Symptoms:
Forget desperate housewives. What really scares buyers are desperate salespeople. How many times have you run into a salesperson that is not in sales for the love of the game, or to be the best at what they do? They act as if they need a sale to pay their bookie by Friday! Buyers have come to loathe this fast talking, pushy pitchman stereotype.
Diagnosis:
Nobody wants to consciously be this way, but there are times when we fail to recognize or monitor our own behavior. Many times desperation comes because salespeople don't work on their sales plan every day. They get behind and then try to make up for lost time. A salesperson's workout is in their daily sales behavior. You have to earn your living every day. It's no different than someone working on the production floor.
In the real world, we are often under tremendous pressure to make the sale. As you allow this pressure to take hold, something changes in your approach to the buyer. You start to come across with quick answers to everything, attempt to defend every objection and push for the "Yes". Price concessions and other errors likely soon follow. You also begin to notice a change in your buyer. Your desperation is showing and it has the opposite effect than you wanted. And often this is where the sale is lost.
Prescription:
Set up a mental "walk away" fund. Let's pretend for a moment that just before that last sales call you stopped at a convenience store and picked up a lottery ticket. The Million Dollar Winner! You now have enough money that you can walk away from anyone.
Now let's say you decided to stay and keep selling anyway. With the winning ticket in your pocket do you think your attitude on that next sales encounter would change much? Yeah, I know. You wouldn't go on the sales call. But if you did, would your attitude be different? You bet it would. Think you'd come across as desperate for the sale? Not hardly. Instead you'd be able to exude a quiet confidence that only a financially secure person would have. Your prospective buyer would notice that attitude and be more comfortable with you, and the call would probably have a better result. Act as if you've got that check in your pocket and watch your fortunes change.
By the way, your real life lottery ticket is a full pipeline of potential buyers!
Do your behavior every day. Hold yourself accountable for responding as a professional. Emphasize decision meetings and the constant mindset to move it or kill.
Fill in the blank - Aside from the Million Dollar Check in your pocket, this week I will Act As If ____________.
Final Thoughts for the Morning:
Courage comes from the belly - all else is desperation ~ Charles Bukowski
Your Top 3 Goals & Tactics for the Week
LAST WEEK: Update us on how things went last week with your stated Goals and GD Tactics.
THIS WEEK: Please share your Top 3 Goals for this week and the GD tactics you plan to deploy.