Attitudes are contagious…is yours worth catching?

What is an attitude, anyway? It’s your choice of feelings and emotions that drives your action.

Now, notice I said ‘your choice’. Many people go round acting as if someone has injected them with the ‘negative drug’, as if it’s everyone else’s fault that they are feeling this way. It’s as if they want the whole world to dedicate itself to making them happy.

Sorry, but there’s only one person who’s responsible for your attitude.

If you say your attitude today is because of that bad call or those poor leads or your negative boss, you’re basically saying that you hand over responsibility for your attitude to someone else. In effect, you’re saying  ‘I will allow you to control how I feel. You control me, Mr Prospect. However you respond will determine how I feel. So, how would you like me to feel today?’

Sounds silly, doesn’t it?

OK, how do you take control and make your personal attitude one that you choose and one that you want to keep?

Here’s some ideas that will help you maintain that right attitude:

1. Take personal responsibility for all that happens to you: It all starts with you accepting the ownership of your attitude. Looking at things through emotionally negative glasses will distort everything you see. So, choose the attitude that creates a firm foundation for action

2.Don’t spend time, invest it: This means making a choice as to what you do every hour of the day. If you choose to spend 5 hours in front of garbage TV, then accept the consequences. Don’t blame others for feeling tired the next day. Instead, invest some time in things that will give you a return in the future.

3. Create a group of positive friends that you listen to every day: And if you can’t find any, invest in them on CD so you can listen to them every day. Their positive input will encourage your thought processes toward the positive

4. Listen to how you talk: Become aware of how you speak about people and situations. Notice if you are blaming other things or people for your negativity. As the saying goes…you can visit Pity City, but don’t live there.

5. Develop a reframe mentality: This means that whatever happens to you, you decide how you’re going to view it. You can have fun with this. We play a game called ‘bad news, good news’ where someone comes up with some bad news, then another person in the team has to ‘reframe’ it by telling a consequential piece of good news. This silly but interesting game forces you to think of something positive, and gets you mind off the negative stuff. It also leaves a smile on your face, which is always good!

6. Develop your own positive outlook: You do this by deciding to. Every moment, decide the best way to feel. Create an aura of choice around you. Stop casting the first stone. By allowing yourself to concentrate on the positive side, your focus will  create a different view and you’ll see solutions where there were once problems.

It all starts with your attitude. Get that right, and you give yourself a better chance of success.

Happy Selling

Sean

Sean McPheat
The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling
MTD Sales Training

Have you downloaded my latest report “The Sales Person’s Crisis”? Over 10,000 sales pros have.

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

In a previous blog, we discussed some home truths about selling that have created a lot of interest, mainly because some people still think the old buyers still exist for their outmoded style of selling.

Here’s another of those home truths that brings salespeople kicking and screaming into the 21st century:

False: It’s the salesperson’s job to get the prospect to buy

Truth: Your intent should be to solve problems or open up opportunities

Most sales training puts the emphasis on the sales cycle, where the salesperson plans their presentation meticulously around how the product works.

Well, most buyers will not be interested in the product unless it can move the status quo for his business. In other words, they will not change a thing unless you can prove you can either eliminate some of his pain, or create some form of opportunity.

The motivational direction that the customer will choose can be summed up that way. So, either increase the pain of where he is now (or where he will stay if he doesn’t move), or open up opportunities for his business by proving how you can assist in developing the market for him.

Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes and identify exactly what he or his business will achieve by partnering with your business.

Of course, you can’t do this without proper and concise questioning. This will build your knowledge of the current situation and help you to create a future that would not be possible without you. This symbiosis will help you both achieve your ultimate goals…profitability and new market penetration.

By analysing how you can assist the prospect in solving problems or opening up opportunities, you increase your value and give many reasons for others to talk to you.

And that can only be good for business!

Happy selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling
MTD Sales Training

Have you downloaded my latest report “The Sales Person’s Crisis”? Over 10,000 sales pros have.

