5 Principles for Success

After 30 years of sales experience including the past 10 years coaching and training sales teams from Silicon Valley start-ups to Fortune 500 companies around the world, I’m still a proponent of the 5 key principles for success I was first taught in college by the late great Mort Utley, a sales motivational speaker for The Southwestern Company.

I recently listened to an old recording of these solid fundamentals for success in sales and in life. These resonate with me even after all these years. I realize that I’ve been consciously and unconsciously teaching these to my children and actually anyone else under my charge over my adult lifetime. These principles permeate my professional sales training, coaching, mentoring and sales management sessions.

They’re classic, never out of fashion, and they work.

As I’ve been greatly impacted by these 5 Principles for Success, I am devoting this issue of our new SalesNote publication launch to these keys.
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1. Think Big
When you think big, something always happens. Many people think small and achieve something less than they really could have achieved. Winners see the possibilities, reach out farther and swing for fences. Big dreams, big thoughts and big goals yield results far beyond the masses.
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2. Know What You Want
Understand what you want to achieve, then set goals to get there. I was taught once and now always say: “There are those that make excuses and those that find a way.” Focus and determination need to chase a goal. One has to know the target before one can hit a bullseye.
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3. Do Your Homework
Knowledge and skill breeds confidence and competence. Get the prep work done and study what needs to be mastered and understood. There’s but a small difference between successful and highly effective people and those who are not: successful and effective people do their homework.
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4. A Positive Mental Attitude
Think yes, never no. Smile, never frown. You are what you think and the attitude you bring to any situation. Certainly problems abound in a broken world, yet you can be a source of peace and light. How you approach these mentally is critical to your own well-being and for those around you.
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5. Value & Manage Your Time
If you waste an hour, you can never replace it. The cumulative effect of competently and consistently performing prioritized activities is profound. Determine all valued actions, then scope their impact and timing. Appropriately manage your schedule. Bottom line: do good things well and often.
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