Is It Positive Thinking or Ignorant Bliss?

There was an old man who lived by the side of the road. Fizzy drinks and hot dogs are what he sold. He was hard of hearing and he could barely see, so he had no radio nor did he own a TV. But he did sell hot dogs and he sold them by the case load.

He put up a big sign at the side of the road advertising how good his hot dogs tasted. He’d stand on the street and, “Buy a hot dog!” he would insist. People came by the truckload, his hot dogs they couldn’t resist. His orders for buns grew every week and he stocked up on fizzy drinks, mustard and hot dog sausages.

The old man was selling hot dogs by the ton. He was making money and having fun. But then one day his son came home from college to lend a helping hand, and the young Business Graduate immediately saw something about business his father didn’t understand.

“Dad, don’t you watch TV? Haven’t you heard the news? Fuel prices are up, jobs are down and people are feeling the pinch. You’d better be careful, the young graduate said, “The whole world economy is deep in the red.”

So the old man cut back on his orders for fizzy drinks, hot dog sausages and batches. He took down his big sign by the side of the road. He didn’t bother to yell, “Buy a hot dog!” to the people who passed by. Why, with the economy the way it is, he thought, what good would it do?

The old man’s sales fell overnight, and he had to tell his son that he was right. “You were right; the world is in a recession.” And the man who once sold hot dogs thanked his son for the valuable lesson.

It’s always a good idea to know all you can about your industry and it’s important to be aware of the the state of the economy. However, as this story shows, you certainly don’t always have to accept it.

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training

Here’s a great question that Paola sent me a couple of weeks ago:

“How do you keep your spirits up when you are going through a bit of a rough patch and every potential deal seems to be falling through for reasons beyond your control?”

That is a very good question and one that takes a bit of maturity in the profession of sales to even recognize and admit. Often, it is the old school mind set sales people have in that you should just “not take things personally,” and just “stay positive and smile and dial.” That attitude of denial to the fact that sometimes things are not as well as they could be is what causes burn-out in our industry. So, I congratulate you on seeing a need to do something to help keep your head straight when things seem to spiral out of your control. Let’s face it, just by “thinking” positive will not change the facts on the ground; sometimes no matter what you do, you will have that week or month when everyone seems to say no, financing falls out of place or sales go down the tubes for the most ridiculous reasons. So what do you do?

Don’t get me wrong; I believe in the power of positive thinking. However, all of that positive thinking must be followed by positive action. As a sales professional you need a few tangible, physical actions that you can take to help you keep your spirits up. Here is an action; a physical thing you can do that will help you maintain a positive attitude under any circumstances.

Set short-term activity goals and targets. You see, normally all sales goals and related targets are all based on one thing: the SALE. All of our hard work, self worth, everything we are, we judge based on the amount of sales. Therefore, when sales are low—that’s it—everything is low!

However, you have to realise that the sale is only the end result of a long sales process and system. The sale in fact is only a small “PART” of a sales process and does not exist on its own. You can’t make a sale without a certain number of appointments, or seeing a number of qualified prospects. You can’t make a sale without a certain number of calls or emails or closing attempts. All of these activities are actually part of a sale and they pay you regardless of the outcome of each individual sale. In other words, if you have a closing average of 20%; that is you close one out of every five closing attempts, then the four that you do not close, actually have a value. They have a value of 1/5th of the average sale. When you walk out of one that you did not sell, you actually earned 1/5th or 20% of the commission that you will earn on the one that you do sell. You see what I mean? Those four are PART of the sale. You can find more on how this works on articles and material at MTD on the Science of Selling (SOS).

But in the mean time set those smaller activity goals; set 10 more appointments, send out 20 more emails, set a goal to increase your closing average on the phone to set appointments. Set a goal to get two more accounts to the proposal stage. When you set these short-term activity goals and reach them, then even when the end results are slow in coming, you will see tangible, verifiable progress and that will keep your head on track.

Happy Selling!

Thanks Again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training International

Telephone:
0800 849 6732

Website:
http://www.mtdsalestraining.com

Just remember…everyone has a bad day every now and again!

Some days you’ll close everyone you speak to. Other days you won’t get a sniff!

That’s sales for you!

It could be worse, you could be this poor chap!

Happy Selling!

Sean

Hi there,

Do you or your sales people often take the knocks to heart?

Maybe your team lack that ongoing motivation to keep on going and working through the numbers and not taking each sales opportunity as a separate event?

Well, here is a useful acronym that you and your sales people can use. Use it every time you cannot get through to that decision maker, every time someone says no or just if you feel a little down.

SWSWSWSW

“What’s that?!”

I hear ya!

Here’s what it stands for:

SOME WILL

SOMEONE’S WAITING

Let me take you through this:

SOME WILL

Some people will want to buy your product or service. The match between their wants and what you can offer will be a perfect match and a sale will be made.

SOME WON’T

Some people will just not buy your product.

Whether that is down to your approach, your product or service, timing, money, ozone layer..

SO WHAT

Appreciate that some people will and some will not! Analyse when a sale is made and see what went well. When a sale is not made do exactly the
same approach and learn from the experience.

SOMEONE’S WAITING

Someone out there is waiting for your product or service.

If you are selling phones, it’s the next person through the door. If you are selling cars it’s the next person in your showroom, if you are selling recruitment services it’s your next sales presentation - the bottom line is that there will ALWAYS be someone waiting for you to sell to them.

It’s your job to take each opportunity as a separate entity and to start again.

Remember SWSWSWSW and it will focus your mind onto the next potential sale.

Until next time, happy selling!

Sean

** IMPROVE YOUR SALES PERFORMANCE **

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_______________________________

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training International

Telephone:
0800 849 6732