Inspiration for 2016: how positivity can help you to sell more water dispensers

There can hardly be a salesperson out there who hasn’t resolved to make 2016 the best year yet in terms of sales, professional and personal development.

Now could it be possible that there could be just one one-size-fits-all tip to benefit all three? To increase your company sales, advance your own career and to help achieve your personal out-of-work goals?

The answer is that there is. It’s a big change of mindset, and as simple as it sounds, it is surprisingly rare.

It’s called positivity.

There is a psychological effect called the Pygmalion effect. Henry Ford famously quoted:

“If you think you can you will be right; if you think you can’t you will be right.”

Researchers Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson concluded that teacher expectations dictate student achievement, more than actual student ability. When you believe you can do something, and you’re backed up by a team who agree, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy – and the reverse is true.

For decades, scientists believed that running a mile in less than four minutes was physiologically impossible. Yet when Roger Bannister did it, his record was broken less than six weeks later! The barrier wasn’t the limitations of the human body – it was the limitations imposed on it by the human mindset.

You are capable of achieving far more than you would ever think! You can become a model of achievement, of organisation, or of charisma. You can smash those targets, blow your colleagues away with your efficiency and creativity, and your customers are going to love your can-do, will-do attitude.

All you’ve got to do is believe in yourself.

And that belief will inform how you think, what you say, and how you act.

You’ll make those extra phone calls because you know you’re going to get sales from them. You’ll persevere just that bit longer with the non-committal client and follow up just one more time, because you know it’ll make all the difference. You’ll go that extra mile to get to the appointment because you just know you’re going to get the deal.

You can absolutely get that appointment. Your customers will be happy with a price increase. That big client will happily take a top-spec Borg & Overström b5 dispenser.

So that big contract where you’ve almost been scared to pick up the phone for fear of blowing your chances?

Just do it – and expect to get the results you want! You might not get it, but your chances of getting it with a positive mindset are far and away better than if you were expecting a disappointment.