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Attitudes for Sales Success: Checklist

December 2nd, 2008 @ 5:30 am

5 Comments

Categories: Motivation, Sales Process, Sales Skills, Sales Tips

Tags: Attitude, Tom, Sales Strategy, Sales Force Management, Sales, Geoffrey James

One of the more interesting people that I’ve interviewed over the years is Tom Black, the author of “The Boxcar Millionaire.”  While he’s successful at B2B financial selling, his roots are back in the old style.  In fact, he actually got his start selling Bibles door-to-door.

Tom insists that, regardless of what you’re selling, your success will be limited by your attitude.  If you don’t have the right attitude, then you’re going to fail, or at least not be as successful as you’d like to be.  Everything I’ve learned about selling over the years tells me that he’s right on the money.

Tom gave me this checklist of the ten attitudes that lead to sales success:

  1. I read inspirational material and use positive affirmations.
  2. I believe I am as happy as I want to be.
  3. I can go over, under, around, or through any obstacle to get the job done.
  4. I believe persistence alone is omnipresent.
  5. I am committed to improvement in my performance and knowledge.
  6. I think BIG.
  7. I am committed to a service attitude.
  8. I am willing to leave my comfort zone.
  9. I am a professional and will act like one.
  10. I accept change willingly as a part of sales and life.

READERS: Did you score 10 out of 10?  Or is there some element of your attitude that needs some work?

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  •  
    1

    EASTeam

    12/02/08 | Report as spam

    RE: Attitudes for Sales Success: Checklist

    Excellent article ~ thanks for sharing...

    Problem is, most folks tend to believe it cannot be this 'simple' and waste a lot of time searching for an outside fix for an inside problem, ie, a better gadget, bells & whistles, etc. It begins and ends from within...

    Kirk Abraham
    www.engineeringsolutionsteam.com

  •  
    2

    bkoles

    12/02/08 | Reported as spam

    RE: Attitudes for Sales Success: Checklist

    This seems like a logical and only mildly obnoxious entry-point for introducing a sales checklist on my own new blog: http://trainmysalesteam.blogspot.com/2008/11/sales-basics-list.html

    Perhaps some followers of Sales Machine will find TrainMySalesTeam.blogspot.com interesting as well.

    Brian Koles

    P.S. - Plugging my own site won't become a habit on this forum. Promise.

  •  
    3

    Sid Herron

    12/02/08 | Report as spam

    RE: Attitudes for Sales Success: Checklist

    Once upon a time, I took a course in the Sandler sales methodology. One concept they taught was to keep a "Behavior/Attitude Journal" - a running log of "here's what I did today," and "here's how I felt while I was doing it." The point was that sooner or later you would discover that you had planted a seed that led to a big sale on a day when you felt like absolutely nothing was going right.


    The realization that your paycheck is based more on consistently executing on the things you know you have to do to sell than it is on how you happen to be feeling that day can actually help you shake off the blues, maintain a better attitude, and stay focused on execution.

  •  
    4

    Pammi

    12/03/08 | Report as spam

    RE: Attitudes for Sales Success: Checklist

    Sid,

    I'm receiving training from a Sandler Sales Trainer now. What did you think of the course?

    And how has it helped you in your sales career?

  •  
    5

    Sid Herron

    12/04/08 | Report as spam

    Pammi...

    Pammi, I'm not sure this is the correct forum for that kind of discussion (unless Geoffrey wants to take it in that direction), but if you'd like to email me (sid.herron@mooselogic.com), I'd be happy to answer your question off-line.

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