There are no secrets to selling success. Every salesperson knows what he or she must do to attract clients, grow business, and boost revenue. Sometimes, we just get so caught up in the day-to-day drudgery of doing business that we forget what we should be doing to build our business.

The following ten commandments of selling success can help you refocus your energy and enthusiasm on the factors that contribute most to your selling success:

1. Practice your craft. Practice selling at work, at home, at the airport, in the taxi, at the grocery store, and wherever else you happen to be in contact with other people. The key to selling is being able to establish personal relationships with your clients. Practice by making meaningful connections with everyone you meet.
2. Invest in your own success. As an entrepreneurial salesperson, you have to act like a business, and that means investing in your own personal and professional development, in the latest technology, and in support personnel, so you have more time to spend on what you do best and what earns you and your company the biggest profits.
3. Adopt new technologies. Tech savvy clients are relying more on the Internet for their information and are using a variety of communications technologies to keep in touch, including cell phones, e-mail, text messaging, VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol or Internet phones), and blogs. To stay in touch with the latest generation of shoppers, you’d better be tech savvy, too.
4. Hire an assistant. Hire or be hired. Hire people to take on tasks that they can perform better, faster, and for less money than you can, and then treat them well. The more work you can outsource to others, the more time and energy you can spend on dollar-productive activities. Instead of asking “What’s the cost of hiring an assistant?” ask “How much revenue am I losing by not having an assistant?”
5. Fire your worst clients. The customer is not always right. In fact, some customers can drag you down, sapping time and energy you could be devoting to other, better clients. You don’t have to be rude about it, but get rid of the clients who are squandering your time and resources.
6. Date your leads… or someone else will. Regardless of how you obtain leads, make sure you keep in touch with those leads until they are ready to buy. One great way to automate the process of keeping in touch with your leads is to add leads to a drip e-mail campaign. A drip campaign sends a series of e-mail messages to prospective clients over the course of several weeks or months automatically.
7. Give without expectations. Sales coaches often recommend that you “give to get.” I’m telling you to “give to give.” If you’re expecting something in return, you’re not really giving–you’re bartering. Give for the sheer pleasure of giving.
8. Take risks. The people who make the most money take the biggest risks, and that applies to sales as much as it applies to anything in the world of business. You have to be willing to invest money and take some chances. Otherwise, you’re not a salesperson. You’re an order taker.
9. Embrace change. The Internet, new technologies, and the global economy have combined forces to accelerate change to a dizzying pace. The only way to survive and thrive in this environment is to embrace rather than resist change. Every change, particular changes that cause problems and headaches, is packed with potential.
10. Achieve a balanced lifestyle. Being a successful human being means much more than achieving career success. It means remaining healthy, building rewarding relationships, supporting your community, and perhaps even raising children. Failing in one area of your life can lead to failures in other areas.

Work on being successful in all areas of your life. Without the strong relationship I have with my wife and children, I would not have achieved the same level of success in my career. Success feeds on success, and, unfortunately, failure feeds on failure. Encourage everyone around you to set goals and pursue their dreams. Surround yourself with success.

For more information on sales success, see my latest book, “Advanced Selling For Dummies,” which is available on Amazon.com and from fine booksellers and retailers nationwide.

The days of the lonely door-to-door salesman are over, thank goodness, but I often observe salespeople who have placed themselves in a sort of self-imposed exile. By falsely assuming that nobody can do it better than they can (whatever “it” is), they end up working themselves to a frazzle and never achieve the sales success they really deserve. The fact is that you can do more and do it better by harnessing the power of people.

If you need proof, just look at any major corporation. They never would have been a major corporation had they not hired people. Think of yourself as a mini corporation–You, Inc. Hang out a Help Wanted sign. Start interviewing people. Establish productive partnerships.

Fuel your sales with people power:

1. Find out what’s missing. What do you want to do that you can’t do because you’re lacking the time or expertise? As soon as you know what you need and don’t have (time, expertise, resources), you have a pretty good idea of the people you need to hire or partner with–people who have what you need.

2. Do what you do best and hire out the rest. Figure out how much you earn per hour. If you earn $50 an hour selling and you’re cleaning your house over the weekend when you can hire someone for $10 an hour to do it, that’s borderline insane… unless, of course, cleaning your house is therapeutic or something you enjoy doing.

3. Hire an intern. Colleges and even some high schools have internships or co-op programs in which students are willing to work for free or for a low wage in exchange for job experience. Look into these programs for some cheap and often highly qualified workers. Many of these “kids” are very tech savvy and can teach you a thing or two.

4. Hire the talent you’re missing. Salespeople rarely hesitate to invest in a gadget or service they think they need, but when I recommend that they hire an assistant, they immediately find all sorts of excuses. The fact is that hiring an assistant has never been easier. You can even hire a virtual assistant. A virtual assistant works as a freelancer, so you don’t have to deal with messy payroll issues and benefits. For additional information, check out the International Virtual Assistants Association Web site at www.ivaa.org.

5. Cash in on R-Commerce (Relationship-Commerce). As Terry Brock (www.terrybrock.com) explains, on its surface, the economy is driven by the exchange of goods and services, but beneath this surface economy is the real economy, driven by relationships. By focusing on your relationships with customers, colleagues, and even your competitors, you can grow your sales infinitely more than by focusing solely on the exchange of goods and services.

6. Team up with a personal partner. It’s far too easy to skip out on your responsibilities when you’re accountable only to yourself. As Terry Wisner explains, by teaming up with a personal partner to set goals and keep one another on track, you can achieve much higher levels of success than by acting alone.

