Sometimes it’s just a matter of bad timing or competitive forces that are beyond their control. But, according to con- sultant Pete Greider and clinical psychologist Dr. Steven Levinson in their book Following Through: A Revolu- tionary New Model for Finishing Whatever You Start (CreateSpace 2015), the problem is inside the salesperson. Here’s how Greider and Levinson explain how salespeople shoot themselves in the foot by failing to follow through with their positive plans for improvement. Every salesperson has a weak but smart force (Greider and Levinson call it “The Wise One”) that urges them to do what’s best for them and their sales. They also have another side (a stupid but very strong force the authors call “Thor”) that tempts them with more appealing op- tions, such as leaving work at the stroke of five o’ clock to catch their favorite sitcom instead of making the extra cold calls they said they would, or staying in bed for an extra hour of sleep instead of keeping your vow to get an early start on the selling day. To win the war, Greider and Levinson say, you must
control Thor – or at least get him out of the way. Instead of relying on self-discipline or willpower, Greider ex- plains exactly how you can follow through to get the job done. His three-step plan works by creating compelling reasons, leading the horse to water, and striking while the iron is hot.
WEAK WILL As a psychologist in a cardiac rehabilitation unit, Dr.
Levinson noted that some recovering heart attack patients followed diet and exercise orders initially, then abandoned their lifestyle changes after a few weeks – failing to follow through even when their lives depended on it. Other patients, however, maintained their discipline. In looking for rational reasons for this seemingly irrational behavior, Greider noted that, even when patients desperately wanted to follow through, willpower may have waned when they needed it most. “How many salespeople are out there who really, re-
ally want to increase their income and performance, for all kinds of reasons, but year after year they don’t follow through?” he asks. The reason, they say, “is that they’re looking in the wrong place for the solution. The wrong place, essentially, is willpower and self-discipline. They don’t work.” Sure, you might enjoy the occasional triumph of will, but it’s unreliable as a follow-through tool. Consis- tent success demands consistent follow-through.
INNER CHILD Few people always feel like doing the right thing, and
there’s a good reason. As Greider explains it, we all have a split personality. Our every move is guided by two in-
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ner systems: one primitive, one state-of-the-art. The two systems do not speak the same language or communicate with one another. And, while the state-of-the-art system guides us to do the logical thing for long-term benefit, the primitive one leads us into temptation by pressuring us to do what we most want to do right now. “The best metaphor for this is a car with two steering wheels and two drivers,” he says. “On the left you have a 98-pound weakling who is smart, called The Wise One. The Wise One figures out what to do for long-term benefit and steers the car in that direction. But there’s another driver on the right – very strong but not very smart. We call that driver Thor. And Thor has no destination at all. He’s like a three-year-old child, totally into the moment, totally into his physical needs, his five senses, and very persistent and powerful when he wants something. When The Wise One says, ‘Improve your closing skills,’ or, ‘Read your new sales literature,’ and Thor says, ‘I want to go to the movies,’ Thor wins even though he’s stupid, because he’s stronger.”
POWERFUL PAIR Lest you think Thor is evil and determined to foil your every
attempt at success, Greider emphasizes that he really isn’t good or bad but simply self-absorbed. When you can’t overpower him, you can outsmart him. If you know how to use his power, the same Thor that keeps you from getting anything done one day can drive you to new heights of productivity the next. “If you set things up right,” says Greider, “Thor will help you be a peak performer. And that’s what’s so exciting about how these strategies work. When you do set your environment up the right way, you’ll find Thor yelling and pushing to get you to do what’s right, and you achieve incredible things.” To hit on just the right solution, keep it simple and stupid. You may have to do some silly things to make Thor cooperate, but not following through on tasks that will make you successful is equally absurd. “The solution is to take a simple action so that Thor and The Wise One are both steering in the same direc- tion at the same time. So, in other words, you feel like doing what you know is best. They become a team, so you have the power of Thor and the brains of The Wise One working together.”
SMART STRATEGIES Greider offers several strategies to help you make Thor
your follow-through friend. The first, creating compelling reasons, shows that using the “wrong” reasons to follow through works better than using the right ones. For ex- ample, motivating yourself to work late because you want
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