Symptoms:
Kathy is frustrated after a recent sales call. She believes if she was brave enough to ask about certain things, the call would have gone her way. It seems like she is constantly on defense and that the client is intentionally "pushing her buttons". Despite her training, it felt like she was always reacting to every little thing that was said rather than thinking about what was really going on. How can she find a way to consistently act like a professional on the call?
Diagnosis:
Amateur salespeople tend to get "emotionally" involved by overreacting to what buyers say during an interview. The emotions range from despair ("I'm losing this"), to anger ("I hate sales") to excitement ("I own this guy"). Amateurs are too emotionally involved to function as a professional. They are frozen with emotion and miss opportunities to either turn a call around or close a deal.
Prescription
Act like a professional at each sales interview. What inner dialogue goes through a professional's head during each interview? Let's go inside for a look, shall we?
"Nothing bad can happen during a conversation about business."
"Things are never as good or bad as they seem at that moment"
"It's not over, till the fat lady sings"
"I will survive." - Gloria Gaynor (Disco Reference!)
"No is as bad as it gets!"
"You miss 100% of the shots you never take" - Wayne Gretzky
"You can't control others, only your response" - Johnnie Cochran
"King Kong ain't got nothing on me" - Denzel Washington in Training Day
"What is the next step in my process?" - Professional with a sales process
Critical Thinking
What are the top 2 emotions that you frequently experience during sales calls gone good or bad?
How do you recognize them and what are you going to do to keep them from standing in your way?
The Drill
Final Thought for the Morning:
"How you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win." ~Gilbert K. Chesterton
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.
Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash
