Ep. 278 Staying on the Leading Edge

Joe Pici gives tips and insights into how to navigate and embrace change.

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Get ready for an unfair advantage over your competition. This is The Sales Edge podcast. Where globally recognized sales expert and trainer Joe Pici helps you sharpen your skills for booking more appointments and closing more deals. And now here’s your host Joe Pici.

Joe Pici (JP):

It seems question is how do you view fear? I mean, how do you deal with it? Do we fear it? Do we face it, do we fight?

Do we embrace it a constant in? Life is change. Today. We’re going to discuss that very topic. But first I want to introduce our podcast to sales edged. I’m your host Joe peachy. Thank you so much for your loyalty. Thank you for helping us expand the globe. It’s so exciting. I want to thank Pici and Pici, which is our speaking coaching training consulting, firm of are dying sponsors and some were virtually. Dot-com, that’s our membership platform. Our second sponsor. We want to thank them for underwriting this very podcast. But let’s get started. You know, why do people fear change over 20 years ago? I was speaking at a large business conference about 10,000 people. The conference was about how purchasing and buying the buying chain was in transition, and I was brought in to speak about.

Now, sales and marketing would have to evolve to meet Market demands just before I’m walking on stage. The organizer pulled me aside, and he said, Joe, we don’t use the word change in our culture. We never used the word change in any of our communication. Please don’t use that word. Now, here. I am the entire conference is about change in marketing and sales and how shopping is done how things are going to e-commerce. There were so many places throughout my message that the word change was going to be put in. And here I am thinking. What do I do? He wanted words like, transition evolve. He wanted to soften the word change. And I’ll tell you what, it wasn’t easy. He said to me, Joe people don’t like change, the word, scares them. Please. Once again, don’t use that word people. Bristle people get uncomfortable people back away. Anytime you say.

Change its a lightning-rod, you know, because change means something different means a new Direction. It could mean something else. It could be new mindset, new skills, new methodologies, you know, I know here, you know, in our business peachy peachy sell more virtually the sales edged. The one thing we know constantly, we have to stay on The Cutting Edge because we know things can change. Change. We just hired a company Roy Richardson came in with his team and just totally cyber secured everything. He had to change emails and passwords and oh my gosh, it it was hours and hours at he and his team worked diligently to bring us into the 21st century. Some everything we have is secure.

So, you know, I’ve compiled, some reasons. I’ve asked people I’ve listened to people. I’ve asked myself, what are some of the reasons why people do not like change? Number one, is the fear of the unknown. When we change our direction. We may be stepping into an area of the unknown. Things are no longer predictable. Our mind likes the way our brain works. It likes familiarity. It likes predictability. It likes to know, what can I expect? It likes comfort and we all develop a comfort zone that’s in a comfort zone. Is a boundary within which people and person executes their thoughts and actions. So, we get into this recommendation, we get in this predictable, way of doing things in any change, forces us outside of those boundaries. So here it peeking PC. So,

Virtually in the sales. Edged in all three entities. We’ve had to change our mindset. We’ve had to change strategies and techniques. We’ve had to learn new skills. The second reason that people do not Embrace changes uncertainty, and that’s part and parcel to the first part. I just don’t know what to expect that really scares people. The next one is. Now I have to create new habits. One of the reasons why people really don’t like change. It’s now they have to create a whole new set of habits, a whole new set of disciplines, a whole new set of worth ethic work ethic. Another one number for, it’s a new Direction, and some people like I know you lose control in some people, absolutely thrive on controlling everything and the minute you change something, you lose control.

Then we move down. The number 52. Fear of failure is always going to be there. If I change to do something new. I may fail. I may not make it. It’s like starting a whole new business. You could only be adding a vertical a technology, but it’s still like starting over in some ways. And there’s always that fear of failure. You know, what? Another one is fear of losing, what we have. We have now think about this. Everybody out. There has a certain standard of Lifestyle certain standard of success. And when you take that risk to change something, you may be risking what you have. I know when we started jumping into the virtual world, in the back of my mind, I’m saying, but I’ve been ranked number one in live sales. Training, our sales training.

Program. I’m ranked number one in the world and it’s live. Are we risking that to add virtual? Is this a risk to our brand? It went through our mind, actually work, just the apis. That same report Mastery sales program. Now, is it a digital on-demand form and you can get that at sell more virtually.com. So it’s the nothing but enhance, but there was that moment in time. Where I said, dude, do we risk what we’ve done? The next area is fear of success and people say well, how can you be afraid of success? Or it’s simple, a greater success, puts a greater demand and greater commitment. In other words, a change and then success me for you have to work harder to make a deeper commitment to to really play harder to play to the next level. And I said with a gentleman the other day and he was very interested in her.

Speaker boot camp when I was done. He said you’re the real deal. I’ve checked it out everything. I need everything. I need you and Dawn have to. I need to be totally honest with you. I need to sit down decide am I ready to add a change? Because it’ll take a greater commitment harder work. I need to make sure I’m ready for that. What an honest man, I think we also know that number eight, a great fear of criticism. What will people think if I’m changing my business model? If I’m changing my value proposition, if I’m changing anything about the way I do things. Am I not opening myself up for more criticism.

