My first real job (I was a lazy teenager) post university was with IBM - in sales.

I had NO sales experience, was and still am (inside, although I’ve used various techniques to beat it) a shy, quiet, thoughful person - not a brash extrovert with a big enough ego to offend Simon Cowell.

Thrown into a ‘pit’ of highly trained ’sales tigers’ I was completely out of my depth.

My first few weeks comprised of me spending about 50% of my time on the loo, 20% pretending to do stuff and 30% having completely pointless calls with people who had no idea what I’d called for (side-note: even back then I should have realised I was ‘unemployable’…).

Not a good place to be.

And I knew I was under the stopwatch to pick up my act and get things sorted - or, I’d be out of a job, had lost a great opportunity and my Dad would be more than a little displeased (having spent his working life battling to give us opportunities he’d never had).

But I simply didn’t know what to do.

Then, one afternoon I was sat in the loo (at work), reading a newspaper and an idea popped into my head  (and quite frankly I have no idea why I hadn’t thought of it before; but when you’re as out of your depth as I was, you kinda don’t know your ‘ass’ from your ‘elbow’). 

The idea was - why don’t I teach myself to sell!

SHHAAAABBBLAMMMM!

I know, I know…

Not rocket science.

But as a young man full of deluded bravado, and a mountain of misguided pretend confidence I thought ‘I knew it all’.

So… I headed off to the book shop…

And picked up a book by Tom Hopkins and a book by Zig Ziglar.

I devoured them cover to over that night.

Brilliant!

And drafted a sales system I could use to start creating real interest in what I was selling.

First stage of that was to call people and get their interest.

So… I wrote a script to do just that.

And it went something like this (and by all means copy it and adapt it - it works like gangbusters).

“Hi, this is Henry Baker, I’m calling from my office in Portsmouth.”

“I see like myself, you are interested in using computer technology to increase your companies profits and reduce your costs.”

“Let me ask you a question… If I can honestly show you a way to double the value of each of customers by knowing who are your best clients, how much they spend, on what, how often and how much it cost you to get them - would that be worth 45 minutes of your time?” 

At the time, I was calling small to medium business owners who I knew had little in the way of computing power…

And the script worked a charm (there’s more to it than that bit).

I went from the worst appointment maker in the whole place to the best in about 14 days!

And within a year I was winning competitions left right and centre, training other people and had generated over over £7mill in revenue. 

And those early results set me on a path I have never strayed from. A path of constant exposure, constant learning from people inside my industry and OUTSIDE my industry.

But enough about me.

This is the single most profitable thing you can do.

And I mentioned the ‘word’ above.

And the word is: IDEAS

IDEAS are the fruits of your thinking. But they’ve got to be harnessed and put to work to have value.

Each year an oak tree produces enough acorns to populate a good sized forest. Yet from these seeds perhaps one or two acorns will become a tree. The squirrels destroy most of them and the hard ground beneath the tree doesn’t give the others much chance.

And so it is with ideas. Very few bear fruit. Ideas are highly perishable. If you’re not on-guard from the squirrels (negative thinking people and your own negative thoughts) will destroy them. Ideas require special handling from the time they are born until they are transformed into practical ways for doing things.

Use these 3 ideas to harness and develop ideas:

1. CAPTURE THEM. Earl Nightingale said “Ideas are like slippery fish. If you don’t ’spear’ them with a pencil they will escape.” Ideas will come to you at all sorts of times. They’ll just ‘pop’ into your head when driving, having a shower, a beer or wherever. BUT, they don’t last long. If you don’t record them your mind WILL forget them. Keep a notebook with you at all times and WRITE them down. If you don’t, the fruits of your thinking will disappear…

2. Next, review your ideas. Store them where you can find them. If you only create ONE idea a day, within a year you will have more ideas than mot people record in a lifetime… Review your ideas… You NEVER know when just ONE will change your life.

3. Fertilise your ideas. Now make your ideas grow. Think about them, attach them to other ideas. Read everything you can about your ideas. Discuss your ideas with other. And when the time is right, put them to work in your business and your life.

And be sure of this.

Ideas arise when you are exposed to new thinking, new people, things outside your comfort zone. People NOT in your industry, people who have SOLVED your problems before. 

Attaching yourself to other people will similar goals and dreams as you acts as the fire to create the SPARKS of new ideas you can use to benefit your clients, yourself, your family and friends.

You need to rub shoulders with other success hungry people. Associate with people outside your core interests - doing so will illuminate the BIG picture.

And there is a place for you here.

Within my VIP Inner Circle.

A place where success hungry, goal orientated, forward thinking people come together to learn, share and create IDEAS that could change their lives and the lives of others.

If you havn’t yet accepted your FREE gifts and FREE trial to my Inner Circle then maybe, just maybe you are missing the one component which will ignite your IDEAS and your future

Don’t take that risk - Accept Your FREE Trial and FREE Gifts by Clicking Here

Dedicated to your success,

Henry.

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