If you want to be the best you can be as a professional sales person you can read dozens of books, listen to megabytes of audio files, and watch hundreds of videos on the subject. If studying these tactics was all that you needed to be the best salesperson possible I’m sure you would have mastered them by now. Tactics are a required part of selling but they aren’t at the very core of what it takes to be a professional salesperson.
At the age of 22 I got my first sales job. I was engaged to be married, living in a city away from my friends and family, and it was the first time I was truly responsible for myself and my future bride. As this was my first sales job I didn’t have it all worked out when I started; I didn’t know what was going to bring me to the top and keep me there. As it turns out I found the answer by accident.
Just a few days after moving into my new place I was overcome by doubt and for a few brief moments I couldn’t see the road ahead of me clearly. I wanted to pack it all up and go back home, take over the family business and play it safe. I knew the family business was there for me if I wanted it and the safety of it all seemed mighty good at that time – then it hit me. I knew that running my father’s business wasn’t for me and I realized I was looking at this new situation all wrong.
It was at that moment that I decided that no matter what, I was going to make it. I started looking to my future instead of my past. I began thinking about what I could do to position this new job, the move, and my future responsibilities in my favor.
I didn’t know it at the time but it was in that moment that I realized my road to success. I went on to become the top salesperson in our company every year that I was on the sales team. I won all of the prizes, the trips, and the special acknowledgments. Within 2 years I was promoted to Area Sales Manager and I wasn’t really sure why as things were moving so fast.
Oh sure there was the hard work, planning, and never ending contact with my customers but underneath all of that was the one thing that allowed me to be successful and it was completely in my control. Zig Ziglar’s famous statement says it all “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.” Everything turned around for me once I changed my attitude.
Every sale that I made happened because I went into the meetings with the right attitude and I was able to do so because I could control how I felt the minute that the meeting started. William James said, “The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.”
What’s key in Bill’s statement is that we can alter our attitude. I can do it, you can do it, and it is the basis of all of our success.
Entering a sales call with a negative attitude gives your prospect the idea that you are a negative person in general, and that doing business with you will lead to negative results. Presenting yourself with a genuine, positive attitude shows your prospect that no matter what’s happening in the world you are able to be positive. It’s a sign that you can handle whatever life has to throw at you – it tells your prospect that you are reliable, a winner and he is confident in your ability to help him be a success.
Once you have practiced positive reinforcement before a sales call it becomes second nature. I know a colleague who was having a bad day at home, arguing with his spouse, and their argument was cut short because he had a sales appointment with a major customer.
He almost canceled the appointment, but rationalized that he had put a lot of time and energy in setting the call up, so he would go through with it. He was so used to meeting prospects with a positive attitude that he immediately changed his attitude from negative to positive. What could have been a negative experience turned out to be a sale worth 10% of his yearly commission, all because he changed his attitude.
How do you manage your attitude? Here are 8 methods that successful salespeople have shared with me over the years:
1. Monitor and manage your self-talk. If your thoughts start getting negative make a conscious effort to turn them around.
2. If you’re feeling negative and discouraged, you are probably spending a lot of time thinking about yourself. A professional salesperson thinks about the client. Get out and help some clients. You will be amazed at the positive results that come from helping others.
3. Read inspirational works in order to train your mind to recognize the positives that surround you.
4. Listen to books or speakers on CDs that inspire, teach or prompt you to reflect.
5. Hang out with winners, not whiners.
6. In every situation – good or bad – train yourself to look for the positive that can come from this. Learn from a mistake, see a new opportunity, meet new people, identify a new idea.
7. Give yourself a break. Take time to recuperate, recharge, re-energize and clear your head.
8. Recall your successes. Your biggest sale. Your favourite clients. Your greatest achievements.
Your attitude has been created by you over all the years of your life. It is your never-ending masterpiece, and you can do with it what you like. It is the centerfold of success in your life and needs to be appreciated as such.