One of the most striking and lightning quick transformations you will see in a salesperson and the sale process is from an increase in a salesman’s Positive Expectation. I have been amazed and sometimes dumbfounded in my 25 years of sales experience how much a difference this makes and how quickly it happens. I’ve seen incredible results first-hand in myself and others I’ve coached.
Let me define Positive Expectation first. On a simple first pass it means just what you think if you look at each word separately. Someone will think positively and earnestly about what they are about to do. They aren’t approaching it neutrally or negatively, or even without planning. They will rest solidly on a positive outlook without wavering. They envision good results, a great environment, willing ears of the client to hear the presentation, and successful outcomes. In many ways this is like an athlete envisioning a successful performance that they have prepared for. One’s expectation will be their vision, their mission of an outcome as if foreseeing a future that they need to simply walk through and achieve. If they have a Positive Expectation for the sales call they will confidently approach the visit knowing that a successful result awaits them; they just need to do the right work to achieve it.
Just because we can define Positive Expectation easily and understand what it means does not make it easy to do in practice. On the contrary, otherwise everyone would do it! All kinds of things affect one’s ability to have Positive Expectation, here are just a few:
- Not feeling confident
- Feeling unprepared
- Sales person does not feel they understand the sales basics & process
- Does not feel they understand the client and their needs
- Objections are scary (in this case the salesperson does not even try to answer objections)
- Objections have proven tough to overcome (in this case the salesperson has been trying to overcome objections, but often starts giving up)
- Past experiences with the client went poorly
- Earlier appointments in the day were not successful
- Personal life issues… and the list could go on…
I have been one of these salespeople who feels this way, without Positive Expectation, and I’ve coached many salespeople who are struggling with no Positive Expectation. Not a fun place to be and difficult to charge into selling each day. It is not easy to turn that dial 180 degrees from no positive expectation to substantial Positive Expectation!
However here are some of those key methods to get yourself converted into that right frame of mind and approach.
- “Fake it until you make it” Even when you are aren’t feeling confident in your Positive Expectation, decide to act as if you can have 100% Positive Expectation. It is amazing how much this mental decision can be a change in your attitude and in your approach.
- Continuing education that increases your confidence and your actual ability
- Preparation of the sales material and to the sales process
- Pre-call Pep-talk, even a 5-10 min review and pep-talk before a sales call can make a world of difference
- Meditation – yes really. Silent, quieting meditation or envisioning the successes
- Discovery questions that lead to client trust and prequalifying the right material and solutions to this client
- Resilience to keep up the commitment to every sales call regardless of the results of earlier visits that day
- Persistence and desire to convey valued solution to your client
- Unwillingness to hear objections as a ‘no’, you confidently know it is the right solution for your client
- Devotion to the message that it will get through at some point
- Strive to use new sales strategies that you are learning which increases confidence as you use them. Get a little radical if needed. Nothing to lose if you have previously been unsuccessful with the client.
- Change the sales presentation/process environment
There is likely no faster quick-fix method to increasing one’s sales performance than this sales principle – consistent Positive Expectation. This will allows a salesperson to go from 0-60 in under 5 seconds instead of 0-60 in under 10 seconds. Consistent Positive Expectation can deliver a salesperson from Zero to Hero!
Positive Expectation has to start with you for maximizing your performance. If you don’t confidently and enthusiastically believe in your product and that it is a solution for your clients, how will you have Positive Expectation? A sales person will have radically more successes with Positive Expectation than without it (this also has a correlation to Stinking Thinking that I will cover later).
When a salesperson confidently and consistently believes in an appropriate product at an advantageous value for a buyer and approaches the sales presentation with Positive Expectation the likelihood of going from Zero to Hero just increased seven-fold!
Be like the Hall of Fame Pros of Sales, always integrate Positive Expectation!
Happy Selling!
Ian Cross
Ian Cross – an experienced sales leader who led sales teams to new levels of success. Strong strategic selling and team management ability with an impressive track record of more than 10 years of hands-on director-level experience and more than 20 years of sales growth performance.
Strategic Planning & Development
Managing Salespeople and Growing Key Accounts
Building Successful Sales Teams
Building strong client relationships
Training and Teambuilding
Marketing
Multi-channel Distribution Sales
Forecasting
Looking for new opportunities with a first-class organization. Connect on LinkedIn. Resume/CV is available by request at ian.cross.usa@gmail.com
Reaching Beyond 