In Sales Attitude is Everything!
Today's post is based off a message I received from Janine Aguero a fellow member at Sta.rtUp.Biz and it got me thinking about opportunity and attitude. Its not a new story by any means, but it had been a very long time since I had given it any thought.
There is a story about two shoe salesmen who travel to a third world country in search of new business opportunities.They both leave America for the bush lands of Africa with the idea of expanding their business. After a few days the first man calls his wife telling her, "Honey, I'm coming back home. There's no hope here. Nobody is wearing shoes, so there's no one to sell to." He boards the next flight home.
In another city the second man calls his wife and says, "Honey, This trip is going to last longer than we thought. You wouldn't believe what I found here. There is so much opportunity. No one here is wearing shoes. I can sell to the whole country!"
Opportunity is everywhere you look, the real problem is learning to recognize it when you see it. As sales managers one of the toughest jobs we have is managing attitude and helping our teams recognize hidden opportunity. Attitude is like the tide, it will ebb and flow from the positive to the negative we can not stop that. Our job is to keep our staff focused on the positive maximizing the highs and reducing the impact of the lows.
What are some ways you influence the attitude of your team?
-Brad
There is a story about two shoe salesmen who travel to a third world country in search of new business opportunities.They both leave America for the bush lands of Africa with the idea of expanding their business. After a few days the first man calls his wife telling her, "Honey, I'm coming back home. There's no hope here. Nobody is wearing shoes, so there's no one to sell to." He boards the next flight home.
In another city the second man calls his wife and says, "Honey, This trip is going to last longer than we thought. You wouldn't believe what I found here. There is so much opportunity. No one here is wearing shoes. I can sell to the whole country!"
Opportunity is everywhere you look, the real problem is learning to recognize it when you see it. As sales managers one of the toughest jobs we have is managing attitude and helping our teams recognize hidden opportunity. Attitude is like the tide, it will ebb and flow from the positive to the negative we can not stop that. Our job is to keep our staff focused on the positive maximizing the highs and reducing the impact of the lows.
What are some ways you influence the attitude of your team?
-Brad
Tags: attitude, management
Comment
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Comment by Cindy King on August 30, 2008 at 1:18am -
I just linked to your post in my International Marketer Review Blog Carnival at http://cindyking.biz/international-marketer-review-blog-carnival-15/ and I stumbled this post.
Stop by and vote for the best post of the week.
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Comment by Brad Trnavsky on August 20, 2008 at 8:21am -
Tim & Skip,
I could not agree with both of you more, but I think we are arguing a chicken or the egg argument. The guy in the story failed because he did not even try to initiate his sales behaviors. He was easily defeated by what looked like imposing circumstances instead of recognizing grand opportunity, because his attitude was not where it needed to be to win. Tim, you are right to, attitude is not demeanor. You can be a little rough around the edges so to speak but still have a winning attitude.
You can not be successful with out good selling behaviors, but good selling behaviors alone are not enough, you need to bring a winners attitude to the table as well.
As managers we need to teach good selling behaviors and coach attitude together to develop true winners.
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Comment by Tim Rohrer on August 19, 2008 at 7:46pm - Attitude is great. Attitude keeps you pointed towards your goals. But, many people confuse demeanor with attitude. I don't need my sellers to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed every second of the day. I need them to understand productive behavior as it relates to their professional goals and stay consistently on track.
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Comment by Skip Anderson on August 19, 2008 at 4:33pm -
Attitude matters, no question about it. But what's more important than attitude is the correct sales behaviors. Let me explain what I mean:
If you do the right sales behaviors, you'll get the desired results. The correct attitude helps you keep from giving up using those behaviors, the results are generated by behaviors, not attitudes. The reason the person in your story failed is because he quit doing the sales behaviors that yield results (he came home). If you keep doing winning sales behaviors over and over and over again, you're likely to succeed. What's in play here? Persistence; and the correct sales behaviors.
Here's an aside: One of my clients has forbid discussion of "attitudes" in managers' meetings and in performance review (and almost certainly) in termination documentation. Attitudes can't be reliably measured; sales behaviors (and sales results) can be.
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