52 Weeks of Sales Success

CREATE A REWARD COLLAGE

My wife, Kathleen, and I are big on creating reward collages. Each of us envisions what we want—a new outfit, a new car, a vacation, whatever—and then we cut out pictures from magazines that remind us of our rewards and paste them onto a poster board. We then hang our boards in a prominent location of the house to remind ourselves of what we are working for. I encourage you to do the same.

At Ralph Roberts Realty, I once passed out 6-foot sheets of paper and rallied everyone in the office to create a massive collage of everything they envisioned that would make them happier—a new car, a new home, more time with family, a vacation, a garden . . . whatever they dreamed of. When I realized that I was one of only a few team members who was actually creating a collage, I offered everyone who completed their collage a $1,000 bonus.

Wayne Turner takes a different approach. He goes around to every person on his team and asks them, “If you had a day to just relax on your back porch and read magazines, which two magazines would you read?” He then heads to the store and buys everyone their favorite magazines, a medium-sized corkboard and a box of thumbtacks. After giving the team a couple of days to thumb through the magazines, they all gather with their scissors, magazines, and corkboards to create a collage of all the things they want in their lives—everything that brings them peace and happiness, whether it’s a pool in the backyard, a new car or diamond ring, or time with family. It can even be a motivational phrase . . . anything that can keep you focused and on track. Everyone hangs their reward collages near their desks where they can glance at them every day for motivation.

Note: As I began my latest collage, my second in command, Lois, pointed out that what I find most rewarding is the success of those around me. Now, my collages are populated with photos and other reminders of the people around me.

REWARD YOURSELF BEFORE A SALE

Most salespeople reward themselves after they close a deal or meet their sales goals for a certain period. I do that, too, but to mix it up, I occasionally reward myself before I have achieved by goal.

Let me explain. I work hard to give my family a good life. I pay my mortgage, just like you, but I always try to create some other reason why I have to keep working. Call it creative tension or whatever you like. Put simply, I like to see the rewards, and I know I work better and harder if I can see the rewards up front.

Sometimes, I’ll clip out a picture of what I want and hang it above my desk to motivate me. Other times, though, I’ll just buy myself some new suits or a barbecue grill or a hot tub for my yard—before I’ve got anything special to celebrate. Then I go out and make something happen in my business to pay for it.

My friend Stanley Mills, one of the top real estate salespeople in Tennessee, and Allan Domb, the condominium king of Philadelphia, both follow this practice. For sure, it’s not necessarily the clothes or the car or the vacation in themselves that pump me up—it’s the excitement they give me. Through a constant flow of gifts to myself and others, I see the tangible fruits of all my hard work, and that serves to make me work even harder.

FINE-TUNE YOUR REWARD SYSTEM

By now, I have developed my reward system to a fine degree. For example, I love to use money interest-free. The last time I bought a barbecue grill I filled out the store’s credit application and got the grill for no money down and no interest for 90 days. Then I paid off the loan in full on the 75th day, because if you go over the 90 days the store will charge interest back to day one.

When I go Christmas shopping in Chicago each year, I often use interest-free credit in this same way. In fact, my goal during the two days we spend shopping in Chicago is to get one new credit card per day. Often the store will give you an extra 10 percent off the price of the item just for applying for the card. So I buy something I want and get a nice discount and do not have to pay anything for close to 90 days. I simply use the store’s money interest-free. I just love that.

If you think that I must accumulate a lot of credit cards this way, you’re correct. I now have many cards—almost all locked away in a vault for safekeeping. And I don’t pay an annual fee on any of them. If a card issuer wants to charge me a fee, I cancel the card or just ask the issuer to waive the fee, which they often do.

There are other advantages of my reward system. Once I apply for a card, I get more catalogs delivered at home. I enjoy shopping by catalog, too.

Now, as I said, you have to be careful if you’re not familiar with shopping this way. Too many people get in trouble with consumer debt. If you’re not careful, it could lead to bankruptcy. As my beautiful but more conservative wife, Kathy, puts it: “If we both spend money excessively, we’d be in trouble.”

But, with that caution, I have to emphasize that top salespeople like me use this method of rewarding ourselves as a key motivational tool. Most of us are in sales because we like to be able to buy nice things for ourselves and our families. Don’t go crazy and don’t buy in advance if you’re not comfortable with that. But you need to establish a reward system for yourself. On those down days when nothing seems to be working, thinking ahead to the rewards you’ve promised yourself will motivate you to get back in there and sell.

Ralph’s Rule: Envision the lifestyle you want and then prioritize your list of wants so you can focus your energies on a select few. Once you know what you want, work back from rewards to setting sales goals that would secure them.