Sales Performance Boost For Top Salespeople – Part One

It was 4:45 pm, on a Friday. Abiding the cardiologist orders to take it slow and no straining, my husband took the elevator from our garage to our living area. Then I heard the elevator alarm go off and thought, “THAT little devil is playing with me!” And I kept about my unpacking, totally disregarding the alarm barking in the background. nn#1 - Pay attention to that self-talk.

As a salesperson, have you ever heard that internal voice, your self-talk, say something to you and then ignore it? Maybe you’ve had a thought like, “You should follow-up with Mr. Smith who you met at that networking event.” Or, “I really want to meet John Jones because I’ve heard they are looking around for (your product or service.)” Then, you just go about your other things to do, but that voice continues to talk to you. Pay attention to it as it’s trying to send you a positive message.

I heard the alarm go off again and thought, “Hmm, what’s going on here?,” walking over to the elevator. That’s when I heard him yell, “Get me outta here!” nn#2 - Stay away from the triplets, shoulda, coulda, and woulda.

Some self-talk just never stops does it? It just elevates itself into should, could or would statements. That can cause salespeople to talk even louder or more negatively to themselves. Most salespeople then add to the problem and get further stuck in negative land by adding the triplets, should have, could have and would have, into their phraseology. Word of caution: leave the ‘triplets’ home!

When I went to investigate, I found that the elevator had stopped just one foot of letting him off to our living area! It took two calls and ten minutes to the elevator emergency repair team before they returned my calls.

In the meantime, I had about 3 to 4 tools in hand trying to get the hinges off, or the latch hook off the door. We were both SO conce
ed about preserving the dang door that we didn’t consider the potential damage to my hubby’s health! We called our community police and they sent the lieutenant.nn#3 - Use as many belief techniques as you know.
How many tools do you have on hand to identify and let go of limiting beliefs or negative feelings? These keep you from moving to that next level you want to get. There are many belief releasing tools. The Sedona Technique, Emotional Freedom Technique or one called Love Letters are just a few you can use.

Why so many tools? Sometimes one will work better than another at times. Sometimes it’s not just a friend you need to talk you through getting over a lost sale. Add a coach to your toolbox and you will move along much faster.

THEN finally with elevator tech on the way, the three of us decided to call the fire department. Since he IS scheduled for heart surgery, it MIGHT be a better route than waiting the hour. Within 5 minutes, three trucks pull up in front, with about 8 or 10 firemen (no hoses), who come through the front door.nn#4 - To get unstuck, just get doing.

Besides the obvious and cliché “two heads are better than one,” as human beings, we have to get busy on the doing part.

If you are stuck in any part of sales reluctance, sometimes the easiest thing to do is to just get going doing something. Let’s say you procrastinate about calling on a certain prospect. Could you consider sending an email or a greeting card? Do it! Or perhaps you could call someone you know who may be able to ask for an introduction for you? Do that. If you do one thing – like call the community police – you’ll have momentum to do other actions – like call the fire department.

So lessons learned, 1- listen to your self-talk, 2- monitor self-talk so it doesn’t go the shoulda, coulda, woulda path, 3- consider a variety of options including a coach, to test and shift your beliefs, and 4- take it one step at a time and you will move more quickly to the level of success you want.

Taking what may seem like smaller actions actually do help you in selling to more people more often. Stay tuned for part two of, “Sales Performance of Top Salespeople.”