NFIB

How to Handle a Hot Streak
05/ 03/ 2004


Volumes have been written about how to deal with downtimes, or how to overcome negativity. But I can't remember reading anything about how to handle a winning streak. In today's Workshop, Jeffrey Moses will discuss ways to maximize, lengthen and just plain enjoy a period when all sales seem to be closing, when every project is humming on all eight cylinders, or when every tennis serve is an ace.

It's odd, in ways, that most of us seem to think of hot streaks as something unusual, or even as aberrations. They come upon us, last for some time, and then seem to vanish, leaving us with no clue of what we were doing differently to create them. The very fact that winning streaks are seen as unusual means that most of us are conditioned to have considerable amounts of inner self doubt. But if we have even one winning streak, when everything goes right for a period of time, that means that in essence we have the ability to continue to make everything go right. Always remember: there would have been no hot streak to begin with if you hadn't been doing the fundamentals right. You wouldn't have closed those sales if you hadn't known exactly what to do. You wouldn't have played three great sets of tennis in a row if you hadn't had the ability to do so.

Therefore, inner self doubt needs to be replaced by self confidence. The key to prolonging a winning streak, and to having more of them, is to realize that you've earned them and deserve them. Don't think of them as aberrations. Think of them as ongoing reality. This is the true lesson that comes from experiencing a hot streak. Never feel like you're playing over your head, or that you'll never again experience such a period. Know inside yourself that if you've don it once, you can do it again, over and over.

One key to prolonging a streak is to not put pressure on yourself. Such pressure only serves to emphasize the temporary nature of a streak. Many successful individuals say that when they're on a streak, they just enjoy it and keep doing the things that brought on the streak. This is simple logic, but it works.

How best to bring on a hot streak? Fundamentals. Fundamentals. Fundamentals. If you're in sales, know everything there is to know about your products, become a master of the fundamentals of sales techniques, and always listen to your customers so that you can understand how to fulfill their needs or solve their problems. If you're in retail, maintain attention on your store environment and product mix, study sales techniques, and remember that everything you do needs to relate back to giving customers what they need. If you're a tennis player or golfer, steep yourself in the basics of your swing, practice, keep fit, and maintain a positive attitude. In ways, hot streaks are the same in every form of endeavor. If we become experts in what we're doing, winning periods have a way of latching onto us.

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