How Do You Use Your Sales Commissions?

What do you do when you have a big sales week, month or quarter?

What do the other salespeople you work with do with their money?

Do you "reward" yourself? Do you "invest" in your future?

As salespeople we are notoriously known for the amount of toys we buy with our commissions. Killer stereo systems. Picture Cell Phones. Titanium Palm Pilots. Luxurious new clothes. Expensive lunches. Partying with our friends.

We say "I deserve this."

I know that's what I used to say.

Sales is hard. It gets all of our emotions riled up. Excitement. Fear. Anger. Juice. The thrill of the kill.

Your emotions are intense and very real.

So you want to reward yourself.

Rewarding yourself, is your way of feeling good after all you put yourself through to make the sales you did.

It's a natural reaction to going through times of feeling fear, frustration, and stress.

Before we close another big sale we often feel fear.

Fear that you won't close again.

Fear that you've lost your edge.

Fear that you will get fired and lose your job.

And then when you do make the sale, WHAM! Excitement! Elation! Relief!

It's time to play!

This rollercoaster can be a lot of fun. But it also can be costly to your future.

Sales offers a real opportunity for men and women everywhere to make large sums of money and get out of the rat race.

The more you say "I deserve this" and "reward" yourself with toys and indulgences, the longer you be working for someone else in sales.

If you want to eventually get out of the rat race, you've got to have a reward system that will help you do it.

Consumption rewards just bandage you up and make you feel good for a little while.

Then you're back at the sales game again, looking for more sales and the cycle starts over again: fear, frustration, stress, win, excitement, reward.

I know. I've been through this many times myself.

I can remember one of my first big sales wins. I took my sales partner and our wives out for a luxurious dinner at a restaurant that I was very impressed with. It felt great that night to dine well and drink champagne.

But the next day I was worrying about the next deal, with a few hundred dollars less in my bank account.

I repeated this pattern of pain - win - reward for many years before I realized what I was doing to myself.

Then I changed my focus.

I focused on the future, and set some bigger goals for myself.

I changed my reward system. I now measure my rewards in terms of how much closer I am getting to complete financial independence.

Consumption is nice, and my family and I do live well.

But I am much happier focusing on the day that making money will be optional and not a necessity of my daily existence. It's important to budget your commissions intelligently.

When you get a big commission check, take a substantial portion of it and save it. Build up your financial stockpile.

Set better goals for yourself. Goals such as "I want to make $200K this year" aren't enough. You need to be more specific. You need to set goals for what you will do with this money (hint: complete financial independence is one of mine).

What you'll find when you build your financial stockpile is that the fear, frustration and stress you experience decreases.

And by setting bigger and better goals, you'll find it easier to build your financial stockpile because you'll have highly motivating goals to keep you on course.

After all, did you really get into sales to just so you could buy the latest and greatest cell phone every year?

© 1999-2004 Shamus Brown, All Rights Reserved.

Shamus Brown is a Professional Sales Coach and former high-tech sales pro who began his career selling for IBM. Shamus has written more than 50 articles on selling and is the creator of the popular Persuasive Selling Skills CD Audio Program. You can read more of Shamus Brown's sales tips at http://Sales-Tips.industrialEGO.com/ and you can learn more about his persuasive sales skills training at http://www.Persuasive-Sales-Skills.com/

In The News:


pen paper and inkwell


cat break through


Do You Want To Sell More? Then Stop Trying To Be Everything To Everybody!

I know you've heard this a thousand times, but from... Read More

Leverage Avoidance Values for Irresistible Selling

What are values? Values are filters that everyone uses to... Read More

How To Achieve Excellence In Sales

Most people are always striving to better themselves. It's the... Read More

How to Master the Art of Salesmanship

I put together this little article because, although basic, we... Read More

The Key to Driving Sales is Understanding What Not How

What does it take to make a sale lately?In Sales,... Read More

How to Spellbind Your Prospects in 10 Seconds!

You've got yourself 10 seconds to HOOK your prospects or... Read More

When The Clock Strikes Twelve!

I just finished reading another sales copy ending with the... Read More

A Revolutionary NEW Dimension in Sales

A Revolutionary 'NEW' Dimension In Sales: Make many more closings... Read More

You CAN Be a Great Salesperson!

When you are in sales, you have the choice to... Read More

Secrets That Lead To Failure In Sales

Let's be realistic nobody really wants to be labeled a... Read More

3 Steps to Immediately Improve Sales

Want to increase sales within your company? It's not as... Read More

7 Safety Tips Every Realtor and Door-to-Door Sales Professional Need to Practice

These are the top 7 safety tips that criminals don't... Read More

7 Phrases You Cant Say in Sales

7 Phrases You Can't Say in Sales (Because They Will... Read More

Keep Sales Simple

For those of us working in the exciting world of... Read More

Objections Are Buying Signals? Usually!

How well do you handle objections?The fact is, most people... Read More

TheTop 10 Reasons Why Salespeople Get Outsold

In my business, it has been an interesting and very... Read More

Get Tough

You deal with rejections, frustrations, disappointment, and possibly disrespect on... Read More

In Sales You Get What You Expect

If your mind is set, you will be unable to... Read More

Cross-selling for Increased Sales, Profits, and Customer Satisfaction

Cross-selling - the art of selling for non-salespeopleCross-selling is the... Read More

7 Sales Skills to Improve On

The following 7 sales skills are what I have found... Read More

Closing The Sale

Several weeks ago I asked my Newsletter subscribers to send... Read More

How to Build a Repeat Client Base in Automobile Sales

Here is a question I recently received from a young... Read More

Its All in the Questions

Contrary to many of the books on how to be... Read More

3 Ways To Overcome Pricing Challenges

How many times have you had a customer say to... Read More

The Road to Pendingville is Paved with Good Intentions

If you've been in sales for any length of time,... Read More

Effective Account Management

Congratulations! You successfully sold one or more of your company's... Read More

Closing The Sale

So -- you've just gotten off of the phone with... Read More

Cutting Through Stalls and Objections

It's the prospect. If stalls and objections frequently come up... Read More

Top Ten No Money Promotion Ways That Create New Clients and Fast Sales

Better than offline promotion such as press releases, talks, or... Read More

Prospecting: Not A Wild Goose Chase... Its A HUNT

Prospecting for future customers can be fun if you approach... Read More

What You Can Learn From The Movie Business

Maybe everything you need to know you can learn from... Read More

Do You Have to Be Aggressive to Make Sales?

A few weeks ago I was onsite at a company... Read More

Shout At Your Customers - Theyre Hard of Hearing!

Some people say we live in the Information Age.I call... Read More