Stop Beating Yourself Up!

Have you ever observed your self-talk after you lose a sale?

Mine used to go something like this:

  • “Darn it! I suck at this!”
  • “This product will never sell!”
  • “The leads are trash, and I actually agree with some of my prospect’s objections!”
  • “I wonder what I can sell that’s easier than this?”
  • “Should I go back to school?”

And on and on. . .

While managers want you to jump on the next call, go from a negative experience and be positive again and “smile and dial,” you know how hard that is.

Here’s the solution: Rather than try to go from negative to positive (very hard to do), it’s better to go from negative to neutral first and then on to positive. Here’s how:

When you lose a sale or suffer a difficult call (could be a prospecting call), you hang up and find your attitude is a bit negative, simply say to yourself: “Okay. That’s okay.” And then leave it at that. Accept it. It is what it is, and you can’t change it. Just accept it and get back to neutral.

Then ask yourself what went wrong? Dissect it. What did you do wrong? Identify it. Once you have, then:

Get positive and identify what you’re going to change next time. What are you going to say or not say next time? How are you going to keep from talking past the close? (Maybe use, “Oh?” or actually get back to the script?).

By identifying what you did wrong, finding a way to do better next time, and then use the more positive approach, you can go from negative to neutral to positive and make your next call, and your next day and week, better.

And that’s what you want to do, isn’t it? Try it next time you find yourself negative.

Related: The Simplest Way To Qualify