The Little Things

Here's Jim Meisenheimer:

In sales attitude is everything about everything.

Even though a lot of salespeople know this, they pay little attention to keeping their attitude positive on a daily basis.

Selling is never easy. In fact someone once said, “Selling is easy if you work hard at it.”

If you have the wrong attitude, achieving selling success is almost impossible.

Your attitude is of course an intangible. It’s also the foundation of your selling success.

Too many salespeople don’t spend enough time working on their attitudes. You should think about it every day. You should think about it before every sales call.

After every sales call reflect on the attitude you had throughout the sales call.

How’s your attitude when someone cancels an appointment at the last minute?

How’s your attitude when someone says you’ll have 45 minutes for a sales presentation and he ends the call just after 20 minutes?

How’s your attitude when someone takes a shot at your company?

Sure attitude is everything about everything in sales. Never forget this!

How’s your attitude when someone starts hammering you on your pricing before you’ve had a chance to give your presentation?

How’s your attitude when someone tells you they only buy on price?

How’s your attitude when someone procrastinates and can’t make a decision to buy the solutions you’re selling?

How’s your attitude when you find out the person you’ve been talking to isn’t the decision-maker?

How’s your attitude when you get a flat tire during a snow storm as you’re driving to a sales prospect’s office – an appointment you’ve been working on for 2 months?

How’s your attitude when you’re dealing with problems at home?

How’s your attitude when you don’t feel well?

Your attitude is everything and here’s a real life example to illustrate this point.

During the Vietnam War, Air Force Colonel George Hall was shot down and captured in North Vietnam. He was a prisoner of war for 7.5 years.

Even though he was barefoot and dressed in his black prison uniform, shut up in a small cell, he realized that through the power of his imagination he had an amazing freedom.

He realized his attitude is everything about everything.

He was able to leave his prison cell everyday dressed in a Polo shirt and slacks. He wore clean golf shoes. He could feel the thick grass under his feet.

The Colonel played each hole of his favorite golf course, starting with the first and ending with the eighteenth. He studied each shot, measured each swing, felt each blade of grass between his fingers as he replaced every divot.

He played his golf everyday in the theatre of his mind.

He noted the sand in each bunker, hit each shot, sank each putt and strode on to the next hole - all in his imagination.

Every day for 7.5 years he played a perfect game of golf on his favorite golf course. The Colonel realized that only he had the power to make a choice between being resigned to his fate, of fear and hopelessness, or he could replay his happiest moments from the past, taking his mind off solitary confinement and setting it free upon a beautiful and famous golf course.

When he returned from his captivity, in his first golf game he shot a 76-not a bad score for a professional golfer, but even more amazing for an amateur. When he was asked how he had accomplished such a feat, he said he never had more than 2 putts on a green during the last 7.5 years.

All those years of playing perfect games in the theater of his mind, had produced a near perfect performance on a very challenging golf course! It was his best round of golf ever.

Don't think about how tough you have it in life think about how tough Colonel Hall had it for 7 1/2 years as a prisoner of war.

If you believe your attitude is everything about everything in your sales career, work on the little things you can do to maintain a very positive attitude every selling day?

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Jim Meisenheimer
13506 Blythefield Terrace
Lakewood Ranch, FL 34202
Tel: 800-266-1268
Fax: 941-907-0441
jim@meisenheimer.com
www.startsellingmore.com

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