Do any of you think of your advisory careers in terms of a sporting event? Sales guru Jack Singer certainly does and provides sports psychology tips that can help “skyrocket your sales performance.”
Singer, who is a contributor to Senior Market Advisor, provided us with some interesting ideas on how you can help you in your sales performance beginning immediately. Singer also looks at sales performance from a team perspective, which offers you additional help if you have associates you are mentoring. Following are highlights from Singer, look for more of his tips in the May issue of Senior Market Advisor.
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Teach them to understand the warning signs of their “Internal Critic” at work. Self-talk will either make you successful or will lead to disappointment. So often, people unconsciously use self-limiting thoughts, which prevent them from being successful. Examples of negative, pessimistic self-talk phrases, are: “What if …,” “I hope I don’t …” I should have said …” “The client won’t like me if …” “I always have problems with …”I probably won’t be able to close this sale,” or “I can’t believe how stupid I was to say that …”
Negative, pessimistic messages that people allow to pass through their minds immediately lead to muscle tightening throughout the body. This tightening is accompanied by more rapid breathing and often perspiring. Consequently, these physiological responses are perceived as “stress,” and you can read that all over the face and body language of the sales person or athlete, for example.
Sales people can practice catching themselves when these types of negative thoughts go through their minds, and they can make a fist (out of view of the prospective customer), which is a reminder to stop thinking that way and to take a few relaxing breaths, release the fist, relax, and proceed to think positively and optimistically.
There is an old saying: “What you believe, you can achieve.” Internal self-talk leads to beliefs, either positive or negative, and beliefs lead to the body’s reactions. Sales people need to believe in their products and ability to show the customer why he or she needs to purchase that product today. Once sales people believe in themselves and their products, they are in a much better position to achieve sales success.
Suggest that they give themselves positive affirmations each day.
Positive affirmations are positive, optimistic thoughts about your sales success as if it is happening today, right now. Because our subconscious mind doesn’t know the difference between something real or imagined (for example, visualize yourself biting into a tart lemon and see what your mind tells your salivary glands to do), when you give yourself positive affirmations and imagine they these things are happening right now, your subconscious mind wants to make them happen for you. Here are examples of positive affirmations for sales people: