Are Self-Limiting Beliefs Constraining Your Sales Performance?

Are Self-Limiting Beliefs Constraining Your Sales Performance?:

from Jonathan Farrington's Blog by Jonathan Farrington



“The winners in life constantly think in terms of “I can” “I will” and “I am”. Losers, on the other hand, concentrate their waking thoughts on what they should have done, or what they don’t do” – Dennis Waitley
Allowing self-limiting beliefs to constrain performance will in turn limit sales results, because like everyone, salespeople hold stubbornly to private beliefs about themselves, clients, markets, competition, and even the economy – beliefs that can have an enormous impact, either positive or negative, on their sales achievement levels.
If salespeople do not see themselves as providing value for their prospects and clients, they will tend to approach customers in ways that appeal to reasons for buying, other than the genuine business need of the customer. This is what sometimes leads salespeople to oversell – for example, pressing a customer to act now in order to get a low price – or to be too accommodating. It also can lead salespeople to adopt unethical behavior, because they may try to sell a customer something that they neither need nor want. If they fail to take care of their clients’ best interests, salespeople will fail to build long-term relationships and lose customers.
The Slippery Slope
Typically, salespeople who believe that, if they had lower prices, they would win more deals, tend to attract more price objections. This, in turn, leaves them feeling scared or reluctant to talk to prospects about what they have to offer. Their downward spiral then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Salespeople’s desire to succeed may be so dominated by a need to be liked, that they’ll avoid asking prospects for information that is needed to identify the prospects’ compelling reasons to buy. When this happens, closing becomes a real issue because salespeople, fearing rejection, perceive that asking for the order might cause a breakdown in the relationship with their prospect.
Fear of Calling
Recent studies have confirmed the obvious, that is to say that “fear of calling” in sales can contribute to a significant proportion of lost sales revenues. One study that I read recently found that as many as 40 % of established salespeople experienced periods of “fear of calling” severe enough to threaten their future in sales.
Stemming the ever-increasing costs of the “fear of calling” syndrome cannot be addressed by training alone. It requires an experienced coach or mentor to work with each salesperson’s particular set of beliefs, so that they feel truly empowered to breakthrough their self-created mental barriers. One particular statistic, in the following survey, should give any salesperson suffering from “fear of calling” renewed confidence.
How Customers Regard Salespeople Survey

• Salespeople who do not bother to make appointments - 45%
• Salespeople who know nothing about the customer’s business - 60%
• Salespeople who know little about their products and services - 60%
• Salespeople who call too often - 9%
• Salespeople who don’t call often enough - 49%
• Salespeople who do not have the authority to negotiate prices - 45%
• Salespeople who do not ask for the order - 40%
• Salespeople who are not properly or sufficiently organized - 55%

Most desirable quality customers want to see in salespeople?  Competence!

News: We have announced this year’s categories over at Top Sales Awards - almost – we just have two new sections to add, and next Tuesday we are open for nominations. I am confident that 2013 will be as exciting as 2012. I am particularly looking forward to the Top Sales Book of the Year contest, with an absolute plethora of  books coming out shortly from some of the biggest hitters in the sales space.