Attitude Sells

 Getting someone to buy your "whatever" is fraught with difficulty. Sales Managers and Sales Teams need to succeed or it’s game over. The critical component in sales is not knowledge – it is attitude. We can teach you techniques, product knowledge, customer evaluation, gap analysis etc., to no avail if the required sales success attitude is not in place.

Intuitively, we all know the importance of having the right attitude. Let’s do a simple test: when you get up in the morning, open the curtains and find it is dark, gloomy, cold and raining - does this impact your attitude to the day? Same scene but a beautiful clear day, cool, bright, sunny – does this affect your attitude?

If you answered, "Yes" to either of these questions then outside, uncontrollable influences have seized hold of your future and at random will determine your progress in life.

Add to this climate burden, the rejection factor for sales people and even that bright sunny day rapidly sinks into gloomy oblivion. The clients don’t answer your emails, never take your calls because they are permanently in meetings, and have the audacity to say you are too expensive. And it’s raining!

Attitude is a choice. Great – but how do you choose to go for a sales success attitude over the usual negative alternatives?

Try these little beauties to shake off random attitude selection as your modus operandi.

1. Believe you can

Sounds simple and complex at the same time. How do you build self-belief? First understand that you need to find some small part in your work you do well, and start to add to that through study and practice. We are not 100% perfect and we are not 100% imperfect – we are all a work in progress.

Build on what is working and study about what more needs to be done. If you don’t believe in your company’s products and services, get out of there right now, and find something you can believe in.

2. Bolt from negative people

When losers gather for a "whine" party, don’t accept the invitation to spiral down. People do have influence on us, so choose to been influenced by those among us who are upbeat, optimistic and permanently positive. Your job is not to reform whiners, it is to ignore and isolate the damage they can do to you.

3. Seek out the "beautiful" people

Move in the success circle; suck up their energy and contagious positive attitude. Join the organizations where they gather, join the committees they sit on, be they business or charity. A positive attitude is contagious – get and stay infected ASAP.

4. Embrace "Changetuity" – the marriage of Change and Opportunity

Accept that change is normal. Everyone wants the opportunities that change brings but somehow they also want everything to stay the same. Good luck on that one – it won’t happen. Change is a permanent fixture of life, so study how to become more flexible, adaptive and considered – ready for the opportunities as they arise.

5. Work yourself hard

Get up a bit earlier (Uh oh!), get out of the house and think while you walk for 20 minutes.

Allocate 30 minutes a day to reading something in your field (apart from the newspaper) that builds knowledge and stimulation of thought on your profession. Eat a little less at lunchtime and spend the additional time feeding your mind.

Finish work and go to the gym, especially when you don’t feel like it – you know you always feel so much better afterward. Hone your mental blade during non-sales time.

6. Create resilience

Mistakes happen, failure happens – learn from these outcomes. Importantly, analyse from only two viewpoints – what you did that was good (and keep doing that) and given you will be doing this same or similar activity again, how could you make it even better next time. Leave the negative approach –"let me concentrate on all the things I did wrong" - for your competitors!

Rejection in sales is normal, usual, ordained, expected, unsurprising. Understand it is about the business proposition not about you – learn to distinguish between the two. If it helps to think the buyer is an idiot for missing the opportunity that your service or product value provides, then think it and keep studying for the next time.

7. Perspire from persistence

Mentally tattoo Dr. Story’s Iron Rule of Sales: "No" never means NO! It just means not now, not yet, not this offer, not this budget cycle, not this buyer. Go back in six months time. Situations change, people move, business realities alter – always try again.

8. Salute effort not final victory

Don’t store up celebrating success until the deal is struck, the money banked, and the sales champions are announced. That is too late. We need to be finding and celebrating the tiniest advance, and accumulate them like trophies. Success is the accumulation of small successes – recognize them as they occur. This is how your build a magnificent success attitude – one success brick at a time.

9. Purloin the past

Steal from past success to build a positive success attitude for today. Bask in past glory for a moment to re-kindle your self-belief, gird you loins for today’s battle with yourself. Here is some useful selftalk: "You did it before, you can do it again - got it - right! Now get on with it".

10. Live in "day tight compartments"

I was once a ship’s painter and discovered that the very bottom of ships are full of huge room size ballast tanks, that are totally airtight and sealed off. Be like that and seal off the failures, hurts, pain and humiliations of the past. Also, look but don’t dwell in the future either. You haven’t earned that right, because you have to get through today first. Make the future today and concentrate on what you can control.

Build your sales success attitude and set up the foundation for achievement in all aspects of your professional life.

Start with the weather, and make sure you determine how your attitude to the day will be and not meteorological random circumstance. Good selling!

 Engaged employees are self-motivated. The self-motivated are inspired. Inspired staff grow your business but are you inspiring them? We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people. Want to know how we do that? Contact me at [email protected]

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About The Author

Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan

In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making and become a 30 year veteran of Japan.

A committed lifelong learner, through his published articles in the American, British and European Chamber journals, his videos and podcasts “THE Leadership Japan Series”, "THE Sales Japan series", THE Presentations Japan Series", he is a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. Dr. Story is a popular keynote speaker, executive coach and trainer.

Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.