Motivation is overrated. So are results. If you hold a counter-opinion, this might explain why you’re unlikely to meet your New Year resolutions—assuming, of course, you’ve set any. Waiting for motivation to strike or obsessing over results is a recipe for self-sabotage. You’re not just setting yourself up for failure; you’re guaranteeing it. But don’t despair. There are proven strategies to improve your odds of success. Globally tested and backed by millions of success stories, these strategies can transform how you approach your goals—whether personal or professional. Using Atomic Habits in selling is one such approach.
Read: Set selfish goals to succeed in selling
Let me introduce you to two practical interventions that have worked for millions of people across the board. Including salespeople, be they stock brokers, real estate agents, insurance agents, business owners, or corporate relationship managers.
Aisha’s Dilemma: A Common Challenge
For example, think of a salesperson, let’s call her Aisha, who laments: “I have a challenge with client outreach on Mondays. (Result). I often find it slower to initiate calls for new business at the start of the week, though I’m comfortable making follow-up calls with clients I’ve already engaged with. (Another result). Could this be a mindset issue? I would greatly appreciate any advice or insights you might have on how to approach this more effectively. (yet another result).” If this was you last year, or can relate to this, and so this year you have resolved to overcome it (another result), I have bad news for you – you won’t. Especially not for daunting cold calling. You are simply motivated to do so by the adrenalin rush excitement of the new year. Any new year.
And, yes, it is a mindset issue. More accurately, it is a habit issue. When you frame the problem as a mindset challenge, it becomes abstract and overwhelming—tied to fleeting feelings of motivation. But when you identify it as a habit you’re trying to build (or break), it becomes tangible and actionable. This shift in perspective is critical. And this is the first intervention I wish to introduce you too- the power of atomic habits. These can be found in the bestselling book, Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. And as the author posits, “habits are the ‘compound interest’ of self-improvement.” Let’s see what we can borrow.
Intervention 1: Deploying the power of Atomic Habits in selling
For now, invest in the hardcopy original book. Download it as a PDF for free. Watch videos on YouTube about it. Get the audio version online. Watch the author James Clear talking about it online or sign up to his newsletter. Follow him. You can even download the cheat sheet. If you haven’t noticed, I have shared all options to interact with the content. Active and passive; free and not; chunked up and chunked down.
Using Atomic Habits in selling will radically transform your selling. Once you interact with the content, you will see how tiny changes can give you remarkable results following these 4 principles: Cue (make it obvious); Craving (make it attractive); Response (make it easy); reward (make it satisfying). For instance, you may discover the problem isn’t cold calling but calling on Monday. Or, that the problem is not the day, but time of day you cold call or whatever other challenge you struggle with. In fact, you may even discover that it’s not any of those but where you do it from.
Using the 4 principles in the book, even the most daunting sales habits become manageable. And the results can be extraordinary. Scientifically quantified, if you improve by just 1% each day for a year, you will become 37 times better by year’s end. Not two or ten times. No. Thirty seven times. Better.
Picture Yourself 37 Times Better after using atomic habits in selling
That’s you at end of this year. A whopping thirty-seven times better at prospecting; 37 times better at interviewing; 37 times better at demonstrating. Thirty-seven times better at negotiating; 37 times at asking for referrals or thirty-seven times better at closing. Picture yourself 37 times better just because of implementing atomic habits in selling. Be warned though. The converse applies. If you get 1 percent worse each day for one year, you’ll decline nearly down to zero. So, if you are banking on motivation to meet your sales goals this year, as you did the last, good luck with that!
So, as I was saying, atomic habits are that transformative. Like this sales person that struggled with cold calling, and upon implementing atomic habits moved from a novice (rookie) sales person (stockbroker) to top sales person in his industry inside 18 months. How did he do it? By starting small: identifying the barriers to his outreach, simplifying his approach, and rewarding himself for any progress by simply moving paper clips from one jar to another. That seemingly innocuous act is deftly simple but remarkably effective. What it does is create a dopamine rush..
As the author suggests, you may choose to mark X on the calendar with every success. (By the way, ‘likes’ on social media are intended to reward you because it creates a dopamine rush – ‘motivation’- to want to post again and again. Now you know). Anyway, over time, these tiny adjustments by Trent, the 23 year old stockbroker, compounded into massive success.
Read: Why successful selling is not an end but a process
Using Atomic habits in selling-Intervention 2: The Power of Discipline
Motivation is fleeting, and results are the by-product of processes, not the goal itself. You can’t control a result; you can a process; Atomic Habits shows you how to create self-sustaining, structured, incremental improvements . If you want to succeed—whether it’s making those difficult cold calls, prospecting or building a new skill in your selling —don’t rely on motivation or focus solely on outcomes. Instead, focusing on the process, design a system of (atomic) habits that work for you. So, what small habit will you start today to move closer to achieving your sales goals this year?
And if you need motivation for that too, this brings me to my second intervention to help you surpass your sales goals this year. “You won’t always be motivated. You must learn to be disciplined.”
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