For example, if you see ourselves, as calm, confident and competent in any aspect of selling, when we are engaged in that activity, we will feel calm, confident and competent. We will be positive and happy. We will perform well and get excellent results. If, for any reason, it does not go well at that time, we will throw it off and dismiss it as a temporary situation. Our self-image is clear. In our mind’s eye we see ourselves as good and capable in that area, and nothing can interfere with our mental picture.

The most rapid improvements in sales results come from changing our self-image. The moment that we see ourselves differently, we behave differently as well. And because we are behaving differently, we get different results.

Some years ago, when I was selling suntan lotion products from store to store, I would end my presentation by giving the prospect a booklet outlining the benefits and encourage him to “think about it.” My self-image was such that I could not bring myself to ask the prospect to make a buying decision. All day long, I would go from store to store giving my presentation and leaving a little book with descriptions to read. And as you might imagine, I was not making many sales. When I called people back after they had time to think about it, they would invariably say that they were not interested.

I was getting desperate. I was living from hand to mouth at the time. Although I was seeing lots of prospects, I was making very few sales. Then I had a revelation which changed my career at the time. I realized that it was my fear of asking for the order that was causing all my problems. It was not my prospects. It was me. I needed to change my self-image and thereby change my behavior if I wanted results to improve.

The very next morning, I made the decision that I would not call back on a prospect. The size of the purchase was small and, when I had completed my presentation, the prospect would know everything that he needed to know to make a decision. There was no benefit or advantage of leaving material behind or giving the prospect several days to think about it. At my very first call, and I still remember it, when I had finished my presentation, the prospect said, “Let me think it over.” I smiled and told him that I did not make call backs because I was too busy, and then I said, “You know everything you need to know to make a decision right now. Why don’t you just take it?” I remember him shrugging his shoulders and saying, “OK. I’ll take it. How would you like to be paid?”

Double Your Earnings

I walked out of that office on a cloud. That very day I tripled my sales. That week, I sold more than anyone else in the company. By the end of the month, they had made me the sales manager with 42 people under me. I went from making one or two sales per week to making ten or fifteen sales per week. I went from worrying about money to a large salary with an override on the activities of all my salespeople. My sales life took off and, with few exceptions, it never stopped. And the turning point was that conscious choice to modify my self-image and make it more consistent with the results I wanted rather than the results that I was getting.

Action Exercises

Now, here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, begin to see yourself the way you want to be. See yourself as strong, confident, competent and professional in every way. The person you see is the person you will be.

Second, identify an area of selling where your own ideas about yourself and the situation are holding you back. You always perform on the outside the way you see yourself on the inside.

“Remember, Success is Always Within Reach”

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