Go “All In” and Overcommit

to get you to go “all in” on every action and fully commit to every opportunity.

Most people are familiar with the “all-in” concept as a poker term. It’s what takes place when a player puts all of his chips at risk and either gets knocked out or doubles up. Though I’m not talking about money or chips here, I’m referring to a much more important bet—your efforts, creativity, energy, ideas, and persistence. Massive action is not like a poker table; you never run out of action chips in life or use up all of your energy and effort by committing yourself. The most valuable chips you have are your mind-set, actions, persistence, and creativity. You can go “all in” with energy as many times as you want—because even if you fail, you can keep going all in!

Most of society discourages the all-in mentality because we are taught to play it safe and not to put everything at risk. We are encouraged to conserve and protect ourselves from losses rather than to go for the big payoff. The giants on this planet are willing to make the big plays. This mind-set is yet again based on the myth that your energy, creativity, and efforts are material things with limited quantities that cannot be replaced. There are certain things in life that have limits, but you don’t unless you impose limits on yourself.

It is vital that you get your head completely reworked about taking action and that you understand that there is no limit to how many times you can continue to take action. You can fail or succeed as many times as you want and then do it over and over again. Also, you can’t ever hit it out of the park if you don’t initially make contact and swing for the fences, and you will never hit it big if you don’t discipline yourself to be all in when you don’t take action.

We have all heard the fable of the tortoise and the hare. The implied lesson, of course, is that the tortoise wins because he plods along and takes his time, whereas the hare rushes, becomes tired, and misses his opportunity to win. We’re sup- posed to derive the meaning that we should be tortoises— individuals who approach our goals steadily and slowly. If there was a third player in the fable who had the speed of the hare and the steadfastness of the tortoise, it would smoke them both and have no competition. The fable would then be called Smoked. The suggestion here is to approach your goals like the tortoise and the hare—by attacking them ruthlessly from the beginning and also staying with them throughout the course of the “race.”

Remember: There are no shortages of how many times you can get up and continue! There is no failure unless you quit! It is impossible for you to “use up” all of your energy— or creativity. It is impossible for you to run out of ideas. You’ll never lose the ability to come up with new dreams, have more energy, think creatively, look at a situation or event differently,

give someone another call, use another tactic, or act with persistence. There will always be another hand, another day— and another chance. If the bank you are working with contin- ues to refill you with new supplies of energy, creativity, and persistence, then why not go all in on every hand?

Entrepreneurs and especially salespeople suffer most when they fail to go all in—a topic I discussed in my first book, Sell to Survive. Many sales professionals give themselves much more credit for trying to close the deal than they deserve and think they’re doing so much more often than they actually are. In reality, most never even ask for the order once, mucft less tfte supposed five times tftat are necessary.

My company was recently hired to conduct a “mystery shop” campaign for an international company to identify where the breakdowns in the sales process were occurring. We were trying to collect information on where the franchises needed the most help. We visited more than 500 locations to see what percentage of time the sales force was able to posi- tion the client to even ask for an order on the product. To the company’s amazement, 63 percent of the locations shopped never even presented the client with a proposal to purchase— much less ask our mystery shopper to buy! This company was about to spend millions on a product training program when in reality, this was not the problem. The franchises and their sales teams feared failure or rejection and never even played a hand—much less went all in.

If a client comes to you or you get a chance to get in front of a client and talk about your product but never present a pro- posal, I assure you that you will not get the business 100 percent of the time. Society has successfully taught most of us to play it safe rather than to go all in with every customer and every opportunity. This is perpetuated in the business world with things like closing ratios, which supposedly reflect the success rate of a salesperson. I’ll tell you what I do: I am willing to go for it with every customer, every time, and have the lowest clos- ing ratio of everyone but the highest production! All in. I don’t

care how many times I bust out, I will just reload my chips and play again!

Think about it: What’s the worst thing that can happen to you if you just totally go for it? You may lose the customer, but so what? You still have unlimited resources to give it your all with the next client. You have everything to gain and nothing to lose; you simply have to rethink your approach.

This brings me to the topic of overcommitting, another “frowned-upon” and misunderstood issue in business today. How many times have you been told to “undercommit and overdeliver?” I have never heard anything so backward and ridiculous. Let’s say you are putting on a Broadway show that you’re advertising to the public. Should you announce that you have a mediocre cast with just “average” singing ability— and then wait until opening night to overdeliver? Of course not. This phrase suggests that overcommitting—or, at the very least, fully committing—somehow puts you in danger. If you’re then not able to deliver as promised, you’ll leave the other party dissatisfied. Why not overcommit in your promise— and then exceed by overdelivering as well? Tell everyone about your spectacular Broadway cast, and compel them to see the show for themselves. Overcommit and overdeliver!

I find that the greater the commitment I make to a client, the higher my level of delivery naturally becomes. It is as though I’m promising to both them and myself to reach new levels of what I’m able to do for them. The more energy I devote to the markets, my clients, or my family, the more intent I am upon delivering exactly what I said I was going to. This, of course, goes back to acting with 10X effort rather than 1X effort. It’s easy for someone to claim to be giving “110 percent” but then fail to fully commit—either because that person is playing it safe or is afraid that he or she won’t perform to the level necessary.

A common problem that almost every business faces is the tendency to increase appointments in order to present a product or idea. People who request an appointment aren’t

willing to overcommit to the person who has to give up his or her valuable time in order to see them. Grand claims, over- commitment, and extreme promises will immediately sepa- rate you from the masses—and therefore force you to deliver at 10X levels. The only way to increase appointments is to increase the number of people to whom you speak—and then amplify the reasons why they should make time for you.

The same goes for every step of the sales process, whether it involves follow up, fliers, regular mail, e-mails, social media, phone calls, personal visits, events, meetings, or any other action you take. Overcommit your energy, resources, creativ- ity, and persistence. Know that you are all in on every activity, every time you take action, every day you’re in business.

Now, you might worry—as so many people do—about not being able to deliver. And that is certainly a problem; however, as we discussed earlier, you need new problems. They’re signs that you’re making progress and heading in the right direction. Learn to commit first, and figure out how to show up later. Most people simply never bother to perform and instead spend their time trying to wrap their heads around things that may never happen for them. Anyone who doesn’t face new problems but who instead grapples with the same old problems his or her whole life isn’t moving forward. Simply put: If you are not creating new problems for yourself, then you aren’t taking enough action.

You need to face new issues and dilemmas that will chal- lenge you to keep finding and creating solutions. Wouldn’t it be nice if you had too many people to see at 2 PM or if you had a line outside your restaurant because there were so many people waiting for a table? One of the major differences between successful and unsuccessful people is that the former look for problems to resolve, whereas the latter make every attempt to avoid them. So remember: Overcommit, be all in, and take massive levels of action followed up by massive amounts of more actions. You will create new problems and deliver at levels that will amaze even you.

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Date: 2016-04-22; view: 655