Whether you work for yourself or for a conglomerate, selling is tough. Partly because you’re not just selling you're being of service to your customers in ways no one else can be; and partly because you have to persuade your lead that their best interest is your true intention.

Built into this process is rejection, and lots of it. When it comes to insurance, people want to know you’re on their side. But they also want to get the best deal they can. This means that you have to find the WIN-WIN for both of you. It is your responsibility to find the WIN-WIN because there are lots of other salespeople out there that will if you don’t.

Still, that elusive WIN-WIN can play havoc with your confidence level, and because of this, you must have an arsenal of strategies to stay motivated and inspired while pursuing your objectives. Here are some ways to WIN-WIN. Some will work better than others. Find your keys to success and with them you can open the doors to opportunity.

1. Throughout the day, routinely tell yourself how powerful you are. Obstacles and distractions will arise. Their tendency is to knock you off balance. Remember, you are greater than anything that may confront you.

At times it might seem as though Powerless is your middle name. Remind yourself during these times of what it took to get you here. After all, you’re the one that did it. No one else. You are the creator of your greatness. Be proud of it!

2. Your customers want you to win too. Be fair with them and they will be fair to you. They are entrusting you with something very dear to them… their lives. When they believe you are on their side, they will not only tell you, they’ll tell every one else they know. Make them the focus of the sale and when they’re happy, you will be also.

3. Aim for the back of the head and settle for the nose. This means expect the best possible results. Anticipate dominating the competition. Most sales people expect to hear no.

They would actually be surprised if someone said they want to buy something, anything from them! It’s simple: set your expectations for success so high that even if you fail, you’ll have achieved more than most others out there trying. Accept less than you aim for but not less than you expect.

4. Want to make it happen? Want to get your message across? Praise others and watch them flock to your side. By acknowledging others, even for the most insignificant details, you not only use words of encouragement that inspire you, but you learn to focus on the positive.

In addition, you move the focus from you to them and they become confident. Their new esteem will be something you contributed to. This will further inspire you and press you to do even better work with the next person you meet.

5. Clearly define your goals. Vague goals are no goals at all. Be specific. Where do you want to go and when will you be there? What do you want to achieve?

How emphatic are you about the outcome? When do you want it? If you don’t have answers to these questions, then your objectives aren’t clear in your mind. Where will you be when it’s complete? You must have concrete impressions of what your mission is.

Here’s a strategy that is sure to work!

-Keep your goals written down on 3” X 5” index cardsand keep them near you in plain sight. If your goal is to become a top-10performer in MDRT, then describe how you will go about doing so. What strategies will you utilize to make these objectives a reality? The more you can refer to them, the more second nature their success becomes.

-Identify with each goal. Breathe it in, feel its texture. Smell its
fragrance. Taste its realness. The more “real” you make it in your mind,
the more vividly it exists in your mind, the more it manifests itself around you.

6. LAUGH! ’ll put it plainly. If you’re not laughing, you’re wasting your life! Laughter has been irrefutably proven to not only improve the quality of life, but to extend it as well.

By utilizing every muscle in the face, and increasing blood flow and oxygen supply to the brain and other vital organs, laughter secretes endorphins from the hippocampus region of the brain that make you happy, create higher states of thinking, and enable you to succeed. They’ve also been clearly linked to an increase in life expectancy.

When you laugh, you create laughter for others to share, you invite others to laugh along with you, and you find new ways to solve old problems. So for crying out loud, why aren’t you laughing?

7. Plan to relax. You plan your stresses, your breakdowns, your confrontations, your meals, heck… you even plan your bathroom breaks. Plan to relax.

The number one cause of stress related absenteeism and loss of productivity in business worldwide, as published in a March 2000 report by the US Labor Dept., is STRESS. The same goes for the highest cause of heart attack, depression, mental illness, obesity,and general poor health. Plan for time in your day when you will focus on yourself and on enjoyment.

The secret is, it only takes a couple of minutes a day to relax. If you plan for three minutes in the morning, four minutes in the midday, and three minutes before you end the day, you’ve squeezed in ten minutes a day of focused relaxation. WOW! Imagine that. You’re working, and you’re relaxing. But how do you find ten minutes to relax in the middle of all you do?

Close your eyes. It’s that simple! Closed eyes, deep breathing, allowing the stress to flow out of your body, allows you to return to a state of harmony and can mean the difference between being the golf ball and being the iron.

8. Because rejection and self-doubt are such built-in components of doing business today, it is critical that you surround yourself with positive, elated, creative, inspired individuals! Just like an anchor can pull you down and keep you from advancing, negative influences, (NOT PEOPLE) can dull your advantage. They cause you to question the daring feats you take to be successful. They minimize your hope and limit your potential. They’re bad news for your Good News Way of Life.

Positive people, those that want to see you succeed, the people you run to tell when great things happen, are the most important company to keep. They may not be influential or rich. They may not be the prettiest or most in-demand people you know. But when they make you feel good and cause you to be better than you are otherwise, their contribution to your success is immeasurable!

The more light you let into a room, the more life will grow in it. In the same regard, the more darkness to which you subject the room, the less opportunity for vibrancy. Incredible, collaborative, inspired surroundings cause us to be the best we can possibly be.

9. Because we often work by ourselves, we might get distracted by the things which matter least and as a result lose focus on the most important tasks in front of us. When this occurs, remind yourself of the magnificence awaiting you. The best way to combat distraction I have found is simple… MAKE LISTS!

Write it down. Make sure that anything and everything you have to address or acheive is in front of your eyes. The more you can look at what’s in front of you, the more accessible it becomes in the life you lead.

10. And perhaps most importantly, have faith in yourself. You are a creative, powerful, success-oriented leader! Your words and actions carry further than you can possibly imagine. Your influence reaches miles beyond your scope of vision. So remember, just because you can’t see your results immediately doesn’t mean they’re not being seen and felt by others.Have faith that your results will manifest in the way you envision them. Have faith in the fact your legacy will outlast your efforts.