This is a guest article by one of our favourite guest writers, legendary sales coach and trainer Niraj Kapur
Once upon a time I lived in a world with no internet, no Smartphones and only 4 TV channels.
In 1985, I was only 13, so couldn’t drive to Belfast yet to see the movies on a big screen. So my father purchased a VHS player.
You watched movies by walking to a video rental shop. With no internet, you got your by thrills by looking at hundreds of front covers of VHS movies and looking in awe at the posters of movie stars. Once you chose your clunky thick video cassette, you walked home and inserted it into your VHS player. Once the movie finished, you had to rewind the tape back to the beginning, which took about 5 minutes!
It was a wonderful experience that most people today don’t understand.
My favourite movie growing up was Karate Kid, the story of a kid who is bullied at school, gets coached in karate and falls in love with the perfect girl.
I was the new kid in high school, so I was getting bullied. Many bullies I defeated with wax on, wax off and the famous crane kick. Then the bullies got VHS players, knew my tricks and I got my ass kicked.
Cobra Kai, the amazing Netflix show takes place 35 years later with our heroes and villains all grown up. It has better character development, intricate plots, awesome 80s rock music and has become my favourite show on TV.
Here’s valuable lessons you get from watching the show:
1. Always Be Learning
You want to become excellent at karate, you learn every day and take action. Sales is a skill that needs to be learned daily and you need to take action.
2. Beware of the competition
You shouldn’t copy the competition, put them down or destroy them, it leads to chaos. You do need to understand them and be better. How do you stand out from the competition? How are you better? More important, does your customer know how you’re better for their business?
3. Have a Positive Attitude
When you get rejected, it’s easy to feel sorry for yourself and blame the other person. When you have a positive attitude, there are no limits. You always achieve more with a positive mindset; more energy, more sales calls and more clients. Negativity and jealously always slows you down.
4. Balance is Important
It’s great to be ambitious and want to achieve more. Success without meaning is failure. Protect your mental health. Go for walks. Spend time with friends and family. Give to charity. Give your life meaning.
5. Don’t Hold Grudges
When people hurt you or upset you, it’s easy to be angry. It takes more courage to forgive. It’s also important to see things from another person’s perspective, even if you disagree with them.
6. Never Give Up
Setbacks will happen to you in life. What matters is how you react to the failure. You miss your target for the month, prospect more next month. You lose a deal, ask yourself why, improve and win the next month. Failure is only when you give up.
7. Get a Coach
You achieve more in karate with a coach advising you, teaching you new skills, making you better and keeping you accountable.
The same rules apply to sales.
Niraj Kapur is an expert sales coach and author of the Amazon bestsellers, Everybody Works in Sales and The Easy Guide to Sales for Business Owners. He’s trained 204 clients from SMEs to business students to corporates like Barclays, Sainsbury’s, Google and Informa.
He can be reached on + 44 7733179854 and niraj@everybodyworksinsales.com to learn more check out www.salemomentumacademy.com