That day, Gray made the point that if you do not form good habits, you will unconsciously form bad habits. For his audience, life insurance agents, the four success habits he talked about were prospecting habits, calling habits, selling habits and work habits.
He said of prospecting that it’s easier to sell life insurance to someone who doesn’t want it than it is to find someone who actually does want it. We can’t just prospect for wants. We also must prospect for needs. If you prospect only people who want your services, you’ve narrowed your prospecting field. You will not prospect people who actually need your services.
He said of calling habits that it’s essential to get in the habit of calling on people who are able to buy but are unwilling to listen. Failure to do so means to get in the habit of calling on people who are willing to listen but are unable to buy.
In terms of the habits of selling, said Gray, you must be determined to make people see the benefits of doing business with you. Otherwise you will be willing to let people make you see their reasons for not doing business with you.
And as for work habits, if we develop the first three habits, the work habits will take care of themselves. Why bother to develop the skills needed for success if you’re not going to use them? Why plan your month when you know down deep you’re not going to carry out your plans?
The moral of Mr. Gray’s message was that goals and plans are promises to yourself. They don’t matter unless you are in the habit of keeping promises. If you make and keep promises to yourself day after day long enough, you will have created the habit of achieving your goals.
Determine your purpose for wanting to succeed and commit to that purpose. And remember, your commitment will not be met until you have formed the habit of doing the things that failures don't like to do.
Don Connelly is co-founder of Don Connelly & Associates.