7. Get connected with a mentor or coach. Success leaves big footprints, so follow those footprints by taking on a mentor or hiring a sales coach to advise you. A mentor or coach can often point out shortcuts you may have missed, expose you to new opportunities, and make sure you’re doing everything you need to do to stick to your plan.

8. Become a mentor. You may think that mentoring a student or a salesperson who’s less qualified, less experienced, or less successful than you would be a huge expenditure of time, and perhaps it is, but what you get in return usually makes up for it. A younger student can often teach you a thing or two about using the latest technologies or expose you to new marketing and sales techniques. In addition, if you establish a solid relationship, your student promises to become a major networking asset later in his or her career.

If you start to feel the urge to fly solo, think again. When you open the doors and start connecting with people, you soon discover infinite opportunities. Try it!

A while back, I realized that my last name, “Roberts,” spelled backwards is “Strebor,” and I designed a system for effectively implementing any plan for success.

When you’re ready to put your plan into action, follow the Strebor System:

S: Sticktoitism is the dogged determination required to ensure that you follow through on your plan.
T: Training provides you with the know-how and skills to properly execute your plan.
R: Results are what you build on as you attain higher and higher levels of success.
E: Enthusiasm provides you with the ambition and energy required to follow through.
B: Benefits give you the motivation to succeed.
O: Optimism is the confidence that enables you to overcome obstacles.
R: Reach is your commitment to taking risks and seizing opportunities that make you grow both professionally and personally.

The Strebor system starts with a positive attitude that gives you the enthusiasm, optimism, commitment, and sticktoitism required to pursue and ultimately achieve your goals. Although some people are born with eternal optimism, others of us have to work at it. Here are some suggestions on how to put yourself in a better frame of mind:

Identify your sales heroes. Success leaves big footprints, so follow the trailblazers to lessen the burden of your journey. Over the years, I have followed in the footsteps of my heroes, including Julia Rowland (my grandmother), Tony & Noel Fox of Fox Brothers Real Estate (my first mentors), Ira Hayes, Tom Hopkins, Zig Ziglar, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones, Art Fettig, Joe Girard, Ed Keim, Lee Iacocca, Norman Vincent Peale, Mark Victor Hansen, Og Mandino, Tom Antion, Les Brown, and a host of others.

Shadow top producers. Network with the top producers in your area and ask if you can observe them for a day. You can pick up a wealth of information and new techniques in a single day in addition to discovering a new source of motivation.

Write and repeat positive affirmations. Negative self-talk can drag you down into the depths of self-defeatism. Replace that negative self-talk with positive can-do affirmations. Mr. Positive, Dave Boufford, made his own leap to pursue his dream of guiding others in developing and maintaining a positive attitude through his inspirational e-zines Positive Thoughts and Positive News. Let Mr. Positive pump you up by visiting www.MrPositive.com.

Surround yourself with positive people. When I am around someone who has a negative attitude, I can feel the energy and enthusiasm being sucked right out of me. Positive people bring me up, make me believe in myself, and encourage me to strive for higher and higher levels of success. Avoid people who drag you down, and gravitate to those who lift you higher. This includes family, friends, colleagues, associates, and supervisors.

Wake up with a positive plan. The first 15 minutes of any day can make or break it for you, so spend that first 15 minutes developing a positive plan. Once you have a plan in place and the sticktoitism to execute it, you are well on your way to a productive day.

Define “success” in your own terms. Don’t let other people dictate what “success” means to you. Spending more time with friends and family, getting involved in your community, and pursuing other interests may mean more to you than earning millions of dollars. Of course, doing all of those things and earning millions of dollars are not mutually exclusive.

Reward yourself. I reward myself in two different ways: I reward myself upon achieving a specific goal, and I reward myself in anticipation of achieving a specific goal. Some people don’t understand that second approach–why should I get the reward before I achieve the goal? Well, once I reward myself, then I know I have to work harder to pay for the reward. I usually charge the reward on my credit card. That gives me the added motivation of earning enough to pay for the reward before the balance comes due.

Tip: If you are a part of a Real Estate agent team, make sure that everyone on your team is contributing to creating and maintaining a positive attitude in the workplace. Deal immediately with any conflicts that arise, shut down the gossip mill, and find a way to relieve tensions and create an environment in which people are eager to come to work the every morning.

I encourage you to put the Strebor system into action in all areas of your life. I have found it effective for achieving both personal and professional goals. Remember, however, that it all begins with a positive attitude.

My latest article for Realty Times is now available on RealtyTimes.com:

INVESTING IN PREFORECLOSURES
by Ralph Roberts

Some of the best bargains in the foreclosure market are actually in the preforeclosure market — weeks or even months prior to the time when the property ends up on the auction block. The earlier you can locate a distressed property or homeowners facing foreclosure, the less competition you have and the better your chances of ultimately acquiring the property at a great price.

Networking for leads

The earlier you can find out about a property in preforeclosure, the better. You may even be able to discover properties before the foreclosure notice is posted. Choose the area where you want to buy preforeclosures and then network heavily in that area. Create your own business cards and hand them out to everyone you meet, and then network with people who are likely to have early leads:

• Real estate agents
• Foreclosure attorneys
• Divorce attorneys
• Bankruptcy attorneys
• Title companies
• Loan officers

Reading the foreclosure notices

Call or visit your…

To read the rest of this article, see “Investing in Preforeclosures” on RealtyTimes.com.

Recently, I was discussing the mortgage meltdown with a reporter who made the mistake of asking me who or what I believed was primarily responsible for the mortgage meltdown and housing crash of 2007. My reply consisted of a single word: “fraud.” My conservative estimates target fraud as being responsible for at least 80% of the problem, and most of this fraud was perpetrated by industry insiders (both in the Real Estate and mortgage loan industries) on the consumers.