Go ahead and blame someone else!
Go ahead and blame marketing, your boss, operations, or even the customer. The sale you just lost was certainly not lost because of you. Certainly your sales motivation is sinking because of someone else.
It’s someone else’s fault!
Cut the garbage thinking and get real with yourself. It is your fault!
I’m not saying this to make you or anyone else feel bad, but wow — do I get upset at the number of times I hear salespeople blame everyone and everything else for their inability to close a sale. The number one time I hear this is with price.
All of us — and I’m putting myself in this camp too — have complained at one time or another about a sale we lost purely because we didn’t have the right price.
Nobody is going to be successful if all they do is go around and blame others.
Stop the complaining and start dealing with it. For those things you complain about that you can change, what’s stopping you from changing them?
For those things you can’t change, what’s preventing you from finding a different process? We have to take control of our own successes and failures. Taking credit for successes is easy. Every salesperson knows how to do that.
But what about the failures?
Sales is never going to be a job without obstacles. If there weren’t obstacles, then it wouldn’t be sales. Remember one thing — It’s not what happens to us that matters; it’s how we respond to what happens to us that really matters.
The next time something doesn’t go right, don’t blame anyone or anything else. Instead, stop and ask yourself, “What can I change to prevent a similar outcome from occurring again?”
Copyright 2011, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
