Are you trying to get your emotional
needs met during a sales call? On the surface, most salespeople
would say, "No." But the truth is quite different. Let's take a
look.
To which of the following can you
relate?
- You want to be liked as much as,
or perhaps more than, you want to close the sale.
- You're not "assertive" enough with
prospects.
- You link your self-worth to your
sales success.
- You experience call reluctance,
perhaps because of a fear of rejection.
- You find it difficult to deal with
negative prospects.
To one degree or another all of these
issues have to do with our concept of ourselves and our need for
others to like us, be nice to us, or make us feel OK
If you want to make it to the top in
sales, read this Sandler concept, memorize it, and say it to
yourself every day: Sales is no place to get my emotional
needs met; the purpose of sales is to go to the bank.
Now, let me qualify this for those
who are thinking that I'm a cold hearted mercenary. I love the sales
profession and I enjoy great relationships with my clients. Sales is
a rewarding career; I enjoy the thrill of making the sale and then
being able to provide a valuable service to my clients. Sales is
also fuel for my life. It provides the income I want in order to
live the life I want. In summary, I can get my financial and
professional needs met in sales - but NOT MY EMOTIONAL NEEDS.
Let's explore the "what" and "why" of
our thinking in regards to emotions and sales. If you don't have
someplace in your life where you know without a doubt you will
receive unconditional love, then you will probably end up looking
for love in all the wrong places. For many people, that wrong place
is sales. This is not as far fetched as it sounds. I recently spoke
with a young lady who was being treated poorly by a lot of her
prospects. They talked down to her, criticized her prices, never
gave definitive answers, and would not tell her where she stood with
them. She felt like she was always in a subservient position to
these prospects and had unwittingly bought into the notion that she
needed to put up with this in order to make sales. The good news is
that she was making a decent living but she knew she could be more
successful and she knew she wanted to feel more comfortable in the
sales process.
As we discussed her situation, it
came to light that she had grown up with a very critical, very
demanding father. All of her life he criticized her appearance, her
weight, her abilities, and her performance. She received no
affirmation from the very man who should have provided the
unconditional love that every child needs. Result: Weak
self-concept, lousy self-image, a belief system that says being
abused during a sales call is OK, a high need for somebody to like
her, an inability to ask tough questions for fear of upsetting the
prospect, and an overall failure to be politely assertive. Bottom
line? She's unwittingly trying to get her emotional needs met during
her sales calls. All this from a woman who, on the surface, is
professional, articulate, and attractive. How much more effective
could she be if she adjusted her belief systems and had a suit of
armor to protect her self-image during a sales call?
If you ever suffer from any of the
sales maladies mentioned earlier, remember these rules to help you
stay on task:
- Never become emotionally involved
in a sales call.
- Selling is no place to get your
emotional needs met.
- When prospects reject you, they're
just saying no to your product.
- Having a lousy day in sales does
not make you a lousy person.
- Don't confuse your self-image with
your sales role success.
If you want to be all you can be in
sales, recognize that it's a great profession, but one that will put
you on an emotional roller coaster if you let it. Stay off that wild
ride by leaving your emotions in the car during your sales calls. If
you do that, you'll experience fewer heartaches and more trips to
the bank!
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Sandler Systems, Inc. All rights
reserved.
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