The Attitude Phenomenon

It is especially interesting to me how easily we sales professionals make excuses for not selling more than our capability. Have you noticed how easy it is to blame the customer? Blame the market competitiveness or the soft economy? Blame it on price? Or blame it on poor support staff or even the boss?

Just how important is "attitude" and what role does it play in sales performance?

I believe that "attitude" is the difference in achieving extraordinary sales success. I'd even say that having a healthy attitude is just as important as possessing confidence or product knowledge.

Who wants to do business with a rep who is downcast and unenthusiastic? If we aren't excited then the customer senses it and resistance to the sales message intensifies. Let me describe my personal story of selling, I think you can relate with it somehow.

I have always sold something. At eleven I sold Grit newspapers. My friends said no one would want it, but I sold so many subscriptions that I earned toys and stuff aglore. At 12 I talked my mom into taking me to a hotel to answer a classified ad for selling pot holders door-to-door. She wondered who would buy? I made so much the first week she made me quit because she thought it had to be dishonest!

At 22 I became Vice President of National Leadership Institute and sold high net-worth business executives on training programs and donations. At Dow Chemical I stole $4 million away from competitors all at higher prices. At Tetra Technologies during my 6 month training program, they gave me 500 no-hope accounts. I sold over $2 million dollars and became the #1 salesman in the country in the first year. My counterparts told me I wouldn't sell anything to those accounts! Later, they offered me the National Sales Director's job for this $400 million company.

In my twenties I sold executives at Champion Spark Plug, Exxon, Proctor & Gamble, SOHIO, Sun Oil, Dow Chemical, Whirlpool, Ralston Purina and Coors on nothing but concepts. I was told I'd be too young for them to take me seriously.

When I wanted publicity for the two books I've written, experts advised hiring a high-priced publicist, no media person talks to authors direct. But I sold the Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning News, USA Today, HR Executive Magazine, Advisor Today and Oil & Gas Journal - - and over 150 radio stations including CBS on covering my ideas. I've landed millions of dollars in free publicity...now they even call me! This past year Entrepreneur Magazine asked me to contribute story ideas on selling.

When I bought a struggling radio station in 1997 many thought it was too big a gamble. I was told that everything possible had been attempted to increase sales and that the competition was just too tough. I reorganized the station and quadrupled sales in less than four months.

In 1986 I began my consulting and training company and was told that Springfield was too small a market. But I sold Bass Pro, Tracker Marine, Silver Dollar City, Jiffy Lube, Commerce Bank and Great Southern Bank on training and surveying services that paid me a six figure income within the first 3 years! Started with nothing but a typewriter and letterhead and refused to listen to the pessimists.

Every single time, just like you, I ignored the defeatists that quietly whispered, "It won't work", "The business is slow", "No one will buy right now", "No one wants any." It can't, it won't, it couldn't... I can hear it right now. Some times the words echo right down the hallway where we work, or from friends or well-intentioned family members.

But, we do have a choice to tune-out negative programming and tune-in a more promising picture. Really, it's a choice we must make if we are to be successful. A wise man once noted, "The only difference in a rut and a grave is the depth!"

Some salespeople dig a mental grave for themselves so deep it's almost impossible to climb out. Listen, you and I can reverse our mental direction and climb out of a rut (or grave) in less than one minute's time if we choose. We won't reverse our fortune in a minute but you and I can reverse the path we're on - in an instant, right now.

Now, the quickest way to change our circumstances is to change the lens through which we view our world. One of my favorite bits of ancient wisdom says, As a man thinketh so is he. We act out what we think. How we feel about ourselves and our product is perceptible to our customers. That's why a phenomenal attitude is so key.