Surround Yourself with Great People.

Becoming a Better Sales Rep — Post #45

Introduction.

This post is not only relevant to your sales career but for your entire life. No matter, what you want to achieve, it’s gonna be so much harder if not impossible if your environment isn’t right.

And, a huge part of your environment are certainly the people the surround you.

You might have even heard the saying that, “you’ll become the average of the five people you surround yourself with the most.” And, based on my experience, this is 100 % true.

And, the nice thing about it is that you can use this knowledge deliberately to shape your close environment by filling it with people that will help you do great things.

So, let’s discuss why you’ll get on track to become who you want to become if you surround yourself with people who live the traits that you desire.

Why Does It Work?

It’s always easier to actually implement new habits if we know how and why they work. Let’s take look at why you should surround yourself with people that embody what or who you want to become.

1. People Are Creatures of Habit: First, you need to understand that you’re a creature of habit. And, it’s darn hard to break habits. It’s actually so hard that I should dedicate a few posts to it. But for now, you should know that most of your habitual decisions are fully automatic and happen oftentimes unconsciously. So, if you don’t change anything substantial about your environment and circumstances, chances are that you’ll continue to blindly follow your old habits.
2. In a Group, You’ll Be Held Accountable: Oftentimes, we as humans just don’t do things because there’s nothing specific we committed to and we don’t have systems that hold us accountable. Being part of a group of people that have similar goals to yours and actually execute on them, you’ll be held accountable to execute specific actions that will bring you closer to where you wanna be.
3. Environments Are Triggers: During the Vietnam war, around 20 to 30 % of U.S. soldiers stationed in Vietnam were consuming heroin on a regular basis. And no, that’s not a typo: 20 to 30 %. However, 9 out of 10 of these soldiers stopped using heroin the second they were back on U.S. soil. And the reason behind this is very simple: most of our habits are triggered by our environment. None of the associations that triggered the soldiers to consume drugs were present in the U.S. So, once they were back the thought to use just didn’t occur to them.
   You can use this principle in reverse and create an environment of great people that will trigger you to do great things. If you sit somewhere with people who waste their time all day, you’ll be triggered to do it as well. However, if you surround yourself with people who get up at 7 am, go for a run at 7:30 am, are in the office at 9 am, and collectively start doing outreach for 2 hours at 9:15 am sharp, this environment will create triggers that you will follow.
4. We Don’t Choose Habits, We Imitate Them: This is something that is super valuable to understand. I don’t know if you know this specific example but some variations of this will certainly be familiar to you. When I spent a significant amount of time with people, I tend to pick up words and phrases they constantly use. It happens without me noticing it. And, it’s usually only when other people tell me that I picked up this new slang that I notice. The same goes for productive habits. If you work with people who all are on time, you’ll automatically be on time. If you work with people who commit to a schedule, you’ll get a schedule. If you work with people who crush their sales numbers, you’ll do, too.
5. Evolutionary, We Want to Fit In: And, in the end, you can’t fight innate biological needs. We, as human beings, just want to fit in. Thousands of years ago, the only way to survive was to fit in and we’re still wired in the way we were back then. So, if you surround yourself with people who achieve their quotas, you’ll have two options: do the same or leave the group. And, if you commit to the group, you’ll certainly grow. You’ll need to. There will be no other way.

So, now that we know a little bit more about why it’s so helpful to surround yourself with great people, let’s take a few considerations into account.

What Do You Need to Consider?

So, what should think about before your call Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos if they wanna hang with you daily?

1. You Should Have Some Common Ground: When you don’t know the difference between a lead and an opportunity, yet, you should maybe not try to surround yourself with Account Executives. If you’re at the beginning of your sales career, surround yourself with the reps that started six months before you and that are crushing it. Accept that things take time. Achieve one goal after the other. Don’t skip steps. A 1-% improvement every day makes you 37x better after a year.
2. The Responsibility Still Lies with You: And, just because you are part of a group, it doesn’t mean that things will just happen by themselves. You still need to commit, you still need to put in the work. But, it’s gonna be easier to do these things.
3. Commit to People: If you find great people, commit to them and grow together. Change happens over time. Not in a day or two.
4. Move on from People: I hate this piece of advice because I love people and I believe in helping everybody. But, in some sense, this is a flaw or at least it’s dangerous for my growth and I need to make myself aware of it. While surrounding yourself with people that are good for you, you might need to cut out people that are not. Because again, environments are triggering. Other than the soldiers, after rehab, civilian heroin addicts usually start using again in 90% of the cases once they’re back in their old environments. So, it’s gonna be hard to commit to being super effective if 50% of your environment isn’t. It’ll trigger you and stop your growth.
5. Only Use This Approach for Things that Truly Matter to You: If you don’t want to become a successful sales rep, surrounding yourself with a group of sales reps that loves sales and that absolutely crushes it, won’t work. This technique isn’t there to change your personality, it’s there to enable it. So, apply it to the things you really want. Otherwise, you’ll be all grumpy while following the group. And, they will notice.

How Do You Actually Do It?

Let’s get into a few specifics on how to kick-start your search for a group.

1. Get Advice: Some people might already be tired of this, but get a mentor and ask them what they would do, how they got to where they are. Ask them if they know where to find groups of people that will help you with your goals.
2. Be Honest with Yourself: Again, don’t aim too high, but also don’t aim too low. Figure out what level you’re at and reach to people who are at top of your current level or one above you and surround yourself with them. Don’t surround yourself with millionaires while you struggle to pay rent. It’ll make you poorer. First, focus on people who eliminated their debt, learn their habits. Then move on and work yourself up.
3. Don’t Be Afraid to Ask: If you identified the people that would do you well, just tell them what your intentions are. Tell them you’re looking up to them. Most of the time, they will feel flattered and will be very willing to help you and adopt you into their group.
4. Start with a Few People: You don’t need to be part of a group of 10 sales reps who absolutely crush it. If you can find one person and you commit to each other, this might be all it takes. Of course, the more the better. But just start somewhere. The group will usually naturally grow with time.
5. Create Tangible Commitments: Don’t just hang around those people passively. Do the things they do. Tell them what you want to work on. Help yourself and them to hold yourself accountable.

So, now go and talk to the people you’ve always been looking up to!

And If You Aren’t Connected to Those People Yet, Use Resonaid for Your Warm Outreach to Them.

Resonaid is a tool that writes personalized messages for your sales outreach. It identifies unique and personal hooks that you can use to send out messages that are customized for every single lead. It literally takes all the work away from doing outreach. So, rather than spending 5 hours reaching out, it’ll only take you some 30 minutes.

Make sure to give it a try, if you haven’t already!

Access Resonaid via the Chrome Web Store.

Resonaid is a tool that helps sales professionals with writing personalized messages for their sales outreach.

We recently released the first version of our product as a Chrome extension in the Chrome Web Store.

As we just went live this summer, you can currently test Resonaid for free and get large discounts by being an early user.

About the Author.

Teddy Lange is a co-founder at Resonaid and is responsible for business development and customer experience. Before joining Resonaid, he’s been a Sales Rep and Junior Sales Manager, and co-founded various companies. He’s currently finishing his graduate degree in Public Policy with a focus on communication at Harvard University. Feel free to reach out to him at teddy@resonaid.co.