I turned the big 4-0 this year, yuck. It seems like just yesterday that I had started my sales career. Back then I would have described myself as an eternal optimist. While I wouldn’t say I’ve changed my view point dramatically over the years, what I have noticed is not everyone has shared my bright eyed- bushy tailed view of the world. As you can imagine over time my cynical view of potential outcomes has a tendency to quickly rear its ugly head a bit faster than it would have in the early days of my career.
Now it could be that I’m just getting more crotchety in my old age OR that I’ve gotten accustomed to the fact that that things rarely end up exactly as I hoped they would. With that said what I’ve also realized is that I should get over it quick, take out the good and bad lessons from the situation and move on. No point in dwelling on it.
Saturday morning I was up early with my 6 year old eating waffles and watching videos on his favorite website Wimp.com. It’s a nice “kid friendly” site that has everything from cuddly animal videos, guys getting kicked in the groin and periodically some inspiring words from inspirational people.
One particular video from Conan O’Brien really spoke to me. Even if Conan isn’t your bag I recommend you check out this 2 minute video where he discusses his departure from the Tonight Show and his thoughts on how we should look at the world
It struck me how applicable his messaging is to the sales and teleprospecting game.
If you have a general lack of faith in your ability to get someone live on the phone you WILL fail. If you feel there is little or no hope in closing a sale, then there is high likelihood that you WILL fail. Funny thing is what he describes here are the qualities of the most successful people I’ve had the pleasure to share my company with, both on a personal and professional level throughout my life and career.
Where does your mind go when faced with a tough task? How do you deal with tough people? Do you go to negative-town?
Again, in the words of Conan- “Please do not be cynical. It’s a crappy quality and doesn’t get you anywhere. If you work really hard and you’re kind, good things will happen.”
It really can be as simple as that….if you want it to be.
