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BY Joel Junker

Integrity Selling Quotes – Part 2

On October 30th, I wrote a blog post on my favorite quotes from the first half of Integrity Selling for the 21st Century by Ron Willingham.  I finished reading the book yesterday (for the third time) and found more insightful quotes about motivation and overcoming obstacles, as well as selling, working and leading with integrity.   In my conversations with junior military officers (JMOs) considering or questioning a sales career, I hear many pre-conceived negative impressions about sales.  After reading Integrity Selling, most JMOs find the book valuable in improving their ability to lead change, “sell” ideas and concepts to bosses and peers AND  in shattering their previous impressions of a career.

Here are my favorite quotes from the last half of Integrity Selling, with some commentary.

“Salespeople with the healthiest and highest self-esteem don’t have overblown egos.  These highly successful salespeople view their job as creating value for customers.  This is a very healthy view of selling.  Serving.  Helping.  Focusing on solutions.  Salespeople who focus on making sales will never enjoy the long-term success, client respect, or self-esteem of those who focus on creating more and better value for customers.”  Some people are turned off by sales because they think that all sales people have huge egos and push products and services on people.  Certainly there are sales professionals out there who are like that.  Those that achieve true success have a healthy confidence and “help” and “serve” their clients.  They do not have overblown egos.

“People who give into their negative feelings often fail because they mis-interpret the truth about themselves.  The truth is that your negative feelings don’t determine who you are; your actions reveal who you are.  Few people escape having negative thoughts or feelings.  But people who transcend the control or grip of negative emotions have learned the difference.  When encountering negative circumstances or emotions, they say: ‘You will not determine my success.  I will determine it!'”  Roger Cameron calls this “self-talk”.  We talk to ourselves a lot, consciously and subconsciously, and we cannot avoid negative talk.  Those who refuse to give into the false negative talk and make a decision to change their thoughts, overcome their fears, challenges and obstacles.

“Emotional intelligence grows within us as we do things that we fear or dislike.  People who give in to their emotions and take the easy, undisciplined course in life’s events have low emotional control…Go where you’re afraid to go, do what you’re afraid to do, and ask when you’re afraid to ask.”  We fail to challenge and push ourselves when we give into negative self-talk.

“Every salesperson experiences disappointments and difficult times.  Success is usually determined by a commitment to working through these tough times.”  True for any career.

“When you view selling as creating value for people, and believe that you’ll be rewarded to the degree that you help people, you’ll also believe that you should be highly rewarded.”  I call this karma.

“People are more apt to listen and understand your point of view when you listen to and understand theirs.”  So easy to understand, yet we all mess  up this concept so often.

“Asking questions and listening to opinions is a powerful method to persuasion.”  This just supports the quote above.  Again, this is about sales but true in relationships, leading change and more.

“Prosperity consciousness is a state of mind that expects good things to happen in the future.  It’s filled with faith, hope, joy, optimism, forgiveness, and gratitude.”   You become what you think about all day long.  Do you think scarcity?  Or do you think about cornucopia?  Scarcity means limited, not enough for everyone.  Cornucopia means plenty, but there are opportunities and rewards for you as well.

“What you feed your mind you’ll become…”  “Your actions, responses, and behaviors spring forth from this, influencing your long-term sales success more than your knowledge, sales skills, products or services, or market conditions.”  Take out the word sales in this quote and it is true for any endeavor.  What are you feeding your mind?  What are you reading?  Who are your friends and acquaintances?  Are they building you up, or are they cynics and bringing you down?  Do you surround yourself with positive images?  Do you take care of yourself physically?  You can control so much of who you are by how you feed your mind and take care of your body.

“After all, people aren’t always logical.”  No comment.

Last quote – one of the most important  and therefore the last sentence of the book – “Success will come to you as you practice, practice, practice.”

Joel Junker