Practising Gratitude – the easy way to success

As a young sales manager in my mid twenties I took a lot of pride in training my people to be better than me and you better believe it, I was good, very good at what I did. I had learnt well from the top professional sales trainers of the day and by emulating them had developed ‘a success system that never fails’. One of my salesmen, Graeme was in his mid forties and he seemed to not only have bettered my system, but he did it all so effortlessly. He did it by practising gratitude.                  

He always met his quota, refused to work weekends and more often than not only worked a four day week and resisted field training.

One day he gave in to my insistence and we went out on field training, where I got to discover the secret to his outstanding success. I don’t know why, but at the time I didn’t really put the proper value on what he was doing. Maybe I was still too young. Or maybe it was because I didn’t want to alter my successful system at the time. You see he had extended what I was teaching which included an attitude of gratitude and put it into an effective and personal action. He was practising gratitude.                 

All of my sales people where taught gratitude as a part of their training, so that every time they made a sale they would say Thank You, almost like a prayer, and feel really grateful for the sale and all the good it would then bring for them. This one little habit really sets you up for your next success and it’s a good habit that I still use to this day!

I kept on teaching my system, but for some reason I failed to grab hold of his powerful method – actually practising gratitude – until some years later. This method is still to this day one of the most powerful ways to create relationships and build a solid sales business, and what business isn’t a sales business. There isn’t a single business anywhere in the world that doesn’t make a sale of some kind.

The extra step that Graeme had taken was a simple, but a very effective one, he sent each of his prospects, not just his customers and those who gave him referrals, but everyone he spoke to, a personal letter of appreciation, just a simple note that said ‘Thank You’.

I recently remembered and came to like the extra bit he often added that said and I will quote it for you. “I am extremely grateful for having the chance to meet with you and explain my business. If you believe I could be of service to any of your friends, I really would appreciate it if you would let me know about them and also tell them about what I have to offer. I promise to treat them with the same courtesy and dignity I extended to you.”

What he did was to take an attitude and put it into effective action. By practicing gratitude, he took the metaphysical and put it into the physical with a hand written note. This one little action put him way out front, hands and feet in front of the rest of his team and way out front compared to his competitors.

Now this is my big tip for you – take effective action straight after a sale is made, or you meet a new connection, or someone sends you some referrals or a new customer. Send them a personal note, or better yet a greeting card saying Thank You.

You see most of Graeme’s customers so loved him that they went out of their way to send him referrals and in most cases they even presold for him, so all he had to do was turn up and fill in the paperwork and maybe answer a question or two on the technical merits. Any wonder he did things so effortlessly. 

What a way to go.  Practising Gratitude – and this is what I’m recommending for you.

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