You’re Addicted To Selling

In the Clear Values Scorecard, I asked where you are on the continuum between, “I lack focus,” and, “I follow a written 5-year vision and business plan.”  You know what?  The answer is really yes or no; either you’re a 10 or a 1.  There is no maybe in the middle. 

At the Advisors Forum Conference in Toronto in December 2004, an industry expert speaker said that most advisors aren’t interested in building their business.  They’re addicted to selling.  That probably explains why 33% of advisors don’t have a written vision or business plan.

What’s going on?

One explanation is, your negative ego mind says, “Is that all there is?”  You’re chasing after sales and money because you think they will bring you fulfillment.  But, they don’t, so the chase continues.

Another reason is, you’re trying to meet your Unmet Need for safety from outside instead of inside.

And, through all of this, you’ve become addicted to the adrenalin of the sale, which to some people is as potent as any drug.

We come back, now, to the definition of motivation: the sense of need, desire and fear.  Inspiration fulfills you from the inside out but motivation tries to fulfill you from the outside in.  Since it is virtually impossible to be fulfilled from the outside in, you feel empty, even though you appear to have reached a goal.

You hear it all the time, “I’ll be happy when I have more time/money/clients/holidays/cars/sex, etc.”  Meanwhile, as you accumulate more and more, your negative ego mind replies with, “Is that all there is?”

Have you ever woken up, gradually becoming more alert and thinking casually about the day ahead, and then bang, it hits you.  “Holy shit!  I quit the perfectly good job that my mother told me to keep and became a financial advisor, an entrepreneur, and started my own business!”

Having no guaranteed paycheck fuels your Unmet Need for safety.  So, without really knowing it, you look to your clients and your sales to fulfill your Unmet Need and to take care of you.  Instead of going out and adding 100% value to your clients, you’re looking for them to save you.

You run after any prospect that could fog a mirror and as you approach each one, you think, “Please buy my product, I really need this sale!”  This continuing pattern of emotional highs and lows perpetuates the vicious cycle of your adrenalin addiction.

This article was originally published in Curing The Unmet Needs Disease © Simon Reilly 2008