Raising the "financial thermostat"

We all have a thermostat as far as how much money we think we deserve. In the salaried world, a guy loses his job making 50K a year, and in all likelihood he'll apply for another job making right around 50K. He usually thinks that anything making 30K is beneath him, and anything 75K is too out of his league. We see an even more obvious example in sales--especially commission only sales. I've seen people have monster sales weeks, then totally "blank" the next week, and complain about how they can't get motivated. Why not just keep working? Why not build on the momentum? It all has to do with how high their financial thermostat is set.

The human brain is very powerful. I've found that if I am making below what I truly believe I should be making, I'll have an abundance of creativity, a showering of ideas on how to get to where I need to be. I also feel this massive drive to work harder, to make more calls, and to get the deals done. This is a tremendous edge that can be harnessed and used throughout your career, and I (and others) refer to it as "raising your financial thermostat.

Basically, the idea is pretty simple: You raise the thermostat in a room, the heater kicks on and raises it up to the selected temperature. You raise it again, the heater kicks on again. Since the income ceiling in sales is quite high, it is best to continually raise your financial thermostat until you are as high as is humanly possible on your pay plan--then raise it some more.

Since this belief has to come from within, this requires some internal reprogramming. I have found that by writing daily the phrase "I earn ____ per week", and have that amount be an amount just out of reach from what I am currently achieving is the best way to override my financial thermostat and raise it to where it needs to be.

I've watched a guy on my sales floor implement this, start making great money, then stop doing this, and tank. He recently started utilizing this technique again, and as "luck" would have it, has been having back to back outstanding weeks of sales volume.

Assignment: Look at your income average whether by week or every 2 weeks. Add 25% to that amount and write the phrase, "I earn ____ per week" with the new amount. Write it or read it as often as you can. Visualize what you would do with the extra 25%--i.e., have a place for it, whether paying off debt or investing. Make a home for it as if it were already there. You'll be amazed at how quickly your real income follows what your thermostat income is.

Look only to the top performers

One of my core life philosophies, is that if there are a lot of people who are successful at something, I can be too. If only one person is succeeding, he might be a freak of nature. But if a lot of people are able to do it, in fact if the top 10% of people are able to do it, then I firmly believe I can too. When I first looked into joining the very first sales floor I worked at, I looked at the sales board. I looked for the top numbers and did the math in my mind as to how much they were making. They were making more money in a week than I had made in a month!

Right after I went through training, I focused on the top performers, and what they were doing. I looked at how many calls per day they were doing, and at what times during the day. I even interviewed many of them, and asked them all kinds of questions. Things like how did they like their jobs, how did they think about their leads. I went to them for continual mentoring and training until I was a top performer too--and even continued to learn from them well after my numbers surpassed them.

I look back on that time, and I don't even remember there being any small numbers on that sales board. I'm sure there were, but I didn't notice them. The thought never entered my mind of "well, worse case scenario, I could at least do as well as THAT guy", because I'm sure "that guy" was probably not making anything. I've never seen the point of focusing on or going after the bottom performers, and you shouldn't either.

When you look at your sales boards and quarterly or 6-week averages, don't look at the bottom feeders' numbers thinking "well, at least I'm better than him." Look only at the top performers, and resolve to be a part of where they are. Make sure that every second of every day, every ounce of energy you can muster is put into being a top performer. Learn from them. Interview them. Take them to lunch. Spend time with them and their success will spread to you. When you are frustrated, discouraged, or just feel like you're in a slump--stay away from the bottom feeders. Do you honestly think they can help you?? They will only make it worse! Go to the top performers and their success and good attitude will do far more to help you.