Changes for selling
Nov
18
Do you know how many people are walking around looking for a place to plug it back in? Think about that. If you can’t handle the fear of insecurity by giving security up, if you can’t overcome the possibility that they might reject you when you go for a close, if you can’t cope with the fact that you have some of these doubts, if you won’t change and develop your technique, then the chances are that you won’t stay in your comfort zone very consistently. Let me give you an example.
I’m your sales manager. You and the rest of the sales staff at our branch are here for that always exciting extravaganza, our weekly meeting. I can handle pain and anxiety up to 700. On that scale, my P and A reading is 50 as I take a shower and think, “I’m all set to give those people a great meeting this morning. I’m really going to motivate ‘em. Production isn’t good—no one’s making much money, but they’re a really good group.”
At the breakfast table I decide to check on my first flyer in the stock market. After being a little leery at first, I finally decided to give it a go. In the morning paper I locate the stock my broker assured me would keep my family cruising in the Caribbean for the rest of our lives. It’s just dropped fifty percent. Suddenly my Pain and Anxiety meter is at 150. My wife figures that something’s down, looks over my shoulder at the paper, and sees the report. She then proceeds to advise me in graphic terms as to just how good my stock-selecting ability is, and also that my brains are composed of a single ingredient that has a short name. My P and A meter hits 300.
When I jump in the car, I know I’m running late. Heavy on the gas. A
policeman pulls me over. I’m so uptight that I don’t use an assumptive close
on him.
(The next time a policeman pulls you over, before he says a word look
him right in the eye with a big smile and say, “Officer, please forgive me
for bothering you just for a warning.”)
But I’m too far gone even for that. So the traffic ticket pushes my P and A level to 500. When I finally walk into that meeting twenty minutes late, you’re sitting there. The phone rings. You pick it up and tell me, “Torn, it’s for you.”
“I’ll take it in my office and be right back.” It’s the regional manager
calling to tell me how our office is doing and to give me a little motivational
inspiration. It goes like this:
“Hopkins, are you aware that your office’s performance is the lowest in our entire chain? Your people aren’t working, your advertising budget’s out of whack, and in general you look incompetent. If you don’t get those people of yours moving fast, plan on looking for another job.”
I hang up the phone. Through the glass wall of my office I see the sales staff waiting for me to start our weekly meeting. I walk out there with my Pain and Anxiety meter at 750, well into my danger zone. There’s so much adrenaline pounding through my head now that I’m down to just two options: the ancient ones of run or fight. Since we usually don’t literally do either in business anymore, that leaves the modern equivalents: withdraw or get hostile. I’m not leaving, so the meeting will now be different from the one I planned this morning. It goes something like this:
“Good morning. Are you people aware that your production stinks? We’re the lowest in the chain. I warn every one of you—I talked to the regional manager—hear me, and hear me good—if I’m bumped out, I’m taking all of you with me.”
Now, I suddenly feel great. I’ve knocked my P and A reading down to 50 by using hostility to get rid of my excess pain and anxiety. I got rid of mine. Who’d I give it to? You and the other people on the sales staff. I’ve driven all of you up to 750 and put all of you in your danger zones.
It’s vital that you learn how to handle a situation like this. Make no mistake. In every type of selling, you’re going to have a load of pain dumped on you every day, and you’re going to have another load marked anxiety dumped on you too. Every day.
The key to meeting and conquering this situation is to realize that all you have to do is overcome the pain and the anxiety. Do that and you’ll stay in your comfort zone. Why? Because there really are only two zones: danger and comfort. You have to be in one or the other. Pain and anxiety aren’t real until you make them hurt inside your head. If you refuse to do that, they can’t hurt you. Realize that every day there will be painful experiences. These experiences will all have the potential to create anxiety in your mind—if you decide to do that to yourself by concentrating on feeling pain and anxiety and avoiding any further risk of failure. If you decide to concentrate on doing constructive things that’ 11 turn your opportunities into reality, you’ll stay in your comfort zone because your mind is on doing, not on suffering.
You’ve had people upset at you. You’ve had unhappy clients. Every active salesperson has experienced this many times. Let’s not blink at the facts. As long as you stay in sales, you’ll frequently have people get upset with you. No one who sails the seas of success can avoid this. It occurs outside of you and often is beyond your control. Anxiety occurs only within your own skin, and anxieties of this sort are within your control.
You’ve had customers that you’ve given your heart and soul to and they still aren’t happy. They tell you about it bluntly, perhaps rudely. They may go beyond that with a nasty phone call or letter to your boss. That puts you in your danger zone, and many salespeople in this situation start withdrawing or become hostile.
In the next chapter, you’ll find a step-by-step formula. Use it every time someone cancels an appointment, won’t take a delivery date, says they wouldn’t have your product around, every time someone tells you no. Apply this formula to every rejection you get and you’ll start looking forward to rejection instead of hiding from it. That sounds hard to believe, doesn’t it? Turn to the next chapter and see for yourself.
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