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

In a previous blog, we highlighted five ways to improve your sales with some home truths that many of you have responded to.

The first of those truths was that people buy, not because of intellectual reasons like price, quality and service, but because of emotional needs and wants.

The truth is that we as human beings are emotional creatures walking around in a body. We like to think of ourselves as rational, thinking persons, but a home truth is that our decisions are made with our emotional brains and then we justify that with logical thinking to back ourselves up.

How many times have you bought something purely on price alone, without thinking of the consequences of that purchase? Being driven purely by logic turns us into automatons, robots with no thought patterns of our own, our decisions created by the  logistics of the product. That doesn’t seem to fit right with our experience.

Yes, the rational reasoning is important to us, but they only back up the fact that we feel good about the purchase. The emotional connection concerning the value and benefits of it all have to be considered first.

The old cliche ‘people buy from people’  is still true in the majority of cases. How do you feel dealing with someone you don’t get on with? Do you trust them, respect them, honour them?

So if your clients are mainly making decisions based on what their emotional needs and wants are, what can you do to satisfy them? Remember that people are often driven by basic needs like safety and security, so convince them that they are making the right choice because of how it will make them feel safe and secure. They are making a sound investment, or they can be safe in the knowledge they are getting great value.

Appeal to their status needs, if you have found out they make choices based on how it will make them look in others’ eyes.

People will only make decisions when they are in the right state to do so; don’t try and sell when they are obviously not in the right emotional state to deliberate or consider the choice.

By being aware of this simple home truth, you will avoid the average salesperson’s downfall of only concentrating on intellectual needs and missing that vital ingredient that we all use in making decisions – the emotional connection.

We’ll tackle the other home truths in future blogs.

Happy selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling
MTD Sales Training

Have you downloaded my latest report “The Sales Person’s Crisis”? Over 10,000 sales pros have.

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

We often discuss on our courses the value that you offer to your clients. Many salespeople forget how valuable your services can be to your clients, as you’re effectively helping them to create new customers for themselves, simply by being there for them. You have the power to make your customer base very profitable in their markets.

Our discussions often come round to this notion of being a trusted advisor to your clients. Everyone agrees it’s a great label to acquire, but what does it mean in practice?

Here are some thoughts on what it means to be a trusted advisor:

Firstly, it means you have the experience, the training, the knowledge, and the subject matter expertise to be trusted to advise your clients well. This means you have to keep ahead of the game, your acumen has to be developed at all times, and you must concentrate on your personal and business knowledge development.

It means you have to show quality professionalism in all you do. If you miss a call-back to a customer, it makes an impression on their mind. It makes them ask the question ‘if I can’t trust you in the small things, how can I trust you in the big things?’

It means you act as a curious business questioner, probing to find out your client’s problems and challenges, then prescribing the right direction for them.

It means your negotiating skills are finely honed to achieve a win-win outcome, collaborating with them to achieve results that will be great for them and enable you to still offer the quality services that will help them profit in the future.

It mean you have to be honest about the outcomes your client can expect. Exaggerating the benefits they can expect from partnering with you will only result in lack of trust and respect.

How close are you to being a trusted advisor to your clients? It extends your credibility with them and gives many reasons why they should remain loyal in the future by adding value to your overall services

Happy selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling
MTD Sales Training

Have you downloaded my latest report “The Sales Person’s Crisis”? Over 10,000 sales pros have.

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

We often get sales people on our courses who have been employed for some time and have picked up some, erm, shall we say, ‘interesting’ habits! They may have been quite successful some time ago, but they have peaked or plateaued, and they want to go on to the next level.

Thousands of salespeople have downloaded my ‘Sales Person’s Crisis’ report (if you haven’t got yours yet, pick it up below), and have recognised there is a big difference between what salespeople did a few years ago and what the successful ones do today. One vital point in the report is that you have to change your mindset if you are going to improve your sales, because the buyer who was around a few years ago isn’t there anymore.

