Sales Motivation is Leveraged in Your Beliefs

This article is a little different. In addition to the topic I’ve included an exercise to help you put the information to use.

Brian Tracey, Speaker and Author, says, “Whatever you believe with feeling becomes your reality.”

If you’ve been applying High Payoff Activities or other successful marketing practices and your results are lacking, your beliefs might be holding you back. If you are closing small or medium-size deals and can’t figure out how to land the big one, it could be due to your beliefs. If you can’t find the right salesperson, or build any consistency in sales at your company, your beliefs might be playing a role. If you keep putting off what you know you need to do, check your beliefs.

Your effectiveness with a prospect or sales person is related to the confidence or attitude you display in yourself and your ability. Your confidence and attitude stem from your beliefs. Beliefs are either formed by our experiences and knowledge or by a conscious desired choice. Managing our attitudes and beliefs is essential to becoming more effective in sales and sales management.

There have been numerous experiments done with people under hypnosis to test the power of beliefs. An ice cube is placed on a subjects arm but they are told it is searing hot metal. Instead of a cold spot on their arm, heat blisters have formed. What matters most is not what is happening but what the person believes is happening.

If we can make our skin blister by our beliefs, it is safe to say we make or break a sales process by these same beliefs. I hope this doesn’t sound odd, but we as people love to be right. I mean, when was the last time you woke up and looked for ways to be wrong. A major function of our mind is to be right, even if being right doesn’t serve us or is inconsistent with what we say we want. Have you heard yourself use these phrases, “I told you”, “I knew it”, “I was afraid of that”, or “I can’t believe it happened again”…the truth is we usually do believe it happened.

• If we believe we cannot offer value to a client we come across this way.
• If we believe budgets are tight we tend to find prospects with this objection.
• If we believe there is an abundance of business to be had, we will find it.
• If we believe we can help businesses, we will.
• If we believe people will say no to our calls, they will.
• If we believe it’s hard to find good sales people, it is.
• If we believe sales people are lazy we will see that in their actions.

If we have a belief that is contrary to our personal or business goals, I am calling that limiting. It will limit your ability to reach your goals. If you’re willing, take your time with the following exercise and explore your beliefs to see if you have any that might be working against you. You’ll then have a chance to choose a new one.

Exercise

Be as honest as you can about the following questions. List your answers on paper or share them with someone to get a second opinion.

If you are a salesperson

Do you believe there is plenty of business to close or is the market limited?
Do you believe people want to give you referrals or do you believe they feel like they are doing you a favor?
Do you believe your sales goal is reasonable and you should hit it every period?
Do you believe other departments want to support your efforts?
Can you think of a belief that is limiting your effectiveness?

If you are a business owner or sales manager

Do you believe it is hard to find good sales people?
Do you believe sales people work hard or tend to slack?
Can you trust your sales people?
Do you believe your sales people can hit your sales goals for you?
Do you believer you can manage effectively or not?
Can you think of a belief that is limiting your effectiveness?

If you listed beliefs that are ineffective or do not support you in growing your business or sales, you will need to reframe them. Try the following steps to do that.

A way to change your beliefs

1. Pick a belief you would be willing to consider changing.
2. How do you feel when you think of this belief?
3. Ask yourself if that is what you want?
4. What part of your belief is fabricated? (Ex. You are not a fortuneteller so you cannot say for a fact that good sales people are hard to find. It is a fabrication.)
5. How would you like it to be?
6. What belief would support how you want it to be?
7. Commit to affirming this belief when your old belief enters your mind.

If you are still having trouble finding a positive belief consider these truths.

• Someone is buying something today from you or your competitors.
• There are more good people in this world than not, good people that sell can be good sales people.
• Buyers want you to be the one that has the right solution for them because most of them don’t like shopping.
• People like to refer people to people they trust.
• Most people want to help a bigger cause, sales people included.
• People like to be led toward buying and a worth goal

If you are serious about changing your ineffective beliefs you can make a difference in your results. You might be amazed to find out that better sales people will show up at your door and clients you believed would not be interested have been waiting for someone like you to call.

What I have laid out is usually taught in a four hour workshop. In order for this to work you have to go into it with a high level of trust. Fee free to call me if you have questions.

Rene