You are like a business empire that has the powers to determine its structure. You are the only one that has the right to design your vision and mission. You are in charge of the decisions about this personal enterprise. You decide who to hire or fire. Your business strategies and the ways to achieve them are in your hands. You know your strengths and weaknesses; you know the type of brand identity you want to develop and how to go about it. You are a brand and only you have the complete information required to tell your story. Only you can tell your story the way you want it. Only you can form yourself the way you want to look. No man can design you except with your approval. Only you can write your script the way you want it to be.
Self-discovery is key. In the journey of life, you are expected to first discover yourself. This self-discovery answers questions like why am I here; what is the actual purpose of my creation? Who really am I? And where do I go from here? It is only when you are able to answer these questions that you will truly know where you are going and how to get there. You might be a very busy person working day and night, seven days in a week but without self-discovery, your effort might be likened to the proverbial pouring of water into a basket. Self- discovery enables you to know your purpose, to know what is expected of you and to know how to achieve it.
It is this self-discovery that will make you perform better as a salesman.
See yourself as the best salesman. The sales job is a job that requires the best from the salesman. It takes your best to convince an individual who is your prospect to buy a product or service only because you want him to buy. It takes your best to attract and sustain customers’ patronage. You cannot give out the best when you have not discovered where the best comes from; when you have not discovered the source of your best performance. The best is inside you, you carry the best in your uniqueness if only you believe it. Your best is driven basically by your mind and the deposit you have inside you.
Everything emanates from the mind. The mind is what designs the character of an individual. The mind is the warehouse meant for your ideas. It is a depot for the thoughts that lead you to greatness. Keep mining the mind to discover the real you. To attain prominence in life or your career, always go into dialogue with your mind to extract the priceless resources deposited there by your creator. What goes on in your mind determines what you will be. The personality you carry inside has a lot to do with your performance; the more positive you are, the greater your results. The Bible says, guide your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. All the things we need to get to the top are deposited on the inside of us. Nothing in life happens by accident, most things we achieve or fail to achieve are products of our conscious or subconscious designs.
Successful salespeople rule their world. It is an age-long adage that you cannot give what you do not have. The best salespeople are those that have discovered themselves, they know where they are, where they are going and how to get there. They are not controlled by vagaries of the market; instead, they are driven by their inner- wheel to overcome their environment. It is in their character to imagine success even before going to the field. Peter Drucker says the best way to predict the future is to create it. Successful sales people create the future they want to see by going after their big dreams. They believe they can achieve their targets against all odds no matter the challenges they see in their environment. They are guided by the right mindset.
In sales, attitude is not just everything but the only thing. The attitude you put up with various people you come across is what determines whether you truly are a successful salesman or not. The way you think as a salesman affects your sales performance positively or negatively. Your thought process is what determines the person you are and the person you will become. Zig Ziglar says, if you want to reach a goal, you must ‘‘see the reaching’’ in your own mind before you actually arrive at your own goal. What you believe is what you get, what you see in your mind’s eye is what you go for. No salesman succeeds with a negative mindset. It is hard to sell the product when you have not sold yourself first. The potential buyer or client is more interested in you whom he sees than the product he is yet to use. Your attitude represents to a very large extent the personality you carry inside. You are likely going to get a positive feedback when you approach a prospect with a personality that shows self-assurance. People like a positive aura around them. Your charisma attracts people to you.
Kill self-limitation. Napoleon Hill in supporting the need to overcome self-limitations writes, if you do not conquer yourself, you will be conquered by self. It is when you have conquered yourself that those great ideas deposited in you will begin to manifest. It can only be noticeable in an atmosphere that depicts self-freedom. Your inner-self contains all the ideas that drive you as a salesman. The positive energy or negative attitude that comes out from your inner-being determines what you will achieve for the day. It is generally believed that you can’t conquer a war when you feel defeated before going to that war. This rule also applies to sales. You must believe in yourself and in what you are selling before succeeding in any sales environment.
The salesman is like a soldier on the battlefield. A salesman is like a soldier going to a battlefield. The more equipped the soldier is; the easier it becomes for him to win the battle. The state of the mind is the first thing to equip whenever there is any task you want to embark on. The more you believe in yourself that you will achieve your aim, the closer you are to your goals. It also goes that the more doubts you have in your abilities the farther away your goals become.
Fight your battles like a soldier who desires to win. Conquer your inner-self so that you can conquer your world. There are no excuses for failure in sales. Let your target be top performance. Strive to become the next Selling Champion. There’s no stopping you. No one can stop you except you. No one can make you a sales superstar except you. The time to start is now!