As I consult various media and their clients across North America, I have had the privilege over the past several years to meet and interview some of the most successful locally-operated businesses on the continent.
          And in my quest to find their common denominator for success I’ve discovered it’s fairly obvious but also rare.
            Some of you may remember the Old England Dan and John Ford Coley song “Love Is The Answer”……it really is!
            In my quest to find that mysterious difference between successful people and their less successful counterparts, the only common denominator I could identify was love……love in five key areas.
1.       Love your customers. Today, selling is simply serving. I’ve discovered that it is difficult to muster the dedication and enthusiasm it takes to passionately serve others unless you genuinely care about others. If you have an account that you just can’t learn to love, trade them with one of your peers for another account. I can guarantee you if you don’t like a particular customer, they sense it and you are leaving money on the table.
2.       Love yourself. It’s been said that selling is a, “transference of confidence”. If you do not care enough about yourself to hone your physical and mental well-being, you will not exude the confidence necessary to instill customer confidence in you. This is not to be confused with having a huge ego, it simply means you need to care about yourself before others can believe you care about them.
3.       Love what you’re selling. If you do not love what you are selling, please do yourself, your company, your customers and your family a favor and seek another career. You won’t be happy and neither will those around you.
4.       Love the company and the people you are working with. If you don’t, you will find fault in them and use their faults as an excuse for your failure.  And if the people you are working with are employees, the way you treat THEM will reflect directly upon the way they treat your customers.  
5.       Love home and family. Virtually every successful person I have interviewed talks about the need for “balance” in your life.  Without “balance”, there is a real danger of becoming a workaholic if the other four “loves” I’ve identified are in place. Plan at least one activity a day, even if it’s a phone call home when you’re on the road, to keep your home life happy and healthy.