Southwestern Sales Talk
“My life stinks.” 
“I’ve got major problems.”
“This whole thing sucks.”
Whether you sell books with Southwestern, or sell real estate, cars, clothes, insurance, stocks, or sales seminars, you experience frustration from time-to-time. When it happens, we make blanket statements which convey our upset. We declare our negative feelings through our self-talk. Our self-talk, in turn, leads us to an emotional state which then affects our behavior. Welcome to a potential Sales Slump.
So how do you regain perspective? I’ve found one great way to bounce back mentally:
Ask “Compared to what?” Compare your situation to someone else who has exponentially more to deal with. Using the “My life stinks” example above, yes, your life does stink until you compare your problems with a Haitian citizen who lost everything in an earthquake, or with someone you know whose child has died. When you make that quick comparison, you think, “Well, my life isn’t that bad.” If you think, “my job sucks,” then ask compared to what? Compared to not having one? I’m sure you would appreciate your sucky job more when you ponder being one of the millions of Americans who are out of work right now. See? Instant gratitude.
My fifth year as a bookman, there was a week when I really hated my life, my team, & my summer work. I mean I was seriously negative. My self-talk was crap. My expectations were low, to say the least. Obviously, my sales were tanking. I wasn’t getting in doors, customers were not responding and I was FRUSTRATED! I’d even forgotten my “compared to what” technique….
God then decided to help give me some perspective: I trudged up to another house, glancing at the ramp to the front door. After I knocked, a young boy opened the door—from his wheelchair—gave a big smile, and cheerfully said, “Hi! Can I help you?” Wow. Ding! New perspective! Instantly! I thought I had problems—until I met this young man whose legs didn’t work. Yet he was happy, and I had my head up my butt.
So the good news is you can make this shift without God having to intervene. We are constantly evaluating what is going on around us, labeling experiences, talking to ourselves, making judgments…it’s impossible to turn our minds off, but you can keep the negativity in check, by asking, “compared to what?”
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Hi Lee!
When I was reading your post I was thinking: “yeah it can always be worst.” I love the simplicity of this post it had a great impact on me.
Thanks for taking the time to share with us those lights of life.
Max-Marc
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As always great stuff! Such a great reminder to be thankful…
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Thanks for putting this into my consciousness. I have been thinking about my own financial troubles and bringing myself down. Then I saw someone yesterday in church up front praying and crying. Thought about this post, cleared my mind right up, went home and enjoyed rest of day with my daughter.
But I can see also how that would help bring up sales. I wouldn’t want to buy from someone who was grumpy and pushy.
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
January 18th, 2010 at 10:26 pm
We have to practice being grateful–especially when we struggle in our sales efforts. Thanks for the comment, Jonathon.
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right on lee! i’ve actually had a similar thing happen to me with a mom who answered the door my third summer (she had a stroke, was in a wheelchair, and had trouble speaking properly) that still said to me (slowly and painfully, due to her stroke): “thank you so much for coming. my kids love your books (she had bought ask me’s a few years back), and they’ll really like these (she bought the e&ls).” meeting people with that level of “attitude of gratitude” is completely disarming.
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
January 18th, 2010 at 10:27 pm
It’s amazing how God has to get our attention sometimes! With a 2 x 4.
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Whenever I start to feel a bit bad about my deal, whatever it is at the moment, I give myself Seip’s $5,000,000 dollar test.
For those of you who’ve not had the chance to see Roger Seip’s keynote speech at sales school, allow me to re-create:
Functional Eyes, 2:$1,000,000
Functional Ears, 2: $1,000,000
Legs, operational: $1,000,000
Hands, operational: $1,000,000
Brain, lightly used: $1,000,000
Minimum current net worth: $5,000,000
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That’s awesome. I had that experince my first summer selling books. Its a lifechanger.
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True dat! this has helped me many times when i felt in the dumps or was hating on myself.
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
As long as you don’t take this too far, it can be very useful. “Compared to what?” is a nice mental tool.
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So true. This is not only useful on the bookfield, but useful right now during the school year!
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Hi Lee,
Thanks for the great reminder to stay grateful and keep life in perspective. Comparing to the many struggles that others deal with–for me, this hits the hardest with poverty statistics/photos–definitely helps to remember how lucky we are. It’s unbelievable how many people every day are in survival mode for clean water, food, and safety. We sure do have a lot to be thankful for!
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
January 30th, 2010 at 7:25 pm
Amen Kristin! We do have a lot to be thankful for.
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I used this perspective throughout my first summer. I just jumped into full-timing as a B-manager, and I’m using the exact same mentality. Perspective is everything!
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
February 18th, 2010 at 10:32 am
Melinda–I’m glad this was helpful. Thanks for the comment! Keep reading.
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