Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

<b>Robert Early Johnson</b> is the head of all sales training for Sage North America, the leading supplier of business software for small and medium-sized businesses to over six million customers worldwide. He is Sage's "front man" for transforming businesses and working to improve sales performance for Sage employees, partners, and customers worldwide. Previously, Johnson developed the Sage Sales Academy, an award-winning training program that has helped thousands of salespeople change the trajectory of their careers.

Robert Early Johnson is the head of all sales training for Sage North America, the leading supplier of business software for small and medium-sized businesses to over six million customers worldwide. He is Sage's "front man" for transforming businesses and working to improve sales performance for Sage employees, partners, and customers worldwide. Previously, Johnson developed the Sage Sales Academy, an award-winning training program that has helped thousands of salespeople change the trajectory of their careers.

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Why do a few top salespeople outperform while most underperform? Is it innate sales personality or talent? A vitamin? A chant? What if it's none of these things? What if closing a sale is like most things in life, where the harder and smarter you work, the better you perform?

If you want to get serious about boosting your sales numbers, Kick Your Own Ass gives you a road map to make that effort and take full responsibility for your success. This no-excuses guide will help you develop the Will, Skill, and Drill to change the trajectory of your sales career.

Kick Your Own Ass goes beyond typical discussions of sales processes and skills to improve critical factors like your self-confidence, motivation, and life goals relating to your performance. You'll find unexpected ways to drive results, such as how to:

• Write your own kick-ass success plan

• Discover what "will-killers" might come between you and what you want

• Think big while taking small steps each day toward your goals

• Build long-term relationships with customers based on trust, not manipulation

So if you want to go the whole distance and then some, first Kick Your Own Ass-then kick your competition's!

Aus dem Klappentext

Why do a few top salespeople outperform while most underperform? Is it innate sales personality or talent? A vitamin? A chant? What if it's none of these things? What if closing a sale is like most things in life, where the harder and smarter you work, the better you perform?

If you want to get serious about boosting your sales numbers, Kick Your Own Ass gives you a road map to make that effort and take full responsibility for your success. This no-excuses guide will help you develop the Will, Skill, and Drill to change the trajectory of your sales career.

Kick Your Own Ass goes beyond typical discussions of sales processes and skills to improve critical factors like your self-confidence, motivation, and life goals relating to your performance. You'll find unexpected ways to drive results, such as how to:

• Write your own kick-ass success plan

• Discover what "will-killers" might come between you and what you want

• Think big while taking small steps each day toward your goals

• Build long-term relationships with customers based on trust, not manipulation

So if you want to go the whole distance and then some, first Kick Your Own Ass-then kick your competition's!

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Kick Your Own Ass

John Wiley & Sons

Chapter One

New Year's resolutions have been made, and broken, for centuries. They are handed down to us as a gift from the Romans. The idea of reflecting upon the previous year and looking toward the upcoming one with self-improvement goals in mind came from the Romans' worship of Janus, the god of two faces-one that looked back, and one that looked forward. It's also from Janus that we get the name for the month of January-which is about as long as most people actually keep a resolution. Research shows that around 40 percent of Americans set them annually, and, while survey data is inconclusive, some very creditable research shows that only about 10 percent of those who set NYRs actually keep them past January-of the same year. It's generally accepted that almost no one actually keeps a New Year's resolutions for an entire year. Simply observe a gym parking lot on January 2, and again on February 2. There is a startling abundance of parking spots in early February.

It is helpful to pause at the end of the year, reflect on your accomplishments, and develop a set of objectives for the upcoming year, and writing these goals down greatly improves your chances of achieving them. But resolving to lose 50 pounds, keep a journal, stop smoking, read 100 books, eat better, and be nice to the children every day without the assistance of a plan or a technique isn't helpful; it's actually harmful.

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS ARE STUPID.

An Uphill Run

Early in January 2004, I was eating lunch with my running buddy Steve Shaull, a former collegiate speed-merchant who demoralized opponents by trashing them on hills in cross-country races and marathons. We were at our regular burger joint, "The Loop," in Jacksonville, Florida: elevation, eight feet above sea level. We were discussing New Year's resolutions, which Steve never set, declaring them to be stupid and inane. I myself only opted for ridiculous ones, such as my vow in 2002 to no longer slow down for yellow lights. (Coincidentally, my 2003 resolution was to not get another ticket for an entire year-thus retaining my legal ability to drive.)

