8 Lies Salespeople Tell Themselves Every Single Day
Positive self-talk is critically important in sales. The job has so many ups and downs that if you want to maintain a consistently positive attitude, you need mastery over yourself. Those who regularly engage in positive self-talk see better results at work, are generally happier, and don’t go through as many downs as those who don’t.
But there’s a difference between positive self-talk and lying to yourself. The latter, while not necessarily a bad thing, goes beyond affirmation into self-delusion and can create unrealistic goals that are nearly impossible to meet.
Salespeople, however, lie to themselves all the time. Thankfully, these lies tend to not have a huge impact on performance, though it can be amusing to see just how often we keep repeating the same lies. Here are eight lies salespeople tell themselves every single day:
1. I’m only going to have one cup of coffee today. Just one.
Just one cup today. And after lunch, I’ll just have some water… aaaaand I’m going to Starbucks.
2. I’m going to prospect all day today
Today is all about prospecting, with no distractions at all. Ugh, another three-hour fire to put out.
3. I’m going to eat the lunch I brought from home
No take-out today, just this underwhelming tuna salad sandwich that I’m going to eat at 10:15 am.
4. The prospect must be busy, but they’ll definitely call me back
They said they were interested. They must be really busy if they’re taking this long to call back…
5. I’m not going to use the phrase “touch base” during follow-up
Don’t say it. Don’t say it. Ugh, why did I say that?!
6. Today is the day I’m going to clean out and update the CRM
I’m going to go through all these contacts and finally get organized. (Spiro can help with this one).
7. If I get rejected, I won’t let it bother me at all!
Like water off a duck’s back. No big deal at all. What the heck did I do wrong, though?!
8. I won’t count my potential commissions today
No counting my chickens before they hatch. But if the Springer deal closes, that’ll bump me up another tier, won’t it?
