Beat Those Selling Blues

[Drindal]

If I had to choose one thing that seriously affects the performance of the average seller I would definitely choose those all too familiar “Selling Blues”
It’s just inevitable that sales people will have days when things just don’t go to plan. Customers will cancel appointments, heavy traffic delays meetings, clients will complain about something and I’m sure you can think of many more examples. We aren’t robots so for most of us this will affect our mood. Unfortunately for sales figures this state of mind doesn’t last for seconds or minutes either. In fact, it seems to carry on for the entire working day. We try our best to reverse the process but more often than not our efforts are in vain.

So what can we do to beat those selling blues? Well believe it or not there are solutions to this curse of a problem. Firstly we must re-educate our subconscious mind to return to the positive state it was in before all those negative events occurred. How do we this is the million dollar question? Well, the answer is rather simple really! We must condition and in a sense “brainwash” ourselves with repeated phrases and keywords. These positive words and phrases should generally be natural to our every day vocabulary and not “artificial sounding” We should repeat positive words like "wonderful" and "incredible" even though we don't feel them in our heart of hearts.

Another technique that works well for me is to focus my mind back to a really positive moment that brings back great memories. Keep thinking about it or write it down on a piece of paper and keep this going for a few minutes and hopefully you will be able to shake off those blues.

“Selling Blues” can also be a real problem for Sales Managers or “Motivators” because an entire team can also be affected in this way. If you look back to your school days you’ll remember that every classroom of students has “leaders” and “influencers” If these people are having a bad day at the office they tend to “spread the bad news” to just about everybody who is willing to listen to them. Everyone joins in with the chorus and suddenly the job is terrible, the company is terrible and the manager sucks. Reversing this process is more of an uphill struggle because you may be dealing with ten or twenty people. Shaking the blues off twenty people can almost be an impossible task unless the “leaders” and “influencers” are pacified and contented.


Returning back to the case of the individual suffering from Sales Blues it has to be said that you need imagination to stop this cycle and it can differ quite a lot from one person to the next. The problem is that most people do absolutely nothing about their state of mind and just accept it.

I personally like to adjust my environment for a while when I find myself in this type of dilema. I’ll go for a walk outside and get some fresh air. I might go and treat myself to something special to eat or buy myself a small gift that will lift my spirit. Colours and odours can be very useful when buying small gifts because they too can be uplifting and refreshing. I hope some of my suggestions will help you to beat those selling blues!


This article was written by Sales Expert and Sales Course Creator David Lynch who has written many books such as “Making The Seller” and “39 Mistakes to Avoid in Sales” He offers lots of valuable FREE sales tips on his website www.makingtheseller.com

[karynsolo]

I am a firm believer that working for the right company also helps to keep motivation higher. This I know from bitter experience to be true. If you work for a company that has a militaristic way of getting results from the sales staff it becomes old fast and overbearing, it is actually counter productive. You cannot threaten employees into compliance with Sales goals.

I recently did a study of my own and spoke to random people in various fields of work. I asked one question :

If you could have the freedom to speak openly to your boss about what thing/s would make it more enjoyable at work and cultivate better motivation what would you suggest?

The top suggestions made were:

1. Less of a big company feel and more of a personal approach.

2. Want to feel like an important as a team member and not so much like a number.

3. To feel less controlled and more appreciated for the efforts put forth.

The general message that I picked up was dissatisfaction in how employees are treated, they are frustrated, they feel unappreciated and in general like they really do not matter to their bosses.

When it comes to employee motivation if it is not there customer service suffers and in general the business will eventually suffer.

This all goes hand in hand and can greatly affect how well your team performs or how you perform for your company.

[Duane]

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[quote="Drindal"] We must condition and in a sense “brainwash” ourselves with repeated phrases and keywords. These positive words and phrases should generally be natural to our every day vocabulary and not “artificial sounding” We should repeat positive words like "wonderful" and "incredible" even though we don't feel them in our heart of hearts.

Hi Drindal,

I love this suggestion! Positive mindset is crucial indeed! Great post!

Here's what I say to myself when I need to beat the selling blues:

I am a powerful, competent, happy, loving, rich, successful, generous, outgoing, joyful, healthy, strong, kind, gracious, calm, compassionate, gentle, precious, resourceful, talented, blissful woman.

And if I need to, I add more to it! I repeat this a few times and pretty soon I am believing it and feeling great!

Lisa

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Hi karynsolo,

What a great study! I too have had the experience of working for the "wrong" company.

Sometimes, knowing what you "don't" want in an employer can be empowering in that it helps you learn about what you "do" want in an employer!

It does get one thinking! Thanks for the great post!

Lisa

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BTW karynsolo,

You probably already thought of this, but how about turning your study into a special report or ebook?

Just a thought...

Lisa

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Hi Duane!

I agree, it is so natural and human to feel discouraged. But it is our choice entirely whether we want to stay discouraged !

What you say is true! Action equals results!

Positive action equals positive results.

Massive powerful action equals massive powerful results!

Here is a link to Anthony Robbins quotes (I think he is great):

http://thinkexist.com/quotes/anthony_robbins/

Here are 3 massive powerful action steps I took today:

1. I wrote my letter of resignation to be handed in on Monday (I am getting out of a negative job)

2. I registered for a recertification test to keep my professional licence current (this is my plan B--if all else fails, I can always go back to this profession, plus I can put a few initials after my name here and there

3. I joined my local Chamber of Commerce--something I have been wanting to do but kept putting off.

Lisa

[Duane]

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