Success Is Simple. I Didn’t Say Easy.

The “Common Denominator of Success” by Albert EN Gray is a famous piece of sales literature that I was first introduced to back in 2017 by a Field Sales Manager at Oracle.

After reading it I was truly inspired and energized and the ideas stuck with me ever since.

The “common denominator of success” is a universal principle that can be applied to achieve any sales goal that you set whether that be landing a job in tech sales, hitting your metrics in the SDR role itself, getting promoted as a seller, and eventually expanding into leadership and entrepreneurship.

Although this talk is a bit old school and addressed to a group of life insurance salesmen back in the 1940s the wisdom is timeless and universal and I hope the following excerpt inspires you.

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“But this common denominator of success is so big, so powerful, and so vitally important to your future and mine that I'm not going to make a speech about it. I'm just going to "lay it on the line" in words of one syllable, so simple that everyone can understand them.

The common denominator of success --- the secret of success of every man & woman who has ever been successful --- lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don't like to do.

It's just as true as it sounds and it's just as simple as it seems. You can hold it up to the light, you can put it to the acid test, and you can kick it around until it's worn out, but when you are all through with it, it will still be the common denominator of success, whether you like it or not.

It will still explain why men & woman have come into this business of ours with every apparent qualification for success and given us our most disappointing failures, while others have come in and achieved outstanding success in spite of many obvious and discouraging handicaps. And since it will also explain your future, it would seem to be a mighty good idea for you to use it in determining just what sort of a future you are going to have.

The things that failures don't like to do, in general, are too obvious for us to discuss them here, and so, since our success is to be achieved in the sale of life insurance, let us move on to a discussion of the things that we as life insurance men & women don't like to do.

We don't like to call on people who don't want to see us and talk to them about something they don't want to talk about. Any reluctance to follow a definite prospecting program, to use prepared sales talks, to organize time and to organize effort are all caused by this one basic dislike.

Perhaps you have wondered why it is that our biggest producers seem to like to do the things that you don't like to do. They don't! And I think this is the most encouraging statement I have ever offered to a group of life insurance salesmen & sales women. But if they don't like to do these things, then why do they do them? Because by doing the things they don't like to do, they can accomplish the things they want to accomplish. Successful men & women are influenced by the desire for pleasing results. Failures are influenced by the desire for pleasing methods and are inclined to be satisfied with such results as can be obtained by doing things they like to do.

Why are successful men & women able to do things they don't like to do while failures are not? Because successful men & women have a purpose strong enough to make them form the habit of doing things they don't like to do in order to accomplish the purpose they want to accomplish.”

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The last paragraph highlights the true reason people are willing to do the difficult and uncomfortable things needed to achieve their goals that others aren’t willing to do.

They have a strong “why” and purpose that they’ve clearly defined for themselves that helps them stay focused on the things that matter most to them and helps them transcend the monotony and difficulties that are inevitable on the journey towards their dreams.

Your “why” will carry you to pay the price required to achieve your goals.

My personal “why” that has carried me in my tech sales journey is that I want to create financial independence and the freedom to have the life experiences that I want to, invest in new business ideas, and to take care of my family.

I want to master sales and develop the skills to make a bigger impact for myself and others.

I also want to build great lifelong relationships which are perhaps the greatest key to long term happiness.

The purpose of this Newsletter, my YouTube channel, and my soon to release Tech Sales Accelerator collection of courses is to lift others onto this path to create transformative opportunities for themselves and their families too.

I spoke with a coaching client who valued their spiritual development and saw tech sales as a fulfilling and challenging journey that could bring out the best in them spiritually.

Another client I spoke with was a first generation American and wanted to change the trajectory of their family and take care of his parents who give him everything.

Some see Tech Sales as a training ground for starting their own company.

People who are very successful in tech sales have big visions & want more out of life.

PERIOD.

So my question to you is “what do you want out of your life and how does tech sales and the SDR role play into that?”

Write it all down and let that carry you forward!

Happy Selling & Happy Living,

Chris