Why does selling appear to be so much easier for some salespeople?
It seems that they have a knack of identifying which doors to open and then knowing just what to do or say to convince the prospect as to the value of their offering. They are often described as “lucky” or “always been in the right place at the right time”. Strangely I once heard an under performing seller accuse a top performer of “been able to see into the future”. Hopefully most of us would not have come to this conclusion but we can understand the frustration felt.
So how can the very best salespeople appear at least to be luckier than the rest of us? Why do they seem to close deals with less effort and fuss? How do they create this sales illusion?
Observe top performers and you will see there are startling similarities in how they view the world.
Top performers assume that every sales opportunity will end in a sale.
Well logic and the rest of us would say that this couldn’t possibly be true so why continue to do it? The reason is that top performers have discovered that this is the most effective frame of mind to ensure that more opportunities end in sales.
You too can discover this for yourself. Remember the last time you were having a really great month or quarter. You will recall that selling seemed much easier and required less effort. Of course it wasn’t easier, it was actually you’re outlook about selling that had changed. In other words because of your success you started to believe that you could sell every time you talked to a prospect. You were what they refer to in sports as in the zone.
Top performers are smart enough to adopt this outlook all the time not because they think they can sell to every prospect but because it helps them to perform to the best of their ability as a salesperson and close more deals.
Top performers talk to prospects like the deal is done
This positive assumptive outlook also has an effect on the top performers conversations with prospects. The language used is much more confident and bold. If you listen in to their conversations it appears that they must feel like the deal is already done.
Top performers always see lots more juicy opportunities
The top performers outlook as regards the market is also significantly different. Where some sellers see limitations and scarcity, top performers see opportunity and abundance. They see a bigger deal and a bigger picture with each and every opportunity. They believe that there are plenty of potential selling opportunities so even when rejection happens they are able to move on quickly where others might stall and procrastinate over the rejection.
Top performers outlook impacts their reality
Most sales people have a positive outlook some of the time. Top sales people have a positive outlook all the time because this leads a positive sales outcome more of the time. Because of this approach to selling It sometimes seems to rest of us that they appear to know that a sale is going to happen before it actually closes. The real trick here is that they realised early in their careers that by continually maintaining a positive outlook they could impact positively on their own circumstances and sales.
Niall Devitt is a Sales Training Consultant with Real World Sales Training web: http://www.realworld.ie