If you are reading this blog, it is likely that you want more.  You want to improve your productivity, your prospecting, your presence, your something.  Nobody gets up every morning with the goal of being mediocre.  Ultimately, you want to dominate your market.  But the truth is, you can’t.

My kids are in the driveway right now playing basketball with the neighbor kids.  When I was their age, the Bad Boys version of the Detroit Pistons were winning championships.  I remember playing in the driveway and pretending I was Isaiah Thomas and Joe Dumars.

I wanted to dominate a basketball game the way they did. But I topped out at 5’7” with less than average athletic ability and a suspect jump shot.  I was never going to dominate a basketball game.

And you are never going to dominate your market because of these 7 reasons.

7 Reasons You Will Never Dominate Your Market

1. You don’t keep score – Numbers never lie.  If you don’t keep score, you never know if you are winning. By the way, those who dominate keep score.  It is the hordes of the mediocre who don’t want the proof.
2. You don’t have a system – Systems are just checklists.  If this happens, then we do this.  Systems make you more efficient and productive.  They also produce desired and predictable outcomes.  The beauty of a system is you know what to adjust to improve the outcome.  Without a system, you are simply guessing – taking a shot in the dark.  And wasting a ton of time and effort.  Dominators are blowing right by you.
3. You don’t time-block – Time-blocking is the practice of scheduling an appointment, with yourself, for the most important tasks of your week.  You actually do this on your calendar.  When something urgent pops up, you simply say, “I have an appointment I can’t break.”  This ensures you are focusing on the most important tasks of the week and not succumbing to the “tyranny of the urgent.”
4. You don’t have a coach – Peyton Manning was the opening keynote speaker atICSC just last week.  This is a quote directly from him.

   • “Everyone, and I mean everyone, no matter how experienced or seasoned you are, needs a coach to continue to grow. … Someone who has the capacity and the willingness to point out what works — but more candidly, what doesn’t work. I still want to be coached after 17 years. I actually get angry when I’m not coached. I want someone with the knowledge and insight to break down what I’m doing and to help me see things from a slightly different perspective. To take me back to the basics and rebuild from that foundation. In my opinion, as soon as someone stops wanting to be coached, taught or mentored, I think they’re in big trouble.”

5. You are lazy –  It is my opinion that sales people are mostly lazy.  I say that because the ones who aren’t lazy have such incredible results.  If you want to differentiate yourself from the pack in your market, just be diligent.  That could be the single quickest way to move the needle.  Do what you know you should be doing.  But you won’t.
6. You are normal – Normal as in you do nothing to differentiate yourself from your competition.  You are a cog – a commodity.  Commodities compete on price.  Dominators compete on value.  You need to be able to communicate your value proposition in 30 seconds.  Why you?  What makes you different…better?
7. You are afraid
   • of looking dumb – This was my issue.  I couldn’t stand the thought of being asked a question and not knowing the answer.  This paralyzed me for so long.  I would just stare at that phone…and do nothing.
   • of rejection – Sales has many more “No’s” than “Yes’s”.  Many more.  And regardless of whether you are in a traditional sales or not, you are selling something.  If you ever want to have influence or success in sales, you need to get rid of this fear.  But you won’t.
   • of failure – Many of you got into this business because you saw the success of others.  And then you get into the research department of your shop and figure out how to be content there…because you don’t want to risk it and fail.

At age 22, I walked into a Marine recruiters office and asked what they had for me.  This chiseled mountain of a man with a high & tight responded, “I don’t have [bleep] for you.  I wonder if you have the metal to be in my Marine Corps.”

Then later, as we were going through the MOS (job) book, I asked him what a cryptologic linguist was.  His answer was:  “Don’t worry about it.  You aren’t smart enough to get that job.”  This guy was pushing my buttons.

I am trying to push yours.  I want you to try to prove me wrong like I proved my recruiter wrong.

But you won’t.

Question: am I succeeding in pushing your buttons? Let me know what you are going to do with the rest of the year. You can leave a comment by clicking here.

I have created a simple one-page worksheet that will walk you through the 5 steps to time-blocking your week for maximum efficiency and productivity.  You can download it by clicking the button below.

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