One of the things that affect us the most is the state of mind that sometimes is not the best to face the situations or problems we have when selling.
Sometimes we get stuck at a certain point and cannot change our attitude towards something, thus leading the situation to a potential problem.
We seem to get stuck on a line of reasoning and can’t get out of it.
The problem is that without mental flexibility, we are often limited to failure.
To get around these types of situations, I often use a few principles that have helped me throughout my life as a salesperson and beyond when I have trouble selling or need greater mental flexibility.
Principle #1:
The best thing about the past is that it’s behind us!
Or, as we say in Portugal, it’s no use crying over spilled milk.
It’s no use driving your life looking in the rearview mirror.
We will almost certainly bump into each other.
It’s no use living future situations conditioned by past situations.
It’s not because we failed to sell to a particular client in the past that we will fail again in the future.
It’s not because we were terrible salespeople in the past that we have to continue to be bad salespeople all our lives.
So, by adopting this attitude, we will be much more flexible and positively approach every situation.
Principle #2:??
Every situation has something good to teach us.
Even the most significant failures we have in sales always have something to teach us.
If you were to ask Thomas Edison how many times he failed until he got the light bulb creation right, the answer would usually be this:
“My dear friend, I didn’t fail; each time it didn’t work out, I was one time closer to achieving my goal.”
The truth is that in sales, we are always going to have failures.
We will always have to fail a few times to achieve what we want.
So if this is a constant in sales, we might as well think that when we fail, we are once again closer to achieving our goals.
Principle #3
Plan, measure, and correct!
Nothing in sales happens without having made a plan of what actions to take to achieve our goal.
Make a clear decision that this is something you want to achieve.
Without making a concrete decision that that goal or objective in sales is critical to us, nothing begins to happen.
As we talked about earlier in other articles, we have one more component helping us from the moment we decide. It’s our subconscious mind.
Make a detailed plan of how to achieve our goal.
Have you ever heard that the road to hell is full of good intentions?
So have I. And I hear it every time someone around me says:
“I want to be rich.”
“I want to change my life.”
“I want to be happier.”
“I want to sell more.”
“I want more customers who pay.”
The question that I usually ask and that bothers you entirely a bit is straightforward:
“What is your plan to get there, and what are you doing to put it into action?”
This situation reminds me of the story of my friend Jules, who every week turns up to God and says, loud and clear:
“Oh God, make me win the lotto.”
Next week:
“Oh God, come on, be a good guy, make me win the lotto.”
Next week, the same?
But one time, after several weeks of asking the same, something different happened.
A strong voice was heard from above, which said to him:
“Hey, this week, make sure you help out and hand in the damn lotto ticket.”
In life, sometimes we are like that. We want, we want, but we do nothing to get there.
Fine-tune the shot.
Things don’t always come out perfect the first time.
So it is crucial that we are constantly measuring whether or not we are moving towards our goal.
As they say, “what is measured happens.
And if by chance, we are not achieving the result we want, we should stop and see if there is a different way to do what is not working.
Always remember, if it’s not working the way you’re doing it, it shouldn’t be because you keep doing it over and over again that the result will change.
So stop, take a step back, and try a new approach.
This week, try these three principles. You will see that they will allow you to make your selling much more effortless.
Still, think that selling is simple?
Also published on Medium.
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