Sales & Marketing Program

We all grow up with a set of personal beliefs. How we were raised to behave and what we were taught to think influences and shapes our belief system. What your internal voice tells you will influence your sales behaviors and will either support or hinder your success. Some beliefs will limit or encourage a strong self-image and relationship with prospects. Others will influence buying decisions, size of deals, and for managers and executives, how they manage people and processes.

Being emotionally involved in a sale takes you out of the present. You think about the future, or next step. You are not in the present moment and hearing what your prospect is actually saying, including the tone and inflection of their voice. You are losing your objectivity, ability to offer insight, and developing happy ears that tell you what you want to hear. (They’re ready to buy!) This will inhibit your ability to listen and ask questions with ease. You will also likely get frustrated and try to "move things along" only to push away prospects with your tactics.

When your prospect pushes back that you are too expensive, you are likely to agree with them. Instead of helping a prospect focus on the value of solving the problem, you are focused on price. When that happens, you aren’t able to find the real budget for a solution. When you focus on price, you are not asking the right questions to make sure you understand the problem. To you, the problem is the price. You can understand that, it seems like a pretty high price to you too.

Do you believe that people need to like you to buy from you? If so, you are setting yourself up for failure. Your fear of being disliked inhibits all of the necessary sales skills to engage in meaningful conversations that win deals. Without a need for approval, you have the freedom to do or say anything.

If you are the type of person who has to compare features, price shop, or delays decisions to think a purchase over, then you can certainly understand it when a prospect wants to do the same thing, right? How you behave as a buyer will impact your ability to sell, and if you are a leader, the way you buy will influence how your team sells.

The ability to handle rejection stems from your own self-image. When you are comfortable with who you are and the value that you bring, you understand that it’s not you they reject, just your offer to help. When rejection no longer inhibits you, you will be able to ask the appropriate thought provoking questions and become a thought leader and trusted adviser in your prospects' and clients' mind.