Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Positive Mental Attitude

The most basic element to any outlook in life, not just sales. In sales we have to stay positive, because we can deal with alot of rejection. Keeping positive will allow you to see things in a different light. Instead of seeing an issue as a problem, you can look at it as an opportunity to 'fix' something.

I find that there is a direct relation to the level of positive thinking to my level of confidence, and patience level. Let's face it, at times in sales we have to be patient, whether you are showing the benefits of your product or just waiting for someone to get back to you on their final decision.
To stay positive, I take the thought that no matter what happen, I will ALWAYS 'land on my feet.' I actually take great comfort in that fact. I think about my past success's and don't dwell on my failures. I also find that having a positive attitude allows me to take a failure and turn it into a learning experience. Cutting down on making a failure twice increases my success rate.
One such example is as follows;
I sell cars in Canada. The Canadian dollar is worth more than the US dollar as I speak. This also makes some cars cheaper in the US, some by $11,000! Did I mention that I live in a city close to the border and a US town with a dealer that sells the same product as me? Anyway, at the beginning of the month, I was helping people out to my fullest ability in hopes of earning their business, only to see a few of the people go down across the border and buy the very same car that I councilled them on. After losing out a few times to this, I started feeling negative and started taking a negative approach. I was starting to go as far to say "If you are just here for me to show you the car with the intention of buying it in the US, then, do me a favour and go to the US and make the dealer who is going to get your business, earn it." Never won a sale after that one, in fact, I turned the people off of me more than anything. I sat back and analyzed what I was doing and I could either let the news reports of people going south of the border get me down, or I could look for a solution. I decided that I should look at the US dealer, just as another competitor, and came up with a sheet on the benefits of buying Canadian that I go over with people who express interest in buying in the US. I even go as far to say that "even if you are going to buy the car in the US, I am going to help you out!" They may not buy a car from me now, but I am in this for the long haul, there is a good chance that they will be in the market sometime again, and if I turn them off of me now, I'll turn them off forever. Good news travels fast, bad news travels faster and farther. I find that I feel alot better about the situation and my results have really picked up on the back half of this month.
Expect a negative result - you get a negative result, expect a positive result - you get a positive result.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Smile!

Smile. Smile and make eye contact. It's so simple. It's amazing how contagious it is too! The best time to smile is at the introduction, get it out right off the bat. It sets the tone to a positive dealing.

Smile when you are on the phone, it's funny but people can hear your smile.

Anytime i've fallen into a 'slump', i've reviewed where I am going wrong and it's always the basic's, and one of the most overlooked basic is the smile.