Are You Worth Another $100,000 Per Year?
Posted by Jacques Werth on: 2005-08-12 18:33:27
difference in income between Top Salespeople and Low
Performing Salespeople is nearly $100,000 a year! Where
do you fit in?
Average Total Compensation of Salespeople*
High Level Performers$155,055
Mid-Level Performers $ 93,499
Low Level Performers$ 64,990
*Source: Equation Research:
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine, May 2005
About 10% of all salespeople are in the High Level Performers
category. However, within that ranking, the Top 1% earn any-
where from 5 to 15 times more than the average of that group.
What accounts for these substantial differences in performance
and earning power? What does it take to earn that kind of
money?
It's not working longer and harder, nor "working smarter." No
one can work 5 times longer and harder than someone who is
near the top of the profession, and no one is several times
smarter. The Top 1 Percent are different from the rest.
The Top 1% utilize a different sales process that is radically
different from the sales techniques that the other 99% use.
The way they do business doesn't even resemble what most
people think of as "Selling".
The methods of the Top 1% are not a closely guarded "secret".
Our book, "High Probability Selling," describes how the Top 1%
do business. It's been on the market since 1993, and 100,000
copies have been sold, presumably to salespeople and sales
managers.
Why haven't most sales pros "gotten it" yet?
David Wolfe, an expert marketing consultant in Reston, VA.,
offers this explanation: "Our brains evolved to resist change,
in the interest of giving us stabilized connections to the external
world. To do this, we simply block out information that conflicts
with past experiences and beliefs. Psychologists call this
behavior "denial."
Paraphrasing more of David Wolfe's writing: Most intelligent
salespeople recognize the conflict between their beliefs and the
new sales realities. They resolve these conflicts with confabu-
lations about why they must stick with the "tried and true." The
instinctive, subconscious part of their brains tell them that they
have survived by utilizing the old methods - and survival is the
most powerful human instinct.
Philadelphia psychotherapist Dr. Wayne Diamond, who works
with a large number of salespeople, has observed this resistance
to changing sales beliefs in his practice. He describes it as
"fear-based denial." Dr. Diamond notes that most salespeople
are in such deep denial that they even deny that they experience
any fear. They use words like "uncomfortable," "uneasy,"
"awk-ward" and "anxious," which are all euphemisms for fear.
The cost of all this avoidance, fear, and denial among salespeople
is well over a $100,000 a year in lost income.
Can you find the courage to face and overcome your fears? If you
don't overcome your aversion to change, how are you going to
improve your earning power? What will it take? If you're not
ready now, will you ever be ready?
Copyright High Probability Selling. All Rights Reserved.
About the Author
Jacques Werth, author of "High Probability Selling," is an internationally respected Sales Trainer and Sales Consultant. HPS graduates are excelling in over 70 industries. Visit http://www.highprobsell.com to read more articles, preview the book, or take our sales quiz.
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