In a Ditch

Steve and I felt that this year would be different, though. While we still felt that creating a resolution was idiotic, we were in a position where we actually needed to do so. We were, perhaps, in the worst shape of our lives. Steve-beat up and down from years of running hard while ignoring pain-would always say, "The acceptance of pain is simply a matter of attitude." He knew that his best athletic years were behind him, and that he had gained over 40 pounds since his competitive running days. While we were still running three to five times per week, we both weighed at least 200 pounds, and our exercise regimen was far from routine and disciplined. Clearly, our calories-burned to calories-consumed ratio was out of whack. We were in a rut, and we knew we needed a major jolt to escape the otherwise inevitable slide into the frailties of middle age.

As we ate our cheeseburgers and fries (how's that for irony?), we expressed our complete dissatisfaction with our current sorry state of affairs. Without a major shift in our lives, we were on a trajectory that neither of us liked very much. We were accepting our reality; we were fat and out of shape. Steve suggested, and I agreed, that what we needed was a truly unrealistic and outlandish goal; something so completely outrageous and monumentally dumb that it would move us from fat and lazy to lean and mean. The question was what. We knew that a standard road race would never do it. Steve agreed to do the research and we would reconvene back at The Loop in a week.

Later in the week, I received the following e-mail from Steve:

We are running the Pikes Peak Ascent, August 21st, 2004.

Steve had chosen the hardest half-marathon in the United States of America.

Pikes Peak Ascent Is the Way Up

The Pikes Peak Ascent half-marathon begins in Manitou Springs, Colorado, at an elevation of 6,295 feet above sea level-6,287 feet higher than The Loop. The small town sits in the shadow of Pikes Peak near Colorado Springs. From there, the race goes up the Barr trail, a three-foot-wide dirt path that winds 13.2 miles up the mountain to the summit of Pikes Peak with an elevation of 14,110 feet above sea level-one of the highest peaks in North America. For those of you who care about these things, the course offers a 7,815-foot elevation increase over 13.2 miles, averaging an 11 percent grade. It's super fun.

The Pikes Peak Ascent is run on a Saturday; and the following day's Pikes Peak Marathon goes up and then back down the Barr trail. Each race has been run annually each August since 1966. According to local lore, the Ascent race actually began in 1956 when three smokers challenged 10 nonsmokers to a race up the trail. The smokers lost. Imagine that! As a former smoker, I question what they were actually smoking to have come up with such a ridiculous idea.

The annual event draws exactly 1,800 runners, nearly all of whom are nonsmokers from Colorado. The National Park Service limits the number to 1,800 to avoid overcrowding the trail. Typically, the race fills up in 48 hours. There are a disturbing number of runners who run both races, back to back.

Pain Is Inevitable; Serious Injury Is Likely

A number of factors can ruin a Pikes Peak Ascent experience. For example, if you become dehydrated you will become a zombie and wander around the mountain aimlessly before losing consciousness. Runners who get AMS-acute mountain sickness-experience headache, dizziness, shortness of breath, fatigue, and nausea, or, in serious cases, extreme fatigue, impaired motor control, and fluid accumulation in the brain and lungs. The faster one ascends, the more likely one is to develop severe symptoms of AMS, which can begin to occur above the elevation of 7,000 feet, or about six minutes after the start of the race. A competitor who is unfortunate enough to develop both dehydration and AMS requires serious medical assistance; and therein lies the problem. Unlike most half-marathons, Pikes Peak Ascent doesn't make for a particularly easy rescue. Emergency personnel cannot run up and down the Barr trail in ambulances to pick up the injured and stragglers; those who become injured or ill have to be rescued on horseback.

Well, Steve had certainly filled the parameters of "outrageous" and "ridiculous" in picking our joint resolution.

GIDDYUP!

At our lunch the following week, we made a commitment to run it. Just to show how seriously I was taking this whole run-up-the-mountain thing, I ordered the chicken sandwich instead of my customary hamburger-without mayonnaise. Next, we discussed how it would feel to actually run up a hill that big. I had no experience running hills other than the local bridges around Jacksonville. Steve had a lot of experience, and requested that I "quit whining and man up."

QUIT WHINING AND MAN UP! We Form a Plan

Steve and I would have to lose a lot of weight and get into serious physical shape to succeed. Steve set a goal of losing 35 pounds, which would put him near his former race weight of 165 pounds. I would shoot for 170...