Showing posts with label confidence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label confidence. Show all posts

Monday, March 29, 2010

You can't lie to yourself

It is pretty difficult to lie to ourselves. Darn near impossible. Sure, we can lie to friends, neighbors, coworkers and even family—in fact, some people are pretty good at it. But we can’t lie to ourselves, because no matter how clever our words, no matter how persuasive our argument, we know the truth. Try and tell yourself you don’t know the truth, and it just complicates things even more.

This is what I attribute to that eating feeling you get when you are not living up to your potential. When you are sitting in front of the TV instead of writing a chapter in your book. When you are surfing the web instead of setting goals. Sleeping in instead of working out. Wandering aimlessly, waiting for the next idea to come around instead of creating a strategy. You know what you should be doing, but you aren’t doing it. And as much as we like to deny it, that is a conscious decision. So you get that pit in your stomach, that nagging feeling in the back of your mind. I have never met anyone who likes that feeling. I know I don’t. The interesting thing is that despite how bad we hate it, so many of us put up with it for so long. We look for ways to ignore it, to justify it, or to delay it, but those solutions aren’t permanent and neither is our relief.

The only real solution is to stop hiding and start doing.

Monday, February 9, 2009

A thought on Confidence and Control

How often during the course of a day do we give others control of our lives? The key word in the previous sentence is GIVE. Our lives are literally made of millions of decisions and we are making them constantly. The decisions we make will ultimately affect our perception of things and in turn that perception will become our reality.

For example, imagine you go to a party with a camera. As you walk in, you look to your left and see a room full of people dancing, drinking, and breaking a lamp or two. You take a picture of the party-animals and show it to a friend later. What will be their perception of the party? The answer is obvious. That party was crazy! Now go back to the same party. In another room you see a couple making out in the corner. You take a picture, and now your friend thinks the party was steamy. One more picture, this time of the room where you see a couple of guys just lounging around listening to some Pink Floyd. Now your friend is thinking that party was pretty laid back or even boring (maybe your friend isn’t a Floyd fan, but then you gotta ask yourself why he is your friend--another topic for another time)

The point? We choose what we focus on. And in turn, we are personally responsible for shaping our reality.

Now a more practical application: You go out to present to a potential client and walk away empty handed. Before you move on to your next presentation you have a choice to make. What kind of effect will I allow this experience to have on me? When I go to my next appointment will I GIVE the last client control over how I feel? How I act? How I present? How I close? If you do, you might as well not even go to the next appointment because you are wasting the client’s time, and yours.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Why am I not Selling Anything?

While working in direct sales, I had the opportunity to help new sales people improve their results. Many of those I worked with were trying sales for the first time. Whenever someone was struggling, we would bring them in for some personal coaching. The coaching session consisted of 5 issues we had identified as the key reasons they wouldn’t be selling very well. I believe these are also relevant outside of the direct sales arena. Here they are:

1) Not doing enough appointments/calls
2) Not doing sales calls with the right people
3) Don’t believe in the product/price etc.
4) No confidence in their ability to sell.
5) No confidence in peoples’ ability to buy

What issues have kept you from achieving the results you want in the past?

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Sales Tips--Direct Sales

While working in direct sales, I had the opportunity to help new sales people improve their results. Many of those I worked with were trying sales for the first time. Whenever someone was struggling we would bring them in for some personal coaching. The coaching session consisted of 5 issues we had identified as the key reasons they wouldn’t be selling very well. I believe these are also relevant outside of the direct sales arena. Here they are:

1) Not doing enough appointments/calls
2) Not doing sales calls with the right people
3) Don’t believe in the product/price etc.
4) No confidence in their ability to sell.
5) No confidence in peoples’ ability to buy

What issues have kept you from achieving the results you want?