eBusiness Weekly
Robert Gonye
In the demanding, stressful and emotional world of sales the slightest inconvenience or bump in the road can turn your attitude toxic.
Here’s how top performers maintain a winning mindset, handle disruptive emotions, and choose joy.
Don’t Let Disruptive Emotions Drive Your Behaviour
Your phone alarm didn’t work, it’s cold, you forgot your jacket, the line along the main road was slow, you spilt coffee on your shirt, and the clients you drove around for three days looking at houses decided to go with another realtor option.
You drove an hour across town to an appointment and your prospect didn’t show, your operations team made a mistake the first delivery to your new customer, and you had to fight to get your commissions paid correctly — again!
Suddenly you are engulfed in the sea of ongoing concerns and winds, your cup is half empty, and there is no silver lining to your dark cloud. Disruptive emotions begin to drive your behaviour.
Your outlook goes negative and your patience shortens. On the brink of outright hostility, and you find yourself unable to focus on selling. You just want to go home and crawl back into bed.
In Sales, A Poor Attitude Brings Poor Results
For a sales professional, a bad attitude and the disruptive emotions that come with it, if unchecked, can be fatal to your career.
In sales, attitude is the “X-Factor”. Attitude plays a powerful role in your success.
Because sales is inherently emotional for both you and your buyer and emotions are contagious; your attitude can and will impact your buyer’s desire to buy from you. This is why the salesperson’s attitude is often the winning edge in hard-fought battles for new accounts.
For this reason, you must protect your attitude at all costs.
Develop a bounce-back routine when things don’t go your way. Become aware of negative self-talk.
Let go of anger. Maximise positive input. No matter what happens to you or what outside influences are at play, your attitude is your choice. You are absolutely and completely in control of it.
Three Attitude Winners You Can Develop.
Invest in Yourself
It is easy to burn out in the sales profession. When you are tired and run down, it is difficult to maintain a positive attitude. Train like an athlete. Exercise your mind, body, and spirit. Then, when you do get knocked down, you’ll get up faster and you will win.
Tune In
Learn to listen to your inner voice. It is there, talking to you all the time. Most days, we only listen when it says negative things.
That’s when our attitude goes south. When you tune in to your inner thoughts you can get ahead of the curve and make repairs to your attitude before it begins to sink your sales career.
Filter the Noise
Stay away from negative inputs, negative people, and negative environments. Each morning say the words, “Today, I choose joy.” This one act will condition your mind, body, and spirit to work together to protect your attitude.
In sales and in life, attitude is the single greatest predictor of how far and fast you will climb. In other words, attitude = altitude. Make the choice today to use your attitude to climb straight to the top. As a sales expert, you are the elite athlete of the sales world.” The problem is, many of us don’t act like it. Our attitude will need to be reinforced with physical fitness.
Water Test:
No matter how much water you claim to drink, if you aren’t tracking it, I’d be willing to bet you aren’t drinking enough. Water is critical for almost every chemical process in the body.
Water regulates body temperature, helps move toxins out of the body, protects your joints, aids in digestion, helps fight illness, improves blood circulation, makes your skin glow, improves mood, and increases cognitive function.
If all of that didn’t convince you to prioritise hydration, you might be interested to know that increasing your water intake could also help you lose weight.
For the most part, people simply don’t drink enough water. Juice and coffee are poor substitutes that many salespeople reach for when energy is low.
Water alone might be a better solution. Aim for a few litres a day. It’s tough to do, so just aim in that direction and you’ll be headed on a good path. Yes, you’ll need to hit the bathroom more often.
Track your water intake daily and carry a water bottle at all times. You’ll see results immediately in all aspects of your life which drive your attitude!
Attitude of Movement
Do you have a regular workout programme? Many busy salespeople “just don’t have time” to commit an hour or so for an exercise routine. That’s ok; you can easily add movement. Make phone calls while walking around the building or grounds. Or simply park at the back of the parking bay when you go shopping. The good news: if you aren’t doing ANYTHING, then it’s an immediate win when you add one of the above each day!
Learn to Sleep:
Sleep allows our bodies to repair themselves and our brains sort out the previous day’s data. We need it, and yet we neglect it. The solution: go to bed earlier! Most people watch TV in the evenings or scroll through social media. Shut it all down 30 minutes early tonight and go to bed. You’ll be amazed at how your attitude and performance improves during the day.
DISCLAIMER
The views given herein are solely for information purposes; they are guidelines and suggestions ONLY.
Robert Gonye is a Business Growth Expert and Influencer. He writes in his personal capacity. Comments and views: [email protected]/twitter@robert_gonye
