That one sentiment that at best holds people back. At
worst it can kill a business.
Even if some of your sales team are not saying this
out loud, my experience is that several of them will be thinking it.
I’d wager that if your company is not hitting its
sales targets, at least 50% of the reason why will be because, whoever’s job it
is to sell, they won’t believe that they can. And by carrying
that belief around with them all day, it will directly affect their results.
I know many who work full time in sales for large
companies and who have significant inhibitions around selling. Deep down that
dreaded inner voice casts doubt on their ability to succeed in sales.
Join the club
So this week I just wanted to get it out there that
you’re not alone! There’s a whole army of people out there whose job it is to
sell, but when it comes to the crunch, they have severe doubts in their ability
to prospect, canvass, generate rapport, overcome objections, cold call, close
and so on.
For anyone who has reservations about their ability to
sell – be in no doubt, it will show in terms of performance and of course
results. For example, if any of your team believe - either consciously or
unconsciously - that “the customer doesn't really want to be bothered right now
with information about my product", their communication, either
verbal or written, will definitely indicate this lack of confidence to your
customers and prospects - and they won't buy.
The wrong solution
So what do your team members think about themselves?
What do they believe about their sales ability? What do they truly believe
about the products they're selling?
When many people fall short at selling, the real
reasons for this failure rarely get discovered. As a result, product knowledge
training usually gets prescribed to remedy the problem. Or sales process
training. Maybe presentation skills. Maybe team building. Leadership. Time
management.
Look again. There are two main reasons why people do
not reach their potential when selling. And inner limiting beliefs about
their core ability to sell is one of them (I’ll save the other for
another week!).
There is a 'cure'
You can start by noticing where your team members
incur the most resistance to selling. Some areas of selling they'll probably
enjoy, some they'll detest. The ones they detest will usually be those that,
when they think about it, they just don’t believe they are any good at.
Once you've analysed these behavioural trends, you can
start to come up with an action plan to counter these limiting beliefs.
The one thing you can’t do is push this under the
carpet. It won’t do your peace of mind any good – and it won’t do your company
any good. The UK is about to blast its way out of an economic slump and you
need to make sure everyone's on board the recovery train and not left at the
station.
In short...you need a team of competent - and
brilliantly confident sellers in 2014.
Next action?
If you want to explore further, drop me a private
email to results@sales-consultancy.com and I can send you some complimentary
information to help you (too much to print here).
In the meantime if you’ve got five minutes to spare,
watch a short video of me talking about limiting beliefs - here's the link
Yes...it's about the psychology of selling
Until next time
Leigh
Get
the complimentary download NOW or have the DVD posted to you.
020 7903 5426
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