I’ve seen many sales professionals whose primary sales improvement technique was to rely on the power of positive thinking.

How successful do you think they were? They weren’t.

Positive Thinking As A Sales Tool
While positive thinking is a necessary ingredient in sales, it is only that, an ingredient. The central problem with using positive thinking as our principal selling utensil is that we may begin to believe it represents the entire recipe for success. Or so we think. No more worries. We’re on track to make things happen. We can go home, relax, and wait for the phone to ring. We might even add a short and insincere prayer to our positive thinking, just to make sure we have all of our bases covered.

Why It Doesn’t Work
This kind of delusional thinking doesn’t work because we’re not doing the concrete things that need to be done to make a real difference – information gathering and relationship building with our customers.

Positive thinking can make us feel great; it’s an opiate. However, we all know that deep down there is no substitute for time invested and hard work. When we worship at the alter of positive thinking the only thing we accomplish is to rationalize why we’re not doing what we know we need to do.

Where Have All The Positive Thinking Sales Gurus Gone?
The positive thinking sales gurus from the 70’s and 80’s have gone away for the most part. And fortunately, they’ve taken their NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) buddies with them. I have a previous sales blog on NLP; see link below. Things that don’t work usually disappear.

The Reality: We Pull Ourselves Up By Our Own Bootstraps
The knowledge and experience gained from our sales successes create a foundation for our sales growth. It’s called confidence. We have to earn it the old-fashioned way – working hard and working smart. Positive thinking should be nothing more than an accessory in our sales tool kit. And it works best when it’s based on a bedrock of sales skills and sweat.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

Related posts:

1. Don’t Let Confidence Be Your God, Let Fear Be Your Guide
2. The Power Of Positive Speaking Isn’t Always So Positive
3. Positive Sales News, Even in This Economy

Tags: dysfunctional, habits, performance

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