I would like to share with you some ideas and suggestions found in my book, What Every Great Salesperson Knows, A No-Nonsense Guide for Sales Success, in the hope that it will inspire and motivate you in your business.

There are a number of traits that all successful salespeople have in common.

One of the most important behaviors that they all possess is:

Self Discipline
Highly successful salespeople are persistent in their work routines. They follow through on customer relationships, record their progress and report to a manager, coach or mentor.

Take a look at the following two lists and evaluate yourself to assess where you need to improve.

Salespeople who have MASTERED the behavior of Self Discipline have this in common:
Follow through on commitments to self and others
Set clear priorities and systematize routine work so that they can spend prime time on critical activities
Put in the time necessary to get the job or task done correctly
Focus on the task at hand and do not allow themselves to be distracted from planned work activities Use routine systems for getting the work done (e.g., systems for prospecting, maintaining customer relationships and handling administrative details).
Salespeople who LACK Self Discipline:
Are easily distracted
Are disorganized in their work
Have no established work plans or routines
Forget assignments and miss appointments and deadlines
Fail to track their sales activates and results
Here are a few suggestions on how to improve your Self Discipline:

Think of a time in the past when you have shown self-discipline. Try to identify common elements in those experiences. Seek opportunities for similar experiences in the future

When you catch yourself being self-disciplined, give yourself some credit! Take the time to experience how good you feel about what you have done and encourage yourself to do it again. Record the experience in a journal

Say “no” to distractions

Be ruthless with your time management

So how do you rate yourself? Are you someone who has a great deal of self discipline or is there room for improvement?