Before you step foot in a house, pick up a phone, or
start writing a sales copy, the first thing you need to possess is a positive
attitude. A good salesman starts off
everyday with a positive attitude.
Rookie salesmen tend to downplay the importance of it. I know when I began my sales journey I
did. Soon I realized a pattern with the
successful salesmen. They always had a
big Kool-aid smile on their face and were always overly positive. Maybe there was a reason behind the unusual
amount of fun we had at the morning sales clinics.
I
remember when I first started the vacuum salesman gig. One particular day the actual distributor
Mike (the owner of the company) was running a van. We were knocking on doors for about 4 hours
with no luck. There was this one
salesman named Juan in the van with us.
This was only his second day in the field. Many of us in the van were tired of knocking
on doors and ready to give up, but not Juan.
Juan was ready to go knock on every block. In fact he couldn’t wait to hop out the van
to go knock on a row of houses.
I
heard his door pitch, and horrible would be an understatement. At the door he did everything they taught us
not to do, not to mention his attire was “street like”
and unprofessional. I thought to myself
there is no way this guy is going to knock himself in a house, let alone make a
sale.
It
was down to just me, Juan, and Mike in the van.
Everybody else was out knocking on different blocks. Mike stopped the van and said, “Alright
which one of you wants to do this block.” Juan hopped out the van like greased
lightening and went running down the block to the first house. As me and Mike pulled away he leaned towards
me and said, “Juan’s going to get in a house
and sell”.
I couldn’t believe my ears. How could this be? Could everything I believed about what makes
a good salesman wrong?
By
the end of the day Juan had not only knocked himself into 2 houses, he sold 2
vacuums. That night I stayed up thinking
about what had occurred. I still couldn’t
understand how to my knowledge I was the perfect salesman. Maybe the reason I wasn’t
knocking myself into houses was me, not because I just happen to get the
unlucky houses every time.
I
talked to mike the following day. I
asked him how he knew Juan would knock himself in and sell, when he obviously
was doing everything wrong. Mike looked
at me and said, “I knew Juan was going to sell
because he stayed positive”.
At that exact moment I had gained one more piece to the good salesman
puzzle.
I
decided to incorporate a positive attitude in everything I do. This is a key component of the ultimate
salesman. No good salesman goes into a
selling day with negativity.
Unfortunately life does happen.
Clear your mind of all the problems in your life before it’s
time to start selling. I’m
not saying don’t face your problems; just face them
after you’ve made all your commission for the
day.
I
wish I could explain the phenomena of being positive. Maybe one day I’ll take that trip up a
big mountain and meet with the spiritual guru and be enlightened on the
subject. Until then I’ll
just continue to be positive and watch it work its magic. If you are planning on being an ultimate
salesman remember to shake off the negative before starting your day.
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