Here are some home truths to reckon with in 2010;

False: People buy because of intellectual and logical reasons like price, quality and service

Truth: People buy based on emotional needs (the what) and wants (the why)

False: It’s the salesperson’s job to get the prospect to buy

Truth: Your intent should be to solve problems or open up opportunities

False: Your persuasion techniques and convincing arguments will get the sale

Truth: It’s friendly, intelligent engagement that will convince the prospect they should talk to you

False: Enthusiasm sells

Truth: Enthusiasm helps, but what is more important is total concern in your prospect’s life and business

False: Relationships sell

Truth: Relationships help, but only if the prospect values what we offer, and if they trust us to solve their problems

By identifying what the buyer’s mind-set is today, we give ourselves the chance to approach the sale with greater confidence because we see things from their perspective.

These home truths will be discussed in more detail in future blogs. In the meantime, be aware of what these truths mean to you and your business

Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling
MTD Sales Training

Have you downloaded my latest report “The Sales Person’s Crisis”? Over 10,000 sales pros have.

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

In the great year-2000 film ‘High Fidelity’, the character Rob asks Laura why he is so unhappy. Laura answers ‘because you’re the same person you used to be!’

These few words of wisdom encapsulate what we as salespeople should know instinctively. The fact that unless we are growing and nurturing our sales skills, we are left stagnating. And you know what happens when we stagnate. It stinks!

You may have heard of Gordon Moore, founder of Intel, who stated that the number of micro-components that could be placed in a microchip of the lowest manufacturing cost was doubling every year. His statement (latterly known as Moore’s Law) has been used in many other settings too, to reflect the rapid growth of knowledge and improvement we are making in many other areas.

In fact, you could say our knowledge of sales and everything related to selling has doubled every year in the past few years. One look at Amazon will show you how many books there available on sales and selling (over 228, 000 and counting!)

Charlie Jones once said that we will be the same person we are now in five years’ time, except for the books we read and the people we meet.

How do we grow as salespeople? How do we become better than we are now, and not stay the same person we used to be?

Firstly, have a personal development goal. Set yourself a measurable target of where you want to be in one, two and five years time. What knowledge do you want to have? What skills do you want to develop? How will you measure your success?

Then, create a plan to achieve it. Develop a learning log that will allow you to see and monitor your progress every step of the way.

Set milestones along the way that you can celebrate. Keep your motivation up by knowing exactly what you want and how you are going to achieve it. This clarity will work wonders for your morale.

Notice the set-backs and learn from them. Don’t wallow in the mess of failure. Treat the past as a school to learn from, not a place to live in.

Create a future plan for yourself that will draw you forward, and you’ll find yourself being motivated every day to pursue that objective. Be the person you know you can be by nurturing and growing your skills in every facet of sales. You’ll be happy you did. And so will your clients.

Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling
MTD Sales Training

Have you downloaded my latest report “The Sales Person’s Crisis”? Over 10,000 sales pros have.

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘discipline’?

If you’re like me, it conjures up memories of growing up and being chastised by a parent or teacher. I still have the memory of red knuckles, having been attacked by a merciless teacher with a ruler! And he said at the time that I needed disciplining. So I grew up associating discipline with pain.

Having developed a more rounded out personality, I recognise now that the word actually has quite a different meaning to what that red-faced disciplinarian had taught me at school.

The root of the word is from the Latin ‘Discipula’ (or Discipulus if you’re a male) and it means ‘student’ or ‘taught one’. The verb associated with it is ‘Discere’, meaning ‘to learn’.

So, originally, the word meant to be taught as a student, while you learn. The image of pain and suffering is, if at all, a minor part of it.

As a salesperson, we are told that self-discipline is a key skill to practice if we are going to be successful. So, we can now see that self-discipline means to teach ourselves, to learn about something ourselves, to be a proactive student of progress.

That makes it a little more palatable, don’t you think?

