by Jacques Werth
What are the characteristics of a successful salesperson? Is it the standard old-school-list of persistence, goal-orientated, good listeners, and many more? These are all important skills, and none should be taken lightly. But there’s one key ingredient in the formula of a successful salesperson that often gets overlooked, yet it is no less important than the above list.
It is the willingness to be uncomfortable.
What? You may be thinking. Maybe even just reading that statement makes you squirm a little. The willingness to be uncomfortable doesn’t necessarily mean “painful” or “unbearable.” It simply means to be willing to push the envelope, try something new, re-wire old thinking and old habits. Push it to the point where you are forced out of your comfort zone and into learning something new.
Being uncomfortable doesn’t sound very appealing to some, but it can be a powerful motivator. A motivator that allows salespeople to stop being “safe”, and challenge themselves to break away from their old and ineffective habits. The challenge of asking the questions to prospects they have never had the courage to ask before. The courage and willingness to try something new, even if it makes them “uncomfortable.”
Making The Shift To New Mindsets:
It can very hard to “unlearn” all your old selling habits. Heck, it’s even hard to unlearn being affected by prospect’s rejections. Our habits drive our need to succeed everyday and it’s not an easy task to shake them for the sake of learning new ones. It’s like still reaching for your glasses even though you just got contacts. Or going to another country and looking the wrong way for oncoming traffic when you are trying to cross the street. Habits shape who we are, good or bad, and become like grooves in a record.
Time to scratch that record. There’s an old saying that goes “do what you’ve always done, and you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”
We all have what it takes to become successful. Are you ready to take the steps and make it happen?
Author
“uncomfortable”. Admitting that fact helps to get thru it.