All in the same day! How many of you have had this feeling? Things are just going downhill from the moment you crawled out of bed and then they start to get worse! Nothing is going right and no matter what you do, no matter how you act or what you say it just seems to dig you deeper into that hole you woke up in.
Why does this happen? Well it is the catch 22 of the sales world. A catch 22 is a problem that perpetuates itself. In this case you got out of bed and things were already bad, you start to call on customers and the customers can see right away that you are not doing well and most customers don’t want to do business with a sales rep that isn’t performing at 100% so they say no to you which makes things seem even worse. The next customer sees an even more depressed, angry or beaten sales rep and so starts the cycle of the catch 22. This cycle gains momentum until, like the laws of physics teach us, it is acted on by an outside force. What outside force am I talking about? A SALE!!! That’s right, with everything spiraling downhill at breakneck speed, out of nowhere a customer says, I’LL TAKE IT! The funniest thing in the world to me is the look of amazement on a reps face when they are expecting a no and get a yes! It is truly priceless.
The one sale, no matter how big or small it may be, can turn the worst of days into the best of days. How does it do that? Why does it do that? The answer is simple, the sale builds your self esteem. When you have self esteem you have self value, you see yourself differently. All the energy that you were focusing on the negatives happening to you is now channeled toward the positives. This is a mind game at its highest and most important level.
I am not going to start the talk about endorphins and the chemical reactions that take place in the brain when something good or bad happens to you. Let it suffice to say that how you view events has a lot to do with how you think about the event. The example I love to use is SNOW! As a kid in NY, I can remember going outside when it snowed and played for hours on end. My friends and I would dig tunnels and make snow forts for our snow ball fights. I can remember arguing with my mom about coming in to eat or go to bed; I couldn’t get enough of the snow. BUT! If my dad asked me to shovel the driveway and sidewalk, I would be cold, wet and exhausted in about 15 minutes and begging to come inside to warm up. Do you think my way of thinking had something to do with my attitude towards shoveling vs. playing in the snow? ABSOLUTELY!
This same idea is in play when we are having a bad day and it turns into a good day. Our attitude changes and we start to focus on what we CAN do rather than what we CAN’T do. The brain becomes energized with positive thoughts and we immediately snap out of our negative catch 22 and snap into a positive catch 22. That’s right, A POSITIVE CATCH 22. It works the same way, something positive happens and you start to be positive, the next customer sees a positive motivated sales rep and wants to do business with that kind of rep so they say YES, you get more motivated by the yes and the next customer sees an even more motivated rep, and the cycle begins!
I hope this was good news for some of you. Maybe knowing this will help you make it through your next negative catch 22. However I haven’t told you the good news yet! ALL THIS CAN HAPPEN IN A 15 MINUTE TIME PERIOD! Let me step away from my role as a trainer and talk to you as a rep. I have had the days where it went from bad to worse to AWESOME all before lunch. I have been on the emotional rollercoaster that you find yourself on. I know what I was thinking and I can’t believe it is far from what you think when it is happening.
Belief is knowing something, faith is hoping something is so. If you are new to the sales game, I am going to ask you to have faith that what I am telling you is true, after it happens to you the first time you will believe. If you have been around the track a few times then you already know what I am talking about and maybe hearing it again will bring it to life and help you next time it happens. Either way, belief or faith, the result is the same. Remember this:
EVERY STREAK ENDS IN A SLUMP, AND EVERY SLUMP ENDS IN A STREAK!
Lorin
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