Small is a failing formula. This is no longer a world of being reasonable. Steve Jobs was obsessed with market cap, much to the dismay of his employees. But during Steve's time at Apple he managed to push the company to #1 in market cap in the world. Steve Jobs was obsessed with dominating the marketplace and knew if you aren't first, you're last.

If you are reasonable you will go out of business. You must go big. 66% of businesses lose money. You need big think, big spend, big volumes, and big margin. Anything average starts to contract and eventually will cease to exist, so you must go wide and deep. Small business is soon to be out of business.

The truth is it takes the same energy to go big as it does to go small, but only one pays off. You need to get obsessed—you need to get big. Anything worth doing is worth doing every day. If you don’t have always you end up with never. If you don’t deal with the decision maker, you will not close the sale. If you don’t deal with all the influencers, you will not close the sale. If you don’t solve a problem, you will not close the sale. If you don’t follow up, you will not close the sale. Get obsessed with always doing certain things.

Your Always:

1. Be Obsessed to Present your Offer: Over 63% of all sales presentations end without a sales person even presenting a proposal of the figures involved with acquiring that product or service. I have worked in every industry imaginable – insurance, real estate, financial services, automotive, solar, HVAC, technology, farm equipment and supply, cosmetic lasers, manufacturing, network marketing and many, many, more. I have never come across an industry where this did not hold true. Each customer that purchased from you last week, last month, or last year all had to see a proposal of figures and/or terms before they could purchase. Without a proposal of figures, there can be NO CLOSE.

2. Be Obsessed to Solve Problems: Successful individuals seek out problems because they know that problems are universal in some way or another. Give me a problem and when I solve it, I will be rewarded and I might even become a hero. The bigger the problem— and the more people who will benefit from the solution — the bigger your success will be. You get yourself on the successful list by seeking problems to solve and solving them. Start solving problems for your company, employees, customers — whatever they may be and wherever you see them exist. Problems for the successful are like a meal to the hungry.

3. Be Obsessed to Deal with the Decision Maker: You have to get creative to get in front of the big decision makers, which is difficult when there are lots of gatekeepers standing between you. The hard-to-get-to client has been a problem for each of us at one time or another. But while these clients require a lot more creativity and persistence to get to, you will generally have less competition—and close the sale more quickly—when you finally get in front of them. Once you earn their business, they make great and loyal customers. Decision makers are valuable and worth the time, energy and investment to find. The only way to fail with this prospect is to quit, so commit to the client, be creative and persist with getting to the decision maker.

4. Be Obsessed to Ask Hard Questions: Salespeople miss opportunities due to not asking the hard questions. I was on a sales call and sensed that the decision maker wasn’t buying the presentation. I interrupted with, “You don’t believe a word I’m saying, do you?” The client started laughing and confirmed that was exactly what he was thinking. You have to ask these types of questions: “How do you feel about the price?” “How do you feel about the terms?” “Why would you do business with me, when you have dealt with our competitor for 5 years?” If you don’t get the answers to the hard questions, you will find yourself not closing deals and not knowing why. Get obsessed with asking the questions you don’t want to ask.

5. Be Obsessed to Follow Up: 48% of all salespeople never follow up and 64% of companies admit they don’t have any organized way to nurture a lead. This is a game changer. You can dominate your market if you follow up better than your competition. Keep in mind the average company takes about 72-hours to follow-up a lead. Contacting a customer in the first 5 to 10 minutes increases your chances of closing the customer 900 times. Get obsessed with following up!

You must get obsessed in this world of average. If you want money—and lots of it, get great. Get on my Playbook today.

Be great,
GC

Article orginally published on Linkedin Pulse. 

Grant Cardone, CEO of Cardone Acquisitions operates almost 4000 units in Florida, Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina. He is an American entrepreneur, New York Times best-selling author, speaker, motivator and online sales training expert. Cardone is a respected, highly regarded master salesperson whose passion is to teach people how to sell themselves, their products and services regardless of economic climate. His books, audio packages and seminars provide people of all professional backgrounds with the practical tools necessary to build their own economies towards the path to true freedom.

“Success is your duty, obligation, responsibility."