up to make sales calls. There’s no need to have that experience, and I can help you with that.

Thanks for being here, watch for the link, and I look forward to seeing you in one of those cities. Bye everyone. I’ll be back again with more business tips.