KEITH ROSEN: If you’re a salesperson, chances are you’re focused on your results. After all, you have your goals and your numbers to meet. So, what questions do we hear that relentlessly driven into our heads? “How many calls did you make this week?” “How many follow-up calls did you make?” “How many prospects did you meet with?” “How many sales did you close?” And these questions are continually driven in our heads, which forces us to continually focus on the results we need to achieve. However, what if I told you that being result-driven is actually creating the very problems that you are looking to avoid? Constantly focusing on the result keeps you pushing for that end result without focusing on the actual process that produces the result. And what do we tell ourselves? “Well, I can’t focus on building out my process, I don’t have time to work on my systems, after all, I have my numbers to meet.” This constant push to reach our numbers keeps us diverted away from the process that’s going to achieve the result. So here’s my suggestion to you: as opposed to continually being result-driven, become process-driven. There’s a paradox here: the result is the process. After all, you don’t do the result, you execute the process which produces the result as a natural byproduct of your efforts. There was a story of a salesperson that was being trained by an old veteran. And the old veteran was training this salesperson on how to make cold calls. After six unsuccessful cold calls, this sales veteran was still smiling and he was in a great mood. Now this new recruit was looking at this veteran and he was saying, “What are you so happy about? You just got hung up on six times in a row.” Well, this old veteran turns to the new recruit and he says, “You’re right, but I just made $120.” The new salesperson looks at the old recruit and he says, “I don’t get it, how do you figure?” And the old veteran turned to the salesperson and he said, “Well, last week I made 500 phone calls and made $10,000.” Folks, the result is the process. That salesperson knew that one bad call isn’t going to make a bad day, one bad selling day doesn’t make a bad week, one bad week doesn’t make a bad month. He knew with great certainty that if he just honored his process the result would come naturally. So, become process-driven. Know when enough is enough each day so that you can celebrate your accomplishments on a daily basis rather than waiting until the next sale, which becomes fleeting until the next one. Allow the activity that you engage in to be the reward and not just the end result. This way, you can celebrate your accomplishments on a daily basis. After all, what’s the goal of eating a bowl of chocolate ice cream? Is it to get to the end or is it to savor every delicious bite? What about going to the gym or working out? Unless you’re in it to compete professionally, it’s to maintain a certain lifestyle, a certain level of health and vitality. It’s not like you go the gym and say, “Okay, I’m done, I’m in great shape” and you stop going. It’s a process that you continually engage in which produces the result. So, focus on the process, folks. Build out your process so you can enjoy naturally knowing the end result will come.