Let me be completely honest with you," whispered Jerry, a $1.8 million wirehouse producer. "I've been very successful in Wall Street's old sales and marketing model. I've got a lifestyle that is the envy of everyone in my family, and you're telling me I've got to change!"
Jerry isn't alone in his deep-seeded voice of doubt. After all, he has been extremely successful as a salesperson. But he can't deny that the rules for future success have changed.
It's time that Jerry, and all reps serious about benefiting from the financial opportunities directly within their grasp, revisit the achievement cycle. This is the process of establishing a goal and committing to do the necessary activities linked to achieving the goal.
Revisit any of your past serious goals and - voila - you will find yourself immersed in the achievement cycle. Were you assured of accomplishing your goal? Of course not. Did you have to consistently venture outside your comfort zone? Yes. Did you have seeds of doubt or not feel worthy of your goal? Most likely. Yet, you were locked and loaded on your goal, you felt the fear and made it happen anyway.
Like most people when they revisit accomplishments of the past, Jerry got a real charge out of this trip down memory lane. For a moment, he was in a major growth curve, his motivation and energy were sky high, and the process was more exhilarating than achieving the goal.
That was then, this is now. Odds are you are not much different than Jerry. Sure, you might be at a different level of production but the achievement cycle is nondiscriminatory. The only requirement is to reactivate your personal achievement cycle and make certain it is strategically linked to creating a practice suited to the 21st century.
Prior to our conversation, Jerry was only venturing outside his comfort zone on occasion. At times and when convenient, he would work with clients on more complex financial issues, involve outside specialists and solve financial problems beyond their investments. But there is a huge difference in pulling the pieces together in response to a client's request and establishing a serious goal to reinvent yourself as a true financial solutions provider. That requires you to reinvent yourself to existing clients, commit to a long-range business plan, and step outside your comfort zone and into the achievement cycle for some undefined period of time.
Most veteran brokers are making good, if not excellent, money. This financial success has become one of the major obstacles to achievement. Brokers who remain locked in the comfort of their past successes will be restricted. And any restrictions interfere with future growth and development - future successes.
If you are reactivating your achievement cycle, every individual who is part of your financial practice must follow suit.
Every member of your practice should have serious development goals. It's important to engage everyone on a professional level in his or her achievement cycle. You can't do this alone.
Have your assistant revisit an accomplishment of the past, examine the effort expended and rekindle the feelings involved. Make it a collaborative project of reactivating this tremendous human quality. Use it to demonstrate how everyone needs to be engaged in the achievement cycle.
