Just saying the words “negative salesperson” almost sounds strange.
The problem is there are far too many negative salespeople out there each and every day competing against you — and worse yet, doing a huge amount of damage to the sales community.
Let’s assume everyone reading this is not what they would call a “negative salesperson.” I will buy that to an extent, but not 100%. Reason is simple — it’s far too easy for us to get negative. We may not get negative in front of our customers because we know how stupid that would be, but it doesn’t stop us from getting negative on ourselves when we walk out of a customer without the order.
As I look back on my career in sales, there were numerous times when I would be Mr. Positive in front of the customer — and the second I left their office, I went negative big-time.
When we go negative, even in the comfort or our own car or office, we start digging away at our belief system.
Customers don’t want to meet with a negative salesperson, but if we’re down on ourselves when we’re in our office, then it’s going to be very hard for it not to come out at least a little bit when we’re with a customer.
The way it can come out is in our tone of voice or in how we start off a sales call.
It might come across in how we position some industry numbers or economic information.
Or as is typically the case, we allow a little bit of negativity to creep into our conversation when we’re talking about an order that didn’t get shipped or an error on an invoice.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t be concerned when something doesn’t go right. We should, but it’s all in how we look at it. Stuff is going to happen. That’s life. How we respond to it is what makes us who we are and how others see us.
Our goal with each and every sales call we make is to help the customer succeed by helping them achieve their goals.
We can only do that when we are positive and we allow our sales motivation to show it.
Copyright 2012, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
