Everyone has heard the expression “fake it till you make it.” This idiom is only half true. You will need to fake it, but not till you make it. You have to fake it so hard that one day it isn’t fake anymore. Be true to yourself and your values but build yourself an armor of confidence, positivity, and success even when you don’t feel confident, positive, or successful.
No one wants to work with a loser. Unfortunately, you will be a loser for the first five years of your career. A prospective client can feel your desperation. If you let it show through tone of voice or body language, you jeopardize losing the thing you are so desperate to get.
Behavior Check #1: Be positive even if you are not.
My first job in financial sales was terrible. I was cold calling for $5,000,000. It was me and ten other 20 something guys trying to make it big. The job sucked but it was the most supported I have ever been in my entire career. We were all in the shits together, and it sucked. There were several ex-athletes in the group and we knew the importance of healthy competition and teamwork. We had mirrors on our desks so that when someone on the other end of the phone began engaging we could look at our reflections to make sure we were sitting upright and smiling. Yes, if you are dialing you smiling. We came up with fun ways to boost morale. We had a sales leader board. The winner won Friday drinks. We had posters of fancy cars and beautiful women on the walls to daydream about.
My favorite was that we would listen to Alec Baldwin's monologue from Glen Gary Glen Ross every Monday morning to get ready for the week ahead.
I wouldn’t wish 8 hours of cold calling on my worst enemy now. If you have to do it; you have to feel like you are going to win. You need to believe that it is doable and the Yes is coming.
Alec Baldwin gets me pumped.
Coffee is for closers.
Third place - you're fired.
The unfortunate thing fact about financial service sales is that the industry pretends to be about advice. Advisors who are treading water or better have the time to give in depth advice. For the first several years of your career, you can't spend time holding hands. The first few years is just finding more clients. You are not really an Advisor but an asset accumulator. All that matters is that you keep active and keep moving forward. You will fail way more than you succeed. You have to remember that the successes will have far less impact than the failures so you can't let them drag you down. It is imperative to find ways project energy and positivity even if you don't feel like you can.
