It's All In Your Head

Most salespeople think of success in terms of accomplishments - like winning a big account, achieving a sales goal, earning a big commission ‘cheque’, getting their hands on a sales awards, or even getting promoted.

Salespeople are taught to believe that these are all signs of success.

They are signs, but not particularly lasting indicators of success.

To understand success – the process that actually delivers positive results – we can think of success as a triangle, with a trinity of core elements.

Attitude – Your outlook, expectations, confidence, and conviction.

Behaviour – Actually doing the right things, consistently, through “muscle memory”

Technique – Knowing the strategies and tactics, the right things to do in any given situation.

Each point of the Success Triangle is connected to the other points of the triangle

Having a positive Attitude achieves very little if it is not focused into an effective plan of Behaviours. Your best intentions are doomed if they are not backed by a supportive attitude and executed with the requisite skills. Technique, in isolation, won’t accomplish your goals if it’s implemented with the essential framework of daily behaviours and a positive belief that you can succeed.

If you do not have this trilogy of powers, in equal balance, you too may succumb to the allure of non-prospecting.
I talked about the first of these three components, Behaviour last week.

You can read more here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/doing-nothing-achieves-just-dave-davies

Let’s take a deeper look at the second of these three components

Attitude
Success resides in the space between your earlobes.
It's all in your head. It's how you look at the world.

Attitude is your belief system. It determines how you act and ultimately how you perform, the results you get.

Like behaviour, it's very easy to cloud your vision of your attitude and actions if you're disciplined and diligent with your process.

There are several common mental traps that people fall into when engaged in 'selling' behaviours; especially the behaviour of prospecting.

1) Having a scarcity attitude
My good friends in the US would describe this as 'failing to turn the gumball machine'.

Use your creative mind for this one. Form an image of a gumball machine in your mind. Like the ones you used to see in arcades or the corner of the pub where the kids were shoved with their bottle of coke and bag of smoky bacon crisps.

That globe was filled with primary coloured balls of sticky sweetness. Your favourite is purple. Whilst they all taste the same, you are convinced the purple ones taste of grape.

You turn the handle once. You get a green one. Gutted. You put another coin in, turn the handle again. You know there's a purple one coming. It's red this time. You hand it to a younger sibling, pretending that was their one. It's your last coin, you turn with trepidation. A purple on pops into your hand, and almost instantly in to your mouth.

The world of prospecting works in a very similar way to this gumball machine.

If your ideal prospects are purple gumballs, keep turning the handle.

The more your prospect, the greater chances you have of finding your ideal prospect. You know every action you take won't present a 'purple gumball'.

For this theory to work, it assumes you have knowledge of what an ideal prospect looks like for your business.

What is your 'purple gumball'.

If prospects don't work, keep turning the handle, eventually a 'purple gumball' will pop out.

Your working mantra (attitude) for prospecting should be;

Some will. Some won't. Some wait. So what? Next...

2) Believing you are not worthy
You are not Wayne and Garth.

Successful selling has a lot, if not everything, to do with a strong mindset.

If you believe you are inferior or that you are wasting your prospect's time, you probably will.

Before you can be of value to your prospect's you must learn your own worth.

Think about the product or service you provide. Has it been valuable to previous clients.

If so, then you're already adding value to those that come to know you and choose to work with you.

Knowing this offers a barrier of protection for your attitude and your self-esteem.

Remember. At all times you have equal stature with your prospects. You are after all constructed from the same space-dust.

Don't be intimidated by a CEO. After all they are the one with the problem. That problem you have solved so elegantly for other CEO's just like them.

Helping others solve the biggest problems in their business is missionary work; no the work of mercenaries.

You deserve to speak to the highest ranking people in your potential buyers; regardless of your role or title.

You are worthy of your prospects time. Make sure you strike a balance by helping prospects show you that they are worthy of yours.

3) Ego Altered Decision Making
Before you enter a meeting with a Client or Prospect take a moment.

Check yourself.

Are your underpants on underneath your trousers?

Don't go in there trying to show the room how smart you are. Don't try and dominate the conversation. Don't be the 'hero'.

Ask questions. Listen intently. Discover more about them, them in their world, their frustrations, their upsets, their disappointments, their pains.

Once you're truly understood where they are and where they are aiming for, then, and only then, can you leap to the rescue.

Ego can adversely affect you by bolstering your confidence.

Ego can equally adversely affect you by diminishing your confidence.

For example, some individuals will not prospect. They're afraid, have feelings of insecurity, they believe they will embarrass themselves in front of prospects.
It is important to understand that this is a just a part of the process.

You will make mistakes, the more you prospect.

It's only natural.

We Humans learn more from our mistakes, than from our successes. We should learn to embrace the learnings we can take from those 'red-cheeked' moments.

Don't allow your ego to sneak in the way of your dedication to your prospecting behaviours.

If you wish to be successful at sales, then you're going to want to develop a strong attitude.

Whilst sales may never get any easier, developing an abundance mindset, knowing your own worth, and never letting your ego get in your way will dramatically ease your path to success.

Prospecting can be a daunting task for any seller, but it is an imperative if you want your career to grow and develop to the highest level.

Pop back here next week and I will share with you how to develop your Technique and avoid the traps that the average seller falls into.

Good selling!