Negative attitudes just become a self-fulfilling prophecy. For this reason, creating and maintaining a positive attitude in sales is critical to your success.
Imagine you have two equally knowledgeable, equally skilled, similarly able people offering the same product or service. One has a positive attitude, while the other has a negative attitude.
Now, I could almost guarantee that the one with a more positive attitude will outperform the one with a negative attitude every time. So it’s time to check your attitude.
Learn the importance of having a positive attitude, right here in this article.
Why you need to have a positive attitude in sales
It’s important to have a positive attitude in sales because a negative attitude becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you’re wondering why you’re struggling to make sales, the first thing you should check is your attitude. Maybe you’ll notice that you have a negative attitude about yourself, your products or services, or your customers, current economic conditions and the state of the world. Unattended to, your negative attitude will become your reality, and you will fail. To succeed, you must correct it.
How to improve your attitude in sales
What can you do to improve your attitude? Sometimes awareness alone is not enough. Try drawing upon past successes and remembering what worked. I go to meetings with prospects believing they’ll sign up right then and there. And they usually do. This belief isn’t arrogance on my part but rather a confidence based on experience. Success breeds success.
Stop Complaining
So many times you meet people who complain about everything – their products, services, the environment ,the economy ,their customers. You name it, they’ll complain about everything. But I’ll tell you something: Those people won’t succeed in sales. In fact, they won’t succeed in life. I’ve met so many sales teams that complain about the price.
“If the price of our product was lower, I could sell more.”
“If only the product was better, I could sell more.”
“If only we had more favorable payment options or or payment terms I could sell more.”
“If only we had a wider product offering I could sell more.”
Guess what? I’ve seen companies and actually make all those positive changes and still can’t sell. It gets to a point where the reps have to ask themselves: “Is it the environment or is it me?”
Guess what? It’s you.
Stop deflecting
A lot of us in sales we like to defer to marketing. We go “If only marketing did a better job with the website and if only they did this and did that.” And it’s like you know, “That’s why I can’t sign up members. That’s why.” Really? I’ve seen it all.
You could have the best website, the best marketing collaterals in the world and it still is going to come down to you guys. I could have the crappiest collaterals and still close deals. It all works together.
I’ve even seen sales reps that said “Hey boss, we got to lower our price, man. Why? Because we’re getting killed out there. The competitors are so low, they’re low balling us. We’re losing, if you just had a bit of wiggle room and if I could just get this discount. I can close this.”
Really? And I’ve seen sales leaders they’re like, “Fine, give them a 20% discount.” And they still can’t close. Because they’re playing the wrong game. It’s not that, “Oh, if only we had a better product, we need to develop something better more innovative.” And the product team goes away tries to make something. “Okay here. Go sell this.” And they still can’t sell.
It’s just deflecting.
Check your attitude
If ever you’re struggling in sales, the first thing you need to check is your attitude. The aptitude, the skills, will come later. But the first thing you need to do is to check your attitude. Do you have the right mindset around sales? The right demeanour? The right persona? Are you resilient? Are you diligent? Are you determined? Are you a hard worker? Are you industrious? Are you goal-oriented?
Check your attitude and then the rest will come.
Focusing on the future and how to improve
Focusing on the future and how to improve rather than focusing on past mistakes and failures.
Over the years, people have given me feedback, both negative and positive, on my group sales coaching program and one-on-one sales coaching. These have been opportunities for me to learn what my customers really need and make improvements within my business.
Beating yourself up over past mistakes and failures will not help you grow a successful business and reach your long-term goals. Whereas, learning from past mistakes and focusing on how you can make improvements in the future, are steps in the right direction.
Some of the feedback you get from customers will be hard to hear. No one likes to hear that they haven’t met their customers’ expectations. But avoiding asking for feedback because you might be told something unpleasant will not help you grow a successful business and reach your long-term goals. The alternative to not asking for feedback is having your unsatisfied customers quietly leave you for a competitor who is willing to ask them about their specific needs. And that’s not really an alternative at all.
The way to keep customers happy is to learn from past mistakes and then to focus on how you can make improvements in the future. Don’t spend time beating yourself up over shortcomings. Instead, the next time a prospect turns down your proposal or a current client leaves you for a competitor, try looking at the situation objectively and seeing the opportunity for growth.
Another aspect of focusing on the future and how to improve is taking personal responsibility for results. Blaming an economic downturn for a decrease in business leads to the logic of crediting an economic upturn for an increase in business. I’m an eternal optimist in that I believe the future is something we can control despite challenging economic times. We cannot control what goes on outside our businesses, but we can (and must!) control what goes on inside them.
So what will you do the next time a prospective customer turns down your proposal, or when a customer leaves you for a competitor? Try looking at the situation objectively and seeing the opportunity for growth. What lessons could you learn? How can you make improvements to your business that could benefit customers in the future?
Focusing on the future and how to improve rather than focusing on past mistakes and failures, could help you grow a successful business and reach your long-term goals.
Get a Positive Attitude in Sales with SOCO/
Success in sales starts with having the right mindset. Having the belief, you will succeed is already half the battle, especially when times are tough.
Join our Mindset for Sales Training Sales because, at times like these, you need to have a positive mindset in sales. Especially when customers say no and when things aren’t going your way. It’s often a strong sense of internal motivation that separates the top performers from the underachievers, which is why we consider mindset to be the foundation of sales excellence.
That was a great example, Tom. Your expectation of success is your self fulfilling prophecy. It works both ways. Expect success and you are likely to succeed. Expect failure and you are likely to succeed as well – expect now you are succeeding at failing. Either way, you get what you want.
Thanks for your comment Lindley! Have you seen our new Social Selling free video training series?
A good attitude is definitely the root to success
Thanks for this!