Video Blog: Direct Sales & Parenting Have a Lot in Common

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Fail Your Way to Success

"What other people think of you is none of your business." ~Wayne Dyer

Did you know there are some truly great failures in our history? Babe Ruth, one of the greatest baseball players ever to play the game, struck out 1330 times on his way to hitting 714 home runs. I've heard Jack Canfield tell the story about how he and Mark Victor Hansen shopped their first "Chicken Soup For the Soul" book to literally hundreds of publishers who turned them down flat before they finally found one person who "got" their idea and took them on as clients.

I'll bet you didn't walk the first time you tried. Hopefully, whoever taught you to swim didn't toss you in to the deep end the very first day. That's because every great success comes through a series of failures. Nothing worth having is going to fall into your lap without a lot of effort and a few failures on your part. That's just the truth.

In direct sales, you have to learn to get comfy with failure, to embrace it and actually invite it in for tea. I promise, you'll get more nos than yeses from day one. If you can't make yourself understand that those nos have nothing to do with you and move on from them, you won't last long in this profession. A few tips for doing that?

• Remember that when someone tells you no, it usually means "Not now." Don't give up at the first no you hear.
• Follow up is the key to failing your way to success. I once "struck out" for over nine months with someone who had asked me to follow up with them, leaving a message every month and feeling like an idiot every time I called (but calling anyhow). In the middle of the ninth month, she called ME back, thanking me for continuing to follow up. Turns out she had two children starting college and life had been insane for her (Who knew, and not about me!)
• Your gremlin (that little voice in your head that tells you lies about the world) will always tell you it's about you or your fault. Don't ever believe your gremlin. It's a complete and total liar, all the time, no exceptions.

Be willing to fail, and be willing to let go of what you look like or what anyone thinks about what you're doing. As long as you're working toward your goal, how you look or how long it takes is not important. What's important is that you keep going, failure after failure, until you succeed.

So, what do you think? Does this make sense to you?

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Julie Anne Jones is a success language consultant, a direct sales coach and trainer, and the CEO of Julie Anne Jones, Inc. She is known for her authentic and easy-to-use scripting and specializes in specific language and tools for success in direct sales. To learn more about Julie Anne and her products and services, and to read more blog posts, visit her at www.julieannejones.com.

Hey, It's Not About You!

In coaching school they basically teach you how to listen. Sometimes I think it's comical that I spent over $4000.00 and a whole year to become a certified coach basically learning how to listen! It has got to be one of the toughest skills you'll ever attempt to perfect because we as human beings tend to be sort of self centered. We'll be quiet while the other person takes their turn to talk, but we're basically just waiting until it's our turn to talk again (because what we have to say is infinitely more interesting than what the other person is saying). So even though we may be quietly nodding, we're not really hearing what the other person is saying. We're figuring out what we're going to say once it's our turn again. And yet, if you can truly master the art of listening, your life and business will change.

One of the best ways to learn to listen is to become curious. Start asking questions. We call them powerful or open ended questions in coaching. Whether you're visiting with a host during a host coaching appointment, connecting with guests at the beginning of your parties, or coaching the representatives on your team, asking powerful questions will completely change your results. A powerful question is one that's open ended and allows the person being asked to imagine and expand their answer. Using a question like "How would your life change if you decided to join my team?" is much more powerful than "Would you like to learn more about my opportunity?" (And just FYI, if a question can be answered with a yes or no, it's not open ended).

Get it? So start listening to yourself. Are you mostly talking about yourself or asking questions about other people? And when you are asking questions, are they powerful and open ended, leading the person you're asking into greater possibility, or closed ended, yes or no questions? Believe me, the more you make it about them and forget about yourself, the more effective you'll be as a communicator.
 

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