Last Saturday, in blizzard-like conditions, we left Boston for a much needed family vacation. We arrived in the Bahamas three hours later to find sunny, tropical, 90 degree temperatures. Blizzard to Tropical in three hours got me to thinking, as usual, about selling which, for a lot of salespeople, has become more difficult in the past 90 days.

E=AP Effectiveness=Awareness x Persistence

Your awareness is how well you know your sales abilities; your skills and limitations as well as your weaknesses, the issues that prevent you from being as effective as you could be. The better you know those weaknesses and limitations, when they’ll get in your way, how they’ll get in your way, and how to push through them, the greater your awareness.

Would you be surprised to learn that, after 35 years, I experience fear prior to sales calls, presentations, training and speaking engagements? Yeah, I’d be surprised to read that too – except I really do. It’s not debilitating, it doesn’t cause stress or anxiety, it doesn’t prevent me from doing what I need to do and I don’t attempt to overcome it. Why? Because after 35 years, it’s the fear that makes me excel. It’s the fear that makes my speaking engagements so memorable. It’s the fear that makes my training programs so effective. It’s the fear that helps me succeed on my sales calls.

We’re about to enter the final quarter of the year. This is the time when salespeople evaluate their year, determine if they’re on target to goal, and what they need to do in the fourth quarter to be where they need to be. This has been a tough year for a great percentage of salespeople. Whether you were directly or indirectly affected by the financial crisis, you’re probably looking at making up some ground in the fourth quarter despite a very unstable economic outlook. There are many things that you could do to impact your fourth quarter, and a lot of them are bad things. I’ll point out twenty things that you should do: