Is perception everything in sales?

Without a shadow of a doubt the major underlying factor in my success as well as many others I have modelled is the development of a strong, positive mind set. Like many other sales people I have experienced lack of confidence, dips in performance and discontentment with a role/manager/product. However, in overcoming difficult periods and bouts of underperformance I have analysed and come to understand the factors I can use to help me climb back into the driving seat and deliver successful results.

Our role can be difficult and lonely at times. Targets appear unachievable, support sometimes limited and your own ‘limiting beliefs’ can destroy those with even the strongest confidence in themselves. When times are hard: responses to the question of how is your month/quarter/year looking? might be: Tough, harder than expected, difficult, a struggle, challenging, not quite where I need to be, below expectations or at worst (not good – time for me to start looking for my next role!)

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Have you have ever experienced feeling some of the above? If so, I hope you can pull on some of the following to allow yourself the freedom to perform at your best.

Overcoming rejection is a significant part of being a salesperson. You should therefore be very comfortable with hearing the word ‘no’ – in fact I love hearing the word ‘no’ . Why? Because it means I can find out why someone isn’t convinced about my value proposition. It stops me wasting time so I can focus on those relationships that remain fruitful and reminds me why I do the job many others can’t. As a child, you are programmed to stop continuing to do something after you have been told no. With three children of my own I find myself repeating the word all day! It means your brain is trained logically stop you moving forward in a sales situation after hearing the word no.

But here lies a problem. No actually doesn’t mean no in a sales situation. Well not immediately anyway. I remember knocking on doors while at University trying to persuade homeowners to have their milk delivered rather than pick it up from their local supermarket. Can imagine opening your door – all the things that go through your mind? Who is bothering me at this time? I wasn’t expecting anyone? It must be a salesperson? I’ll open the door and tell them to go away.

KNOCK KNOCK: Homeowner “no thank you”

I start: “no, not as this time”

I ask why and continue with my pitch: “mmm well no it’s too expensive”

I share a story and alternative benefit: “Well in that case; where do I sign?”

 I wish it was that easy. I probably had a less than 10 % conversion rate after knocking on over 100 doors a day - although the lessons stayed with me. Every situation is different but more often than not. No is really just a cover for: Not now, or you have not provided me with credible evidence or insight into how your product solves my problems, No because I’m not the decision maker, No because I cannot afford it, No because I don’t like you, your product or company. The list is endless………

Understanding the real reasons why people will not buy from you; will help you more than why they buy

If you’re going to learn to be comfortable with rejection and happy being in a constant state of uncertainty about your performance while working in a competitive, often stressful and pressured environment you really need to know why you do what you do. And this all comes down to having a vision of yourself.

A vision can be an image, set of images or a movie reel for how you see yourself 7 – 10 years from now. You should be able to close your eyes at any time and take yourself to that future destination and experience who you have become as a person as well as what you have. This should be full of colour, positive sounds, good energy and happy feelings. This is so important to be able to pull on when your experience difficult times as it provides a real reminder of why you do what you do. This works; as our unconscious mind cannot differentiate between real and unreal. You therefore experience your vision in the present moment.

For example can you think of a time as you read this when you enjoyed the acidic and sour tastes of sucking all the juice of a lemon into your mouth? As you picked up the yellow lemon you might be able to remember what happens when cut into it with a knife. Juices often squirting on the cutting board. All your taste buds start to produce more saliva to prepare you for the acidic and sharp taste of the lemon that you are about to consume. Did your mouth start to water and did you feel the taste of the lemon on your tongue? If not: Reread this again and this time. Make the lemon bigger and brighter, think about the squelching sounds and notice how the lemon feels when you it touches your tongue.

Once you have developed your vision you need to think about what goals you need to achieve in order to put yourself in the best position to become the person in your vision. Of course they should be SMART and written down and shared with close friends, family and management. I look at my goals daily as it keeps me focused on how I invest my time. 

Self-awareness and emotional intelligence are important pillars of a positive and strong mind set. Although I think your own perception of self and the perception others have of you is most critical to sales success.

Dictionary definition of perception:

Perception (noun)

1.the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses.

"the normal limits to human perception"

2.the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted.

"Hollywood's perception of the tastes of the American public"

I love this word “Perception” – After working for a VP of Sales that said “Perception is everything” I’ve come to appreciate its importance in a sales environment. How you are seen by your peers, customers and prospects is key to ones success.

Bit of fun....what do you see? Add your comments to bottom of post

Everybody says first impressions count. Some say you have only 3 seconds to make it count. Others say 30. I say you have 3 seconds to make a positive impression and 1 minute to prove your value in any given situation. Like it or not, how you look, dress, speak helps people to form an opinion of you. I recommend you do everything you can to make sure that you come across as likable, credible and an expert in your field!

Have you ever seen the numbers 55, 38 and 7 together? 

According to study in psychology:

• 55% of communication is visual (your body language)
• 38% of communication is your voice (tone, inflection, etc)
• 7% is verbal (your words)

Now like lots of studies; you can question the validity of this. Your words definitely need to contain facts and language that acts to influence and persuade your audience but you can make them go further if you develop clear hand movements, strong presence and a deep powerful tone that helps to develop rapport with your audience.

Ask yourself if what you’re doing is congruent with your vision for yourself. Do you think, act and behave in a way that helps you attract what you want to you? Or are your limiting beliefs and negative perception of yourself holding you back make from reaching your potential.

If you see yourself as prosperous, you will be. If you see yourself as continually destitute, that is exactly what you will be.    -- Robert Collier

About the Author

James Ski works for Linkedin. Every day he encourages his customers to be more social and lead with interesting content. Please follow him on Linkedin or on Twitter @jamesas . 

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