How to be a perfect '10' when it comes to sales

Selling can affect your psyche.

Losing a sale makes us feel bad, closing a sale gets us excited, approaching an unresponsive prospect makes us uncomfortable. But our daily sales interactions can seriously affect how we feel. It takes a conscious effort to address those feelings. Addressing our emotions about selling can be difficult, but taking sales personally can be overcome with five seconds of guts. The five seconds of guts is used to consciously focus on your personal feelings of self-worth and reaffirm that your role as a salesperson cannot influence your personal value.

During a training session, I was discussing the difference between personal identity and role performance with the group. I asked a question that is challenging to answer publicly, especially in a group of peers. The question was, “So we know that on a scale of 1 to 10 we should view ourselves as a 10, but how many people in this room can honestly say in their heart of hearts that they are confident they are a 10 no matter how they perform their job?”

Only one woman in the room, Carol, had the guts to raise her hand. I was a little skeptical, thinking that Carol was just providing the answer she thought I wanted to hear. It’s rare that I come across a salesperson that has such confidence without putting a conscious effort into maintaining identity value.

So I said, “Carol, I’m shocked. I’ll often have people say 8 or 9 but it’s very rare that someone confidently says they are a 10. Why are you a 10?”

All eyes went to Carol. One person actually said, “Yeah, how can you be a 10? You’re saying you have no room for improvement?”