Self-esteem And Your Sales Success
You can learn every sales technique in the book, master every sales strategy and spend all of your free time learning how to prospect better, close more effectively and give better sales presentations but, if you have low self-esteem you will still never become a sales super-star. Why not? Why is your self-esteem the most critical aspect of your sales success?
Self-esteem is how you perceive yourself. It is your personal assessment of your self-worth and it is the ‘governor’ that determines your ultimate performance and success no matter what your chosen career or activity.
Over the years when my self-esteem was low for whatever reason my sales results tracked just as low. When my self-esteem was high my income and results were off the charts. What I have come to discover is that I need to spend more time building and maintaining my self-worth and esteem than learning the latest sales skills or techniques.
And I teach all of this stuff. I am coming to believe that one of the biggest challenges in life, no matter what our station, position or circumstances is to practice what we preach – this includes yours truly!
If you are discouraged, frustrated and feel unappreciated, invalidated or un-valued and these traits are important to you for your self-worth and you don’t have or get them then you will tend to struggle with achieving consistent positive results.
How do you know if your self-esteem needs some work? I don’t know about you but if I am always;
Apologizing
Saying I am sorry
Disappointing myself or others
Spending too much time trying to get approval
In need of appreciation
Worried about what others think or feel about me
Then I may have a problem.
If I fail to make a sale because I am more concerned about what people will think of me rather than how my product or service will help them than I am doomed to stay at the bottom of the success pile. However, if I can stay focused on my skills, abilities, value to others and how I can satisfy their needs, concerns, problems or challenges then I have a chance of rising to the top of the mountain.
Spending time in life’s valleys, is often a valuable period in life if you grow and learn while you are there and this can lead to success and worthwhile experiences later, however spending too much in life’s valleys ultimately prevents you from spending adequate time on life’s mountaintops.
There are dozens of great books on self-esteem by people a lot smarter than I am (see how your self-esteem can sneak through every now and then?).
There are numerous ways to build and maintain your self-esteem but they all require work, yes anything in life that is ultimately worthwhile requires effort, time, energy, patience, commitment and persistence.
So, want to sell more consistently? Build your self-esteem and then just sit back and watch as you break every sales record in the history of your company or industry. (I don’t mean to literally sit back and watch – for those of you who hang on my every word week after week.)
Tim Connor, CSP is an internationally renowned sales, management and leadership speaker, trainer and best selling author. Since 1981 he has given over 3500 presentations in 21 countries on a variety of sales, management, leadership and relationship topics. He is the best selling author of over 60 books including; Soft Sell, That’s Life, Peace Of Mind, 81 Challenges Managers Face and Your First Year In Sales. He is also the CEO of ProfessionalSales Association Of America. He can be reached at tim@timconnor.com, 704-895-1230 or visit his websites at http://www.timconnor.com or http://www.ProfessionalSalesAssociationOfAmerica.com