Now, do you have a plan on how you are going to improve your skills and attitudes?

Do you have goals on what you are going to learn in the next month, three months, six months and one year?

Have you got a research book or journal that you write new ideas and learnings in?

Or are you like 90% of your colleagues, who think that self-improvement is something you will get round to when you have time?

Your personal plan of self-teaching (for that is the real meaning of self-discipline) will set you apart from your colleagues and your competition.

Personally, I have about 40 sets of CDs in my car on subjects like marketing, sales, self-improvement, communications and others. It’s seldom that I don’t learn something on a car journey!

Make plans now to discipline yourself. It’s the fun way to become the best you can!

Happy Selling

Sean

Sean McPheat
MTD Sales Training

If you’d like a copy of Drive Time Sales Strategies, my new 5 cd sales improvement programme, then please click on the link below.

CLICK HERE NOW FOR THE DETAILS

How many times have you been told that to be successful in sales you have to think positive?

Yes, it certainly helps. But how do you do that, especially when our natural tendency is to think negatively. Positive thinking is a learned self-discipline that needs to be practiced each and every day, before it becomes a habit.

What is an habitual way of thinking? Well, imagine a piece of string held between two people. It would be pretty easy for those two people to break that one piece of string. However, if you wind lots of string together, binding them one over another, it gets harder to break. Imagine putting many, many pieces together so it becomes a piece of rope. How easy is it now to break?

A habit develops in much the same way. We think one way, then add similar thoughts (strings of thoughts) and before long, it becomes a thick rope, difficult to break, driving our responses and building results.

So what actions can you take to build a strong rope of positivity? Here’s some thoughts:

• Remember that you always have a choice in what attitude you display. Many choose negativity because it’s more natural to blame and defend than accept responsibility

• Invest your time in productive ways. Find a project and invest, say, 30 minutes a day in learning about it. In one year, you will have invested 180 hours of study in the subject. That’s equivalent to nearly 25 days of training! Think what kind of an expert you could become investing THAT kind of time in something!

• Surround yourself with positive people. If that’s not possible in your workplace because many of your colleagues have chosen to look on the dark side, spend a break time researching Napoleon Hill’s ‘Think and Grow Rich’ or works by Zig Ziglar, Wayne Dyer, Tony Robbins, Dennis Waitley or others that will fill your mind with success.

A quick ten minutes in the company of these people will quickly put you in a positive frame of mind.

• Check in on how you use language. Are you consistently half-full or do you regard yourself as half-empty? Your words will have a profound affect on your attitude.

• Think about things that affect your mood, and identify how long you stay in a bad mood, if that happens. Take personal responsibility for how you look at things, rather than allowing others to control your mood.

• You can visit Pity City, but you don’t have to live there. Spend 20% of your time analysing why a situation is what it is, and 80% on the solution. That way, you don’t dig yourself deeper into cynicism and despair.

• Notice what the differences are in your mind-set when you approach something from the direction of positivity rather than negativity. You actually have a different feeling inside simply by changing your habitual thought patters, so be aware and consciously choose.

You can tell yourself to think positively, but in the end you have to take action to make it work. Positivity without action is wishful thinking. Don’t get caught in that trap. Take the necessary action and see the genuine results that will come your way

Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling
MTD Sales Training

Have you downloaded my latest report “The Sales Person’s Crisis”? Over 10,000 sales pros have.

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

The amount of information available to buyers –particularly those who require a consultative process —continues to get deeper, more detailed and of greater quality than ever before.

Now, a buyer can search your company on the web, find out about your MD, determine your value structure, check your competitors’ offers and place their order online, all while you are trying to get an appointment on the phone! And note this: nothing that the prospect did in that scenario requires your involvement as a sales person!

This means that much of the old, traditional sales processes that you have learned before (prospecting door to door, cold-calling, sending brochures through to be placed in the recycle bin) are deemed obsolete by the fact that the buyer’s processes have changed and left you behind.

