Covey Was A Sales Author

I wrote about this last month, and it’s been coming up more and more often in my conversations since then.

The best salespeople don’t just master selling; they master themselves. That’s the real difference.

Your professional acumen can only take you so far before you start to see diminishing returns on that skill development. 

Is becoming a 10% better negotiator going to help you? Sure. 

But not as much doing work on your core values, understanding your priorities, and managing your day such that you can create 10% more pipeline opportunities. 

See where I’m going with this?

During a conversation last week, I made this connection to Stephen Covey’s most important work, ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.’ 

It’s one of my favorite non-sales books to recommend to salespeople, and during this call, I verbally related each habit to something vital to sales success for this young seller.

To not make this a 4,000-word piece, I’ll just scratch the surface of the first three habits here. They’re primarily the ones, along with #7, that support my thesis.

If you’d like me to dig into the others here, let me know.

Life Skills > Sales Skills

Covey referred to the first three habits as The Private Victory, or the victory over self. They’re the cornerstone habits that lead to the habits you probably think of- morning and evening routines, good dietary and exercise habits, etc.

But we need to step back and take a wider point of view- what are the principles that dictate what those routines should look like?

Habit 1: Be Proactive

Focus on what you can control, and take responsibility for it. The more you focus on what you can control rather than what you can’t, the more you find yourself in control of. 

In sales, the most glaring example is with your opportunity pipeline, but let’s dig deeper. 

What about your training and self-development?

What about building routines? 

What about your general attitude and approach?

You can wait for good things to happen or do the things that make good things happen. 

There’s a lot of luck involved in success, and a fair amount of that luck is created by putting yourself in a position to recognize it. 

With everything we can, we want to “bend win probability in our favor,” as Jeb Blount likes to say. 

I sometimes do this to a fault. “The buck stops here” attitude means that few things slip through the cracks, but it’s tempting to hold yourself accountable for things that aren’t fair to you.

Without a healthy dose of self-compassion and a sense of realism, this can spiral out of control.

Habit 2: Begin With the End In Mind

“Before you climb the ladder of success, make sure it’s leaning up against the right wall.” 

What does “good” look like for you?

In a sales context, my mind immediately goes to quotas and the KPIs that will get you home. That’s a layup- it’s obvious, but let’s go deeper. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately.

When I’ve done my best work and been the most satisfied with that work, I had a clear idea of what “enough” was. 

When that concept is not defined, I tend to struggle.

There’s always more to be done. Knowing when you can shut it down for the day, the week, or the month is an incredibly valuable finish line to have. 

When it isn’t clear, you’ll always wonder if you’ve crossed it or not, especially if you’re slightly Type A like me.

This is one of my top priorities to establish for myself this year.

Habit 3: Put First Things First

Speaking of priorities, that’s exactly what this habit is about.

Covey said, “You have to keep the main thing the main thing.”

Sure, it's easy to say, but what happens in a live situation when everything feels essential and there isn’t enough time to do it all?

This is where most of us fall short, myself included.

We’re too distractable. Urgent feels like important. There’s so much noise and so few signals. How does one keep it all straight?

Well, when I find out, I’ll let you know, but what I’m working on now is refocusing myself twice a day on what’s important to me as part of my journaling process each morning and night.

Every morning, I pick three things I need to do that day, and I check my work every night.

I either got them done or I didn’t, and if I don’t like the way I feel about having completed them, then it means I probably picked the wrong priorities.

Oddly enough, focusing on fewer things has helped me accomplish more things daily.

Instead of being immediately overwhelmed by a long to-do list, picking those three things and knowing when they’ll be done creates the space to do other stuff if I want to or not.

There’s a lot of freedom in that, and as long as I know the results are still going to be enough, as above, life feels like it slows down a bit.

I’m not pretending to have this nailed. It’s not close.

It’s been a while since I listened to the book¹ , and as I write this, I know it’s time for a refresher.

But as things like this continue to come up in conversation, it’s my reminder that I can probably stand to think more about it, and writing each week really guides my thought process.

As a benefit, you get to tag along for the ride. 😉

AI Tip of the Week

Just like with sales and productivity, the key to getting great results with AI is knowing what you want first.

If you don’t start with the end in mind, you’ll waste time refining prompts, chasing different angles, and sifting through irrelevant outputs. But when you’re clear about what you need upfront, AI becomes an incredible force multiplier.

Lately, I’ve started using AI as a thought partner for prioritization. Before I dive into a big task or project, I ask:

👉 “If I could only focus on three things to get the best outcome here, what should they be?”

This helps me cut through the noise, just like my journaling habit does. And if my prompt is too vague, I take a step back and ask AI to refine it for me:

👉 “Rewrite this prompt to make it clearer and more actionable.”

It’s a small tweak, but it keeps me from getting lost in the weeds—whether I’m working on content, strategy, or just deciding how to structure my day.

Another quick thought turned into 1100 words. Classic.

Thanks for reading along this far, and I’ll see you again next week.

Cheers,
JB

1  I can’t recommend the audio enough. Covey sounds less as if he’s reading the text as it does him sitting down with his feet up on the desk talking to you. You can tell he lived these principles and had real ownership of them.

2  Oh yeah, I forgot this platform enabled footnotes!