And that’s a big thing with people. You see I can tell you that Dawn and I have been doing what we’ve been doing a very long time. And I heard it once, say, when you stand above the crowd, get ready for tomatoes. And I can tell you, there’s not a day that goes by, as we make. A ship that change. And something subtract something take something away, and I can tell you in our sales training manual. This last boot camp. We replaced one module with a new module on negotiation. Really understanding that negotiate.

Chin was more important. More relevant would be better for our clients. But we took one training away and I can tell you that a couple people that had come back for a refresher, came up to me and said, why did you change things? Why did you take that away and add this new piece to which I was very polite and I said which one had greater value for you? Now the fact that the negotiation peace had greater value, it’s still represented a change for those people that need began criticizing which was okay. We allow and want people. In fact, there were some key people in that training that I went over, pull them aside. And I said, would you evaluate and be critical on that piece on negotiation and they were and we thank him for that.

Now that we know what some of the fears are, you may have more. You may have reasons why you don’t Embrace change, but let me give you a few keys and tips for embracing change. Be willing to take a risk. When the dream is Big. We have to put it on the line and have the courage to be more direct towards a new Direction, the Great. Either the prize, the greater the risk step into that, you know, I heard it said, find find a fear face it and go anyway, and so there are going to be some risk. So I think we have to first part of embracing changes Embrace risk. The second one higher or work with the right coach or Mentor work with a coach that has had to change and evolve to get to the next level.

Coach or trainer a mentor. I cannot coach you on something. They haven’t lived in done but have somebody, you can lock arms with has somebody that can walk you through this. There’s gonna be times. It’s going to be, like, walking through a Minefield different or change creates new obstacles, new challenges. And what a great thing to have somebody that has gone before you, somebody that’s going through it with you to lock arms with number three, create a Plan of action and implement the new direction. We like to use a whiteboard. We like to map everything out and I’ll never forget the day when Dawn came in and took a pen and white boarded the entire cell, more virtually membership platform at all, the moving parts and all of the things that we were going to be working on I thought back.

The other morning and I said, you know what that plan has come to fruition because he had a plan to execute. Don’t just do random. You’re going to make a change. Make sure there’s a concrete plan of action that you can follow. Number four, master the skills, the mindsets in the strategies to be successful. In that change. I can only tell you that I’ve had to change. I’ve had to learn new skills. I’ve had to learn. In a whole new virtual Market, you know, I’ve had to learn so many things to support the change. We were making so be willing to do that.

Number five, keep learning and growing professionally, never believe you’ve arrived. And let me tell you why, whether we like it or not, whether we want it or not things change. I mean, we you know every day a new technology comes out every day. There’s a new person that’s trying to hack us every day. There’s a new training or coaching that needs to be done determined every day.

Thing, evolves every day. Marketing evolves, know this, if you don’t stay on the Leading Edge, you will be on the bleeding edge. You’ve got to be in the game. Mentally. I don’t, and I have got to pursue Excellence every day, every week to grow professionally. What are we doing? To sharpen our sword next persist? Close the door to quitting, you know, as Andy Andrews said, burn the boats. If you know teams is inevitable. If you have your plan of action, then cut off the Escape Route. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, you get it done with this matter is that you do get it done.

Over seven. Keep your eyes on the prize. Why am I going to make this change? Every time we have to evolve change, New Direction, new skills. The first question, I ask myself, is why are we doing this? What do we want to accomplish with this? Where is this going to take us? You know, I last Thursday night on the sell more virtually Mega training and coaching. We have people out.

Members, that every Thursday night. I’m out there live and I do a live training your coaching, but I challenge the people to understand, there’s personal growth. There’s professional growth. Okay, personal is growth on the inside professionals Go. Des, Des Des skills of methodologies and all that and I challenged them to make sure their professional growth strategy for 2022 is going to line up with the end result.

Of these. Ways that you could not fight fear? But embrace it you see you fear and change is so together, they lock arms. And so when change is coming and we know it’s coming. How are you going to face it? How are you going to embrace it? I gave you some tips today to help you move forward. Hey gang. Take out your phone prior to take it out, your phone. We are within days of global. Gurus closing down the vote. I’m asking you as a favor. Can you?

On global gurus dot org and go to the sales division. Folks vote for Joe peachy. Also, in your phone type sales, edged one, word into the text box. Send it to five, five, six. Seven, eight. It’ll take you to a Pici and Pici link from there that will take you to a splash page. The first thing you’re going to see is a free webinar, 9 Essentials of sales, success, our gift to you, our challenge to you, is to watch that. It’s going to Give you a Competitive Edge. It’s going to help you navigate 2022 with a much better more efficient way of locking down quality meetings booking more appointments closing more business. Gaining, an unfair advantage over your competition. And isn’t that what we want? So, thank you so much. If this is about you, you can you like it, share it. Make a comment on it, and we will see you at our next podcast.

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