Use Positive Psychology to Strengthen Your Sales Career

Years ago, things were really going to shit with a huge account of mine and I was doing all I could to prepare myself for getting ripped a new one. 

After eleven hours of trains, planes and automobiles to Peoria, IL, I was slammed up against a one hour meeting with one very unhappy client: they hated what we were doing for them, hated the product, hated everything. It took me by surprise, but I faced the hour of reaming with a smile. By the end of the day, they bought another $100k of software from us.

It was the power of projection, my friends, that saved my ass. By maintaining my cool and keeping a positive attitude I was able to convince our very angry client that I was genuinely committed to solving their problem. We weren’t defensive, we weren’t confrontational, and we didn’t go home with our tail between our legs – we persisted and blinded them with our eternal optimism.

See, I would rather people hate me or love me – it’s indifference I can’t stand. To really be that angry about a piece of software meant that they cared. Harnessing the power of attitude – both yours and your client’s can make or break you.

Having the right attitude is critical in sales. We face rejection on a regular basis and need to learn how to deal with it like champs or look for careers elsewhere. Think of it this way: a really good baseball player hits one out of every three. It’s the same with sales guys – we get rejected seven or eight times out of ten. How do we deal with that?

Lifehacker has a great post about how to maintain your positive attitude in the face of rejection. They recommend picking the easiest tip to fit into your life for starters, so I thought I’d give you the highlights. Remember, folks, if you want to be legendary in this business it’s all about attitude.

Garbage In, Garbage Out

This one is pretty self explanatory. What you put inside your head, is what will come out. So if you are constantly surrounded by negativity – whether that’s from your coworkers, your boss, the TV, learn to cut it out. It’ll become a lot easier to maintain your positivity when there aren’t so many negative forces getting into your head.

Determine Your Own Reality

You can choose how to interpret every situation – as positive or negative. When you eventually learn to see the positive in every situation you’ll open up a whole Pandora’s box of opportunities. Look what happened when I turned things around with my client.

Stop Thinking Negatively

If you feel a negative thought rearing its ugly head, beat that sucker back with a baseball bat of positivity. It’ll become easier over time, but while you’re getting there try using a method to get yourself back into happy territory such as humming your favorite song or repeating a mantra.

Remember that you don’t want to blow smoke up your client’s ass. There is a balance between positivity and delusion – what we’re trying to get at here is teaching yourself to see less walls and more open roads. When you’re constantly thinking negatively you are letting fear control your life and shutting the door before it’s even open, so smash those bad thoughts and become legendary in this business.

Photo courtesy of hqwalls4u.com