A friend of mine started his career in executive search several years ago. I mentored and coached him, and in his first twelve months, he billed over $300,000.
What made his early success even more remarkable was that he had never been in a sales career before. He had poor sales skills, was sloppy with his paperwork like the rest of us, and didn’t know the business all that well. But it was his competitive desire to win that helped him to overcome these deficits.
He possessed a remarkable strength of character and a commitment to integrity that drew people to him and made candidates and clients trust him. It was easy for him to engage new clients and candidates and bring them into a relationship where he would put them together and close the deal. He seemed to be a natural big biller.
Shortly after his 12-month anniversary in the business, his performance started to decline. For a period of five consecutive months, he did not close a single deal. So we conducted several deal autopsies to find the cause of why those deals that were pending fell apart at the last minute.
What we discovered was a gold mine of information, but unfortunately it was too late. There were at least six or seven deals that should have closed but did not, and all of the reasons for them not closing were within my friend’s control:
- He didn’t ask the questions he didn’t want to hear from candidates.
- He didn’t push back with clients when they insisted that they make the offer to the candidate.
- He didn’t challenge candidates when they said they just might consider a counteroffer from their current employers.
In other words, he knew what to do when he came into these scenarios. But there was a single reason that I believe kept him from doing this. He just didn’t feel like he deserved to win. Creating a six-figure income was new to him. It was uncomfortable. And I believe that his subconscious mind kept him at his previous income level.
According to Rick Pitino, in his book Success is a Choice, the biggest reason why some people succeed and why some people don’t is because of this issue of feeling like they deserve to win. I personally believe this goes back to our old programming when we were kids:
- Don’t be so selfish.
- Focus only on the needs of others.
- Money is the “root of all evil.”
- The rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. We’re poor, but we’re proud.
The truth is that money is just a tool and a measurement of how much contribution you make in the world. Once you get past this issue and overcome your limiting beliefs, you will see your billings skyrocket.
Here are three ways to overcome this issue:
#1—Act as if you have already achieved.
Act the way a big biller acts. Sit the way a big biller sits. Talk on the phone as if you are already a big biller. You will never have anyone ask you how long you’ve been in search if you sound like you’re a big biller. People respond differently to big billers than rookies and amateurs. Once you start acting like one, you will become one.
#2—Do what it takes to achieve, and then you will start feeling as if you deserve to win.
If you don’t feel like you deserve to win, it probably means that you have not put forth the effort on what it takes to hit your targets. Push yourself. Go to bed tired and satisfied that today you gave your best maximum effort. Each day, each hour, each phone call deserves your best effort. You owe it to your clients and candidates and your manager and colleagues to give it your best shot with every dial and connect. You even owe it to yourself.
#3—Read Pitino’s book and also The Prayer of Jabez.
This book is about an Old Testament character who actually prays to be blessed. Can you imagine praying to be blessed? I’m not trying to get religious here, but when I first read this book a few years ago, it was a new concept and went against everything I ever heard about praying. But the more I studied this concept and read that book, the more I learned that we are designed for greatness and destined for success.
We can achieve more when we see ourselves as contributors who want to have a right relationship with our source of strength, peace with others and harmony in relationships, and an expansion of our wealth as we give more to those who can benefit from our service.
Some of you might think this concept is “fluff” and devoid of any content. I beg to differ, but then again, that’s just my opinion, nothing more.
You can say the right things, have the best scripts, and even present the best candidates. But if you fail to overcome the feelings of not deserving to win, your subconscious mind will sabotage your success and find ways to bring you to a more comfortable income level.
Achieving success takes some getting used to. The sooner you start feeling like you have earned it and deserve it, the sooner you will attract it to you.
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Scott Love, guest writer for the Top Echelon Recruiter Training Blog and owner of The Attorney Search Group, trains, motivates, and inspires recruiters to achieve greatness in the profession. Visit his online recruiter training center for tips, downloads, videos, and articles that can help you increase your recruiter billings.