Audience: sales reps
Message: Your enthusiasm and passion to win can boost your sales.
Tone: motivational
Timing: 5-6 minutes

“Desire creates the power,” says Raymond Holliwell. I’m picking up enough vibes in this room to know there has to be power here somewhere. If not electrical, then it must be coming from you in the audience. Anyone in here has the power to dream.

Writer Bernard Edmonds said it this way:

To dream anything that you want to dream. That’s the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do. That is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself to test your limits. That is the courage to succeed.

In belief, there is power. Our eyes are opened to opportunities. Our mind lays out the plan. Our courage commits us to that plan. High expectations breed high performance.

Your primary enemy will never be the competitor and his or her product. Your enemy on the road to selling success will more likely be complacency, lack of vision, lack of commitment.

No, I’m not minimizing competition. In our free-enterprise system, there’s competition in every endeavor. But rather than worry about the competitor’s (product) or (product), let’s make the competitor worry about us! We don’t want to fuel ourselves by memories of the past, but rather by visions of the future.

If desire is the power, enthusiasm and sincerity are the channels that allow it to flow.

Good salesmanship, then, is simply transferring that belief to the buyer through your sincere enthusiasm. I once had a sales associate so enthusiastic about his product that he sold two milking machines to a farmer with only one cow,… and took the cow as down payment.

Enthusiasm is your investment in your customers. If you don’t feel comfortable in investing in them, how can they feel comfortable in investing in your product? Enthusiasm is contagious. And unfortunately, so is the lack of it.

Billionaire H. Ross Perot, talking about the people he liked to hire, has said, “I’m looking for people who love to win. If I run out of those, I want people who hate to lose.”

Whatever the source of your passion—whether you love to win or hate to lose— you have power in enthusiasm.

And don’t be afraid to show your customers that your power and enthusiasm have made you successful. Everyone wants to be part of a success. If you don’t believe it, see how many employees grab for the annual reports or monthly sales reports as soon as they’re released. You hear the buzz in the cafeteria and on the elevator—”Earnings are up; looks like we had another good quarter. We had another good year.”

As I said, everyone—your customers especially—wants to be part of a successful organization. So the more successful we look and act, the more we sell. People don’t want to throw good money after bad people. They choose enthusiastic, successful people.

Sincerity also counts. Have you ever wondered how much more successful TV commercials would be if viewers knew the celebrities really used the products they touted? All the paid celebrity commercials in the world can’t outsell a shot of the President of the United States or a pro quarterback using the product in real life.

Sincerity counts. That’s why the telephone marketer who sounds as though she’s reading a script is often met with a click and the dial tone.

Sincerity counts. Persuasive people practice what they preach. They use what they sell. They love what they sell. They tell the truth about what they sell.

How could anything be more fun in life than to love what you do and to do something that matters? Our products matter. And I’m having fun—sincerely. How about you?