Although product knowledge, skills, customer concern, follow-up, the ability to listen, a smooth presentation, solidly qualified prospect lists, and good closing lines are all essential for success in selling, motivation is more im- portant to most salespeople. When you examine just how motivation works, it’s easy to see why salespeople can’t live without it – and why managers can’t manage unless they can dispense it freely.
Over many years, Selling Power has interviewed super- achievers to explore the subject of motivation. We’ve talked to billionaires, sports champions, coaches, sales leaders, psychologists, CEOs, military leaders, national speakers, and famous entertainers to find out how they motivate themselves and others. Without exception, every one of these super-achievers was highly motivated.
Seeds of Motivation
Mary Kay Ash, the founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, told Selling Power, “Motivation is the ability to inspire a person to reach down within himself or herself, to bring to fruition those wonderful ‘seeds of greatness’ that God planted in each of us.”
Motivation is an intangible resource that, if harnessed, can lead to extraordinary achievement and success. The student of motivation must find two kinds of inner power: the power to overcome difficulties and the power to turn possibilities into reality.
Many people think they fully understand the process of motivation, but their results suggest they don’t. Their illu- sion of knowledge prevents them from getting motivated. Daniel Boorstin wrote in his book The Discoverers: “The great obstacle to discovering the shape of the Earth, the continents, and the ocean was not ignorance, but the illu- sion of knowledge.”
In the first part of this article we will review the key con- cepts of America’s leading motivators. In the second part we share 10 action steps you can use to motivate yourself. The third part will describe 10 specific techniques you can use to motivate others.
Positive Mental Attitude In 1960, Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone wrote a
bestselling book titled Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude. When interviewed by Selling Power, Stone explained the basis of the book: “No matter how tough the problem, you can conquer it with a positive mental attitude (PMA). With every victory over adversity, you grow in wisdom, stature, and experience. You become a better, bigger, more successful person each time you meet a problem.”
For many years, Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone
were the top motivational speakers in the country. Their lectures were titled “The PMA Science of Success.” Hill
spent many years studying the most successful people of his time. He realized that motivation begins in the mind of the achiever.
Stone stated that 98 out of every 100 people who are dissatisfied with their world do not have a clear picture in their minds of the world they would like for themselves. Stone, who was 86 years old at the time the Selling Power interview took place, raised his voice almost to the point of shouting: “Think of it! Think of the people who drift aim- lessly through life, dissatisfied, struggling against a great many things, but without a clear-cut goal!” He reflected on the legendary PMA speaking rallies, saying, “We taught individuals how to use their own minds.”
Many modern-day motivators have worked the message of PMA into their speeches. They realize that people have a never-ending thirst for practical ideas on how to improve their minds, their performance, and their lives. At first, the world paid little attention to Hill and Stone, but soon their PMA rallies were drawing more than 1,000 people a ses- sion. Stone and Hill paved the road for America’s success motivation business.
The Strangest Secret
In 1987, Selling Power interviewed Earl Nightingale, the co-founder of Nightingale-Conant Corporation, one of the nation’s leading producers of motivational audio. Night- ingale remembered his mentor Napoleon Hill, saying: “When I was 29, I was reading his book Think and Grow Rich. I came across six words that made a big difference in my life: ‘We become what we think about.’ When I saw that, I sat up. All of a sudden, all the lights went on and I said, ‘That’s it. That is what I have been reading over and over again.’ That is what Buddha meant when he said, ‘As the wheel follows the ox behind, we will become what our thoughts have made of us.’ I realized that every great phi- losopher had said much the same thing in different words. I had read, ‘As ye believe, so shall it be done unto you.’ In so many different ways I had been reading that great line over and over again. It just revolutionized my life.” Earl Nightingale suggested that thinking was a science – a discipline to be mastered. Without the proper thinking skills, motivation and success would be impossible. Nightingale examined the thoughts of great writers, poets, thinkers, and philosophers and assembled a great library of books that provided him a never-ending source of positive thoughts and inspiration. He ex- plained: “Success education is like a fine painting that has thousands of little dabs of paint – none of which you are particularly aware of but which, in total, comprise the finished work. A person with an ongoing success education has been touched by so many great authors, fine thoughts, and great lines.” Nightingale found that reading was a great way to
recharge his motivation. “We are all subject to moods,” SELLING POWER JULY/AUGUST 2020
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