It took a long time for me, as a struggling sales rep, to understand the difference in attitude and action, but once I did, my sales results (and my life) changed.

“It’s not the will to win that matters – everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”  –Paul “Bear” Bryant, football coach

It took a long time for me, as a struggling sales rep, to understand the difference in attitude and action, but once I did, my sales results (and my life) changed.

I used to be an inside sales rep, a financial broker selling LLC partnerships, in a company with 25 other reps. The company had the top 20% reps doing 80% of the sales. I wasn’t in that group, rather, I was bringing up the rear. Sales were hard to get, and as a result, my life as a sales rep was hard as well.

I wanted to do better; I had the will to win, but what I lacked was the will to prepare to win. I was one of the reps who came in late would make coffee and doughnuts a priority. I hung around there talking about the latest sports scores with the other bottom producers. I couldn’t wait for lunch time, and I would make it a point to get off early on Friday.

After a series of events, I finally got sick and tired of being sick and tired, so I made a commitment to give my profession as a broker all I could. I decided to do what was necessary for me to move into the top 20% of the producers at the company. And that’s when I learned what the ‘will to prepare to win’ meant.

To start with, I started showing up an hour before work began, and I headed straight to my desk to begin making calls. This began to pay off as some days I’d have a deal on the board before other reps headed for their coffee and donuts.

I spent my lunch hours listening to my calls and critiquing them. I was committed to finding ways to make them better. And I did.

At night before I went home, I took an extra half hour to lay out all my leads and call backs for the next day so I could hit the ground running when I got in. And then I’d listen to my calls in the car on the way home and make adjustments to the scripts .

Before I went to sleep, I focused my subconscious on closing the leads I had laid out, and I dreamt of ways to close them. I visualized how I would feel once I became a top closer, what I’d do with my first bonus check and how good that would feel as well.

After 90 days  I became the top producer in the company. Suddenly I knew the difference between the will to win and the will to prepare to win. I also found that I wasn’t alone. There with me in the mornings and in the evenings were the other top producers.

Today, I find that I can do just about anything if I’m willing to put in the time to prepare to win. You can too – if you’re willing to put in the time.