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🦾 The "Personal Business" Secret I Hid From My Manager

🦾 The "Personal Business" Secret I Hid From My Manager

How I Went From 104% to 178% After They Cut My Bonus

Hey Insider,

July 14, 2011. I still remember the day vividly.

I was sitting across from my sales director, listening to him explain why—despite hitting 104% of quota—my bonus was being cut. "Company restructuring," he called it.

That night, I made a decision that changed everything:

I would never again leave my success in someone else's hands.

The next 90 days, I built my own personal sales system. No waiting for corporate training. No relying on manager coaching. Just me, taking control.

By Q4, I wasn't at 104%—I was at 178%.

💥 REALITY CHECK

Let's get real: Most sales reps are waiting for someone else to make them successful:

Waiting for better leads from marketing
Waiting for training from their manager
Waiting for better products from development
Waiting for better territory assignments

Meanwhile, top performers are building their own success infrastructure:

91% of consistent top performers create personal systems
Elite reps are 6x more likely to develop their own success framework
Top 10% of earners invest 2x more in their own development

(Source: RevHeat Performance Analysis, 2025)

Ken Lundin - LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, The Get Sales Fit Facebook Group

🎯 THE THREE PILLARS OF INDIVIDUAL SALES SUCCESS

Most reps focus only on sales skills, completely neglecting the other two critical pillars:

Pillar 1: Personal Infrastructure

Your personal sales process
Your time management system
Your qualification framework
Your follow-up cadence

Pillar 2: Skills Mastery

Deliberate practice regimen
Performance measurement tools
Specific competency progression
Feedback collection system

Pillar 3: Mental Performance

Disciplined preparation routines
Resilience development
Motivation maintenance
Focus enhancement

❝

Hard truth: If you're only working on skills, you're ignoring 2/3 of what actually drives success.

⚡ MOMENT OF TRUTH

Think you're taking full ownership? Answer honestly:

Have you documented your personal sales process?
Do you have a system for qualifying opportunities outside your company's CRM?
Have you built your own follow-up cadence?
Are you tracking your performance metrics beyond what your manager sees?

🏆 THE PERSONAL SALES INFRASTRUCTURE MODEL

Here's exactly how I built my personal infrastructure after that pivotal moment in 2011:

Personal Sales Process
- Documented my highest-conversion path to close
- Created my own stage definitions
- Built verification questions for each stage
- Developed stage-specific value statements
Personal Time Management System
- Segmented my day into specific performance blocks
- Created buffer zones around high-value activities
- Built decision rules for opportunity prioritization
- Developed a personal energy management protocol
Personal Qualification Framework
- Created my own qualification scorecard
- Developed disqualification triggers
- Built opportunity tiering system
- Designed time-investment guidelines

💪 MY PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION

After implementing my personal infrastructure:

Before:

Close rate: 22%
Average deal size: $27K
Sales cycle: 74 days
Weekly meetings: 9

After (90 Days):

Close rate: 37%
Average deal size: $41K
Sales cycle: 52 days
Weekly meetings: 12
Quota: 178%

The difference? I stopped waiting for the company to build my success path.

🎤 SUCCESS STORY

Jordan was a mid-level performer consistently hitting 90-110% of quota for years. He implemented the Personal Sales Infrastructure model after our first coaching session.

In 60 days:

Opportunities qualified: +41%
Pipeline accuracy: 94% (vs. 67%)
Close rate: +12 percentage points
Commission: +63%

His manager asked what changed. His answer: "I started acting like a business owner, not an employee."

💪 THIS WEEK'S SALES FIT CHALLENGE

Audit Your Personal Infrastructure
- Document your current personal sales process
- Map your actual time usage (not what's on your calendar)
- Write down your real qualification criteria (not the company's)
Identify Your Infrastructure Gaps
- Where are you relying on company systems?
- Which decisions are you delegating that you should own?
- What success factors are you leaving to chance?
Build One Personal System
- Choose one infrastructure element
- Document your personal approach
- Implement it for the next 7 days
- Track the results

BONUS: First 15 people to share their personal infrastructure audit in our Slack channel get my Personal Sales Process Template ($297 value).

⚡ QUICK HITS

Start documenting your most successful deals today
Block your calendar for your personal success activities
Create your own opportunity scoring system
Stop waiting for permission to develop your own path

Remember: Your company's systems are designed for average performance across the team. Your personal systems should be designed for exceptional performance from YOU.

💪 Hit reply: What's one system you've built for yourself that's made the biggest impact? Let's build a resource library together.

🔥 Know a rep who's waiting for someone else to make them successful? Forward this before their next "restructuring" conversation.

v🎯 THE THREE PILLARS OF INDIVIDUAL SALES SUCCESS