Southwestern Sales Talk
As I write, The Southwestern Company has about 1700 college students selling books on the field this summer and there are another 800 yet to train. Some rookies are catching on quickly, some are struggling and fighting themselves or our system, and a few have given up. All Southwestern rookies are wrestling mentally with their experiences, labeling some encounters with “Mrs. Jones” a success, and other transactions a failure.
Years ago, I attended an NLP seminar (that’s neuro-linguistic programming). One of the quotes the leader presented was, “There is no failure, only feedback.” That thought reminded me of my second summer selling books. I had two roommates. They were both working in the same county, in very similar socio-economic sales areas. One roommate would come home nearly every night declaring, “I hate this. This is the worst area-no one cares about education. And I suck at selling!” He verbalized his belief that he was failing.
My other roommate was also experiencing significant challenges, but his self-talk was different–he declared after some of his worst days: “Man, I’m learning tons!” What a difference! One salesman labeled his missed sales “failures”; the other labeled them “feedback”. Which one do you think finished the summer…?
There is no failure, only feedback.
How do you label your sales efforts? What do you tell yourself post-call? Do you beat yourself up, noticing what you messed up or executed poorly? Or do you catch yourself doing things right? If you consider your setbacks as useful feedback on what didn’t work, your confidence will remain intact. On the other hand, if you label your mistakes as failures, your confidence will erode. In sales, confidence is a key component.
Think of the mental difference between “failing” and “learning”. Consider what you’re learning as you make calls, give presentations, and close sales. If you feel you’re making progress, it will be easier to work through those difficult sales periods. I’d be interested in your experiences and comments….
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Lee, I almost quit at Southwestern at the end of my third week. I was weeping. But I didn’t go home, and the 4th week was better.
I also remember this: I didn’t really set myself to memorizing a sales talk (any sales talk at all!) until that 4th week.
Knowing the sales talk did help–but what helped just as much was focusing on getting better at my sales talk than how terrible I had been doing.
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
June 22nd, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Josh: yes! Mindset is everything when you’re learning the sales ropes….how you label what’s happening to you is key.
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