It means you are unable to guide the sales process. You can’t determine who the main decision-makers are, or analyse the motivations of the buyer.

So, before you start thinking about who you should be contacting; before you identify what lists you need; before you start putting anything down on paper; think what the buyer will be doing to source their awareness of products and services like yours.

How will your new buyers learn about your products?

How will they discover solutions? How will they find out about your competition?

Change your sales job role. NOW!

Think about where they will be looking for your services. Develop a buyer’s mind-set. Make sure your website uses key phrases and words that will be on the buyer’s mind when he checks out the major search engines. Instead of thinking of yourself as a sales person, think ‘buyer’s business partner’.

Those salespeople who still stay with the old-fashioned ‘quantity is everything’ mind-set will quickly disappear, replaced by the proactive educator who defines exactly where the customer is in the buying process, building awareness, helping them discover solutions and confirming their buying processes.

Remember; the buyer who existed in the nineties isn’t around anymore! Change NOW!

Happy Selling!

Sean McPheat
The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling
MTD Sales Training

Have you downloaded my latest report “The Sales Person’s Crisis”? Over 10,000 sales pros have.

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

A typical sales day!

Scene: Sales Person just getting out of bed

The good vibe is on the right shoulder, the bad vibe is on the left shoulder

Good vibe: It’s going to be a great day today!
Bad vibe: No it won’t! It will be just like every other day….boring. No closes, loads of ‘no thanks’. What’s the point?

Sales person gets dressed, has breakfast and goes out to the car

Good vibe: I just need to prospect well, get my motivation going, concentrate, focus, loads of great calls coming up. It’s going to be a great day of opportunities!
Bad vibe: O, what’s the point? No-one buys these days in this economy. The competition is cheaper than me. We don’t have a USP. Quality is poor. Why do I bother?

Sales person get to the office

Good vibe: If I get it right today, and I will, I can get really close to my target for the month. Can’t wait to make plans for that first call!
Bad vibe: It’s just a waste of time and energy! It saps morale and makes you feel bad. Don’t bother today. Just pretend you’re not well, and skip it. You can always make it up tomorrow

Good vibe: Right, loads of prospects out there. I just have to hit the hot buttons and make them aware of how great it would be to have a relationship with our company
Bad vibe: Who are you kidding! No matter how much you try, you always get knocked back!

Sales person picks up the phone

Good vibe: Right, I’ve planned for this call, made my introductions and they will want to hear from me. Proper planning prevents poor performance!
Bad vibe: That’s it, put the phone down. They’ll be busy anyway. No-one wants to speak to salespeople on the phone!

Good vibe: That’s it. Plan. Think it through. Think of this as a partnership. Build the relationship. I’m not selling; I’m helping the customer buy.
Bad vibe: Rubbish! If you want to hit your target, you’ve got to make as many calls as you can. The more calls, the more closes you make.

Sales person visits prospects

Good vibe: Right, make sure you ask the right questions. Show interest in his business. Find out what his business really needs
Bad vibe: No, just go for the close. Don’t waste time on all that other stuff. All he wants to hear is the product details and the cost. Don’t mess about.

Customer comes up with objection

Good vibe: That’s ok, uncover the reason for the objection, just go over the benefits again, and adjust if I need to
Bad vibe: O, here we go…just offer him a larger discount..they all buy on price anyway…he’ll soon take it

Customer ends up taking the offer

Good vibe: You see…when you spend time doing things right, the results naturally follow
Bad vibe: Well, you got lucky that one time

Sales person back at the office

Good vibe: Well done…if you build the relationship with the client, treat him like a partner, ask business-relationship questions, convince him in the style he needs, you will hit your targets!
Bad vibe: mmmm…maybe I need to think it through more

Remember, you choose your attitude……so what’s it going to be today?

Happy Selling

Sean

Sean McPheat
The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling
MTD Sales Training

Have you downloaded my latest report “The Sales Person’s Crisis”? Over 10,000 sales pros have.

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…