Episode #263: Sales Attitude, Image and Credibility

We know that our attitude determines everything. Henry Ford is often quoted for saying, “if you think you can or your think you can’t, your right”. In the 1920s, psychologists understood that we can change our futures by changing how we think. Up until that time, everyone talked about God’s will or fate and as individuals we had no options. Today we understand the power of our mind to drive our behaviour in ways which will help us to realise the goals we have set for ourselves or which have been set for us by our boss.

We all have sales targets to achieve, so our sales attitude is key. We have to find ways to remain positive in the face of failure and setbacks. Sales is a roller coaster of elation and despair. You make your presentation to one client, with the same conditions of price, terms, etc., and they buy. The next client presentation is a disaster and they don’t buy. What happened to us between these two extremes? Often we have no clear idea but we have to pick ourselves up and call the next client. How do we pick ourselves up though?

I love these Winston Churchill quotes, “when you are going through hell, keep going” and “Never, never, never give up”. But in sales, we do want to give up, because rejection and our feelings of failure are brutal. Everyone faces negativity and we all suffer from different degrees of imposter syndrome, even if we have some degree of success. Dale Carnegie has another useful quote, “It isn’t what you have, who you are, where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you are doing about it.” So what are you doing about it?

Let’s find ways of occupying our minds with positivity. I was fired from my sales job once upon a time and it was doubly depressing, because I had been working so hard, I thought the big boss was going to give me a raise. It was a cold Friday evening at 5.00pm, when he called me to his office. I had read somewhere that a lot of job related suicides result from being fired on a Friday. The next morning I got up early and went straight down to the biggest bookstore in town and bought a couple of hundred dollars worth of books. I had just lost my source of income, but here I was spending money like a drunken sailor. Why? I knew I had to push out every self doubt, and nagging, negative thought that would otherwise occupy my mind and replace those “bad” thoughts with positive, “I can do it” information.

Misery loves company we say, but in the sales business, absolutely avoid negative people. When failing sales colleagues invite you to a “whine” party, don’t accept the invitation. Keep your mind pure and undiluted by any negative people and their toxic talk. In the classic sales movie, Glengarry Glen Ross, Al Pacino plays Ricky Roma who is in a bar closing a buyer, while the rest of the salespeople are in the office, whining about they don’t have any worthwhile leads. Ricky Roma keeps his eye on the prize and doesn’t spend time with failing salespeople colleagues.

Design pep talks for yourself. As a karate athlete, I remember getting to the final bouts, everyone was watching me and that nasty old imposter syndrome would start telling me, “You shouldn’t be here in the finals. You should have been eliminated out in the earlier rounds”. It happens in sales too. You have an unexpected good quarter or half year and the doubt sets in, that this isn’t you and then you sabotage yourself to get back to where you see your mediocre self. One formula I use is very simple. Whenever I am doubting myself, I keep repeating “you can do this, you can do this, you can do this”. Another one I use is “I feel strong, I feel sharp, I feel terrific”. Find your word or your set of trigger words which set off positive thought processes in your mind.

Our self image flows across to how we present ourselves and how we interact with buyers. Buyers judge us on our first impression with them. Until they get to know us, they simply look at how well we dress. If you have given up on yourself it will show immediately from how you carry yourself to how you present yourself. In that same legendary movie referred to earlier, Alec Baldwin plays the part of hot shot salesguy, sent down from the Mitch and Murray headquarters to motivate these failed salespeople. He is very well dressed, wears a heavy gold watch and drives a expensive BMW. He oozes the part of sales success. What are we oozing when we turn up in front of the prospect?

Once we open our mouth, clients start to evaluate how smart and consistent we are. They do that by noting by how well we can communicate. Clients subconsciously fear being conned by smooth talking salespeople. We have to be highly fluent, without coming across as slimy. The client will throw up objections to see how we deal with them. If we seem reliable, they may start us with a small deal to test us. When problems arise, they are looking for how we handle tough situations, how strong is our self-control and do we have persistence. They are looking for how well we can relate to different people and how professionally competent we really are. Clients will partner with us, if they see we are genuinely doing our best for them to succeed.

We have to get our mindset correct, our personal presentation on point and deliver value and outcomes for the client. It isn’t a multi-choice selection – all three are required for sales success.