Attitude can make or break you

Last week I was working with a sales team that has a stretching new business target for 2010/2011 and is just setting out on the new fiscal with vigour and high levels of motivation. Well that is what I expected. What I saw and heard was, surprisingly, different to my expectation.

I listened while a sales specialist complained to his sales manager that he was faced with a portfolio "not fit for purpose" and that it would therefore be nigh on impossible for him to do his number. So here we are in the first month of the year and this guy is already making excuses!

At Accredit we believe strongly in being positive about everything we attempt to achieve with our clients and hence our business. We are all personally responsible for our own thoughts and beliefs and of course the actions that flow from those thoughts and beliefs. We have spent the last couple of years working hard to keep growing our capability and our client base through a difficult period for us all.

So why do some people struggle so much with getting their attitude "right"? Maybe some of us just find it too easy to put hard work into the "too hard" tray on our mental desktops. I'm no psychologist so I don't profess to understand all of the issues underneath a negative approach to the challenges ahead.

Over the past couple of weeks Mark and I have given you our views on how to approach the planning period of a new sales year. We hope you found these last two posts on planning useful and helpful. Planning and a positive attitude go hand in hand. Believing you can achieve a great deal over the coming year is about having a great attitude and having a great sales plan.

As for my friend I met last week who had such a negative attitude towards his new sales year I would say one or two things:-

1. Selling is essentially simple - addressing your customers needs, issues and problems with products, solutions and answers that help your customers grow their business through improved productivity, lower costs, increased revenues or whatever added value you can help them with.
2. Having a portfolio fit for purpose is about working with your customers and your internal partners in product lines, finance, order handling, marketing etc to create something that people want to buy. It is not about moaning that it is "not fit for purpose" and therefore finding excuses before you have even got off your backside at the start of the financial year.
3. If you think you can or if you think you can't either way you are likely to be right.
4. Selling is surprise, surprise a team effort. You may want to be "top salesperson" and that is a great thing to strive for but you cannot do it without your customers, your sales manager and your other internal partners such as product managers. If you need help from them - tell them. Tell them what your customers want and work with your internal partners to do that, profitably for your business (remember them - the ones that pay your salary and bonus)
5. Don't be a fault finder. You can't change anything until you change yourself. So get that Positive Mental Attitude moving and you will be absolutely amazed at what you can achieve

If you want to know more about our ADMIRE model for improving your sales habits then why not drop us a line at fred.nelson@sales-accredit.com or call me Fred Nelson on 07850 779084

Good selling!

By the way I wrote this blog whilst watching the end of the London Marathon on TV. Some of the stories of the "everyday people" running for charity and overcoming personal tragedy are absolutely heart wrenching. What a fantastic attitude some people have!

I hope my sales friend from this week was watching.