Everything's Relative
Your attitude can make or break your sales career

People always blame their bad attitude on the day. If you tell yourself you’re having a bad day, I promise you will have one, and if you tell yourself you’re having a great day, I promise you will have one. The day is not bad unless you name it bad.

Positive attitude, or lack thereof, is the root of many situations. “Philosophy drives attitude. Attitude drives actions. Actions drive results. Results drive lifestyles.” That’s a quote from America’s business philosopher, Jim Rohn. If you don’t like your lifestyle, look at your results. If you don’t like your results, look at your actions. If you don’t like your actions look at your attitude. If you don’t like your attitude, look at your philosophy. Most salespeople make the fatal mistake of starting in the middle. They start with “action.” If you have no philosophy and you have a lousy attitude what kind of actions are you going to take?

Develop a YES! attitude. There is a subtle difference between a “positive” attitude and a “yes” attitude. Both are GREAT, but “yes” is a bit more powerful because it assumes that everything will start with “yes” even when it’s “no.” A “yes” attitude helps you formulate the response in positive form. It tells people in a word that their expectation will be met, and somehow your answer to whatever they want or need will be in a positive format. Everyone wants to hear “yes,” and if you think of yourself as a “yes” person, not only will you be in a positive frame of mind but you will also have positive expectation.

Celebrate effort, not victory. Your work ethic will lead you to more sales than any other element in your sales arsenal. If someone says, “Mary really works hard,” consider that to be a compliment of the highest order.

What’s important now? Most lessons in time management are pretty much a waste of time. You know what to do. You even know when to do it. What you need is a lesson in procrastination, or lessons in higher self-image, or a lesson in fear of rejection, or a lesson in preparation. Those lessons will allow you to execute the things that in your mind you believe you “don’t have time for” but in reality are just avoiding.

Positive attitude is defined as “the way you dedicate yourself to the way you think.” But be careful in putting that definition into action, because the same words hold true as the definition for a negative attitude.

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, and Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless. He can be reached at 704/333-1112 or e-mail to salesman@gitomer.com.

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