By Harry J. Friedman Founder/CEO, The Friedman Group

There are some very successful salespeople out there, retail salespeople. These people make a lot of money and enjoy their lives very much. I have to let you know that these salespeople all have one very important thing in common: they believe they are responsible for their own success.

If you read my articles on retail salesmanship, and have benefited from all of the experience I've amassed over the years, you know I've been doing my part to help you become more successful. Have you been doing your part? Sure, you've been showing up at work on time and you've been making sure that every customer gets approached and you've studied to make sure you're an expert on product knowledge. There are a variety of different ways for you to do your part. It's what you may not have done that still concerns me.

As I meet with different retailers across North America, I am constantly holding them responsible for the success or failure of their sales staffs. When they voice complaints about certain salespeople, I ask, "What have you done to help them get better?" The response all too often is, "Not enough". The owners realize when they are at fault, and they also accept the responsibility to do better with regard to training, coaching, and developing the salesperson on the floor.

But, the fault must be shared. If you're not the most successful person on the floor in your store, I must ask you, "Why not?" After all, you really are ultimately responsible for your own success.

Joe Girard, a very well-known salesman who appears in the Guinness Book of World Records for record-breaking sales, once said that he didn't care who he worked for, he would still succeed. He took responsibility for himself and didn't rely on the company to provide any help to him. He did everything possible to guarantee his own success. Why should you be any different than Joe Girard?

Certainly you have to have enough skill and knowledge to be successful, but I've met plenty of bright salespeople who didn't sell much and/or didn't sell well. Selling is a skill that requires finesse to perfect. You can't just read a book, watch a video or watch someone else sell and then do it yourself. Nearly every selling scene is different, with different actors and different lines. You are forced to improvise. And, unless you've been constantly developing your craft, you'll never be a star.

Skill and knowledge aren't enough. You have to have the determination to put them to use and continue learning through your own experience and the experience of others. How many books on the subject of selling have you read in the last year? If you can't name at least six, I'm disappointed. How many books on the subject of people, psychology or communication have you read in the last year? Not enough again? If there are books out there that contain information that would be helpful to you in your selling career, why on earth wouldn't you want to get your hands on as many of them as possible?

Do you know what your conversion rate is? Your conversion rate is your own personal batting average: how many customers did you talk with and how many did you sell? Conversion rate is one of the most important, if not the most important, statistic in selling. Do you have to wait for the manager in your store to require tracking this statistic, or can you do it on your own? Of course, you can do it on your own, but how many salespeople do or will? And then there's your average sale, items per sale, sales per hour, gross sales, percentage increases over last year, and more. Every statistic can be another aid in facilitating your growth. You can't possibly know if you're getting better if you don't have some way of measuring your success.

I did some selling seminars for about 200 salespeople once. This particular company had never been very statistic or performance oriented, so when I asked the group to tell me how well they sold, the unanimous decision was that they were above average compared to other salespeople in their industry. I asked them to prove it, and only one person in the group could do it. This gentleman had worked for the company for 18 years and had a personal book with him that had his performance statistics for every day he had worked, including graphs to easily determine if he was getting better. He also had a separate book with extensive notes and entries of past customers. When the traffic in the store was slow, this man had personal trade customers coming in steadily. He never complained about how slow it was; he generated his own traffic. He was known on occasion to hide a small tape recorder in his pocket and listen to his presentations after the customer left. This gave him an opportunity to review and learn from the sale, without losing his concentration during the sale. No one told him to do this, and yet he did.

Not surprisingly, he happened to be the top salesperson in the company. Not because of his 18 years of experience, but because of his 18 years of determination and personal desire to be the best.

It's time to get on with it. Quit talking about it, quit thinking about it and quit waiting for someone else to help you. Just do it. There will be coworkers who will attempt to persuade you to lighten up, but only out of envy for your persistence. Don't join their club. Don't let others be your excuse for giving less than 100% all of the time. You're not competing against them, you're competing with yourself. You've probably heard me say this: You're the result of all of your yesterdays. What does this statement mean? No one stays the same. You are either getting better or getting worse.

If you don't make the most of your yesterdays by learning from each encounter with each customer, reading everything helpful to your job that you can get your hands on and tracking your progress, you're not growing. Don't cheat yourself out of life's eventual rewards by putting forth only a minimal effort at work. No matter what your personal goals are, your character and experience is built and strengthened everyday, but only if you realize that you are in charge of your own life. Good luck.