Cultivate The Sales Mindset: Rituals

A sales ritual is a more reliable motivator than saying to yourself, ‘I must make twenty cold-calls today,’ or ‘I have to attend at least five meetings this week.’ Whilst that might be the ultimate goal, it’s debilitating if you’re down on yourself before you begin. I’ve seen this approach cripple my clients’ enthusiasm and definitely felt it stifle mine. And as we’ve seen, if there’s one thing you need in sales, it’s enthusiasm.

Even if you don’t enjoy picking up the phone or facing possible rejection, you can create a ritual to take you into your sales zone. Then, rather than dreading the rejection, you look forward to the ritual. That becomes the habit you look forward to, rather than the sales call you avoid.

Give yourself something you enjoy and look forward to, something that’s rewarding in itself. Here are some for you to work with and adapt for yourself.

• Create a motivating environment. Post goals, targets, and rewards on your wall or desktop and look at them, often. Create good associations with the environment around you.

• Dedicated sales time. Pick times (mornings, days, or half-days) and dedicate them purely to sales.

• Mix it up. Go for a run or walk to keep energy up. Add a quick social visit into a day of meetings. If you own a store, give yourself time out from sales.

• Plan sales trips. See people in their environments, take a break from yours, and gain a better insight into their business.

• Streamline your time. If you’re visiting an area, visit all the prospects and clients you can while you’re there.

• Stick to time with appointments. Apart from being great for productivity momentum, it’s respectful to all involved.

• Warm leads first and last. Start a sales day or session with warm leads and close the day with them if you can too. Start on a high and finish on one too.

• The ‘just one more’ ritual. If you make a great sale, go for one more. We often make another sale when our confidence is high.

• Hold a regular get-together for your clients and prospects. Have networking nights or a cocktail party. People often do good business when they’re relaxed.

Try cultivating some of these rituals in your sales day, and let me know how they go.

To your sales success
Michael Neaylon
michael@mcme.com.au

This is an excerpt from my forthcoming book, 'True Brand Toolkit: How to Bring in Big Money for Your Small Business.'