Drilling for Diamonds

The Importance of Optimism

Overview

• Our attitudes determine the way we sell
• Optimism if the key to sales success
• Optimists have the mental toughness to stay confident and persistent in the face of adversity.

Our attitude to life - the way we view the world mentally - is the most important determinant of sales success. One Harvard Business School study found that there were four factors critical to sales success: information, intelligence, skill and attitude. When the factors were weighed for importance, information, intelligence and skill added up to just seven percent of sales effectiveness. Could it be that ninety-three percent of sales success comes from attitude?

Our attitude towards a challenge can certainly make it easier to handle or impossible to deal with. You can see situations as opportunities or failures. our attitude can calm us down, or stir us up.

Our attitude can affect the way we experience pain. Psychologists tell us, for example, that soldiers wounded in battle report feeling less pain than civilians who have suffered the same injuries.

Why is this? In theory, the same wound should produce the same pain. the answer lies in the different attitude of the two groups to the wound.

Soldiers often view the wound positively. A soldier thinks, “Great, I’m leaving the battlefield and I’m still alive.”

A civilian typically views the wound negatively. the civilian thinks, “This is terrible, I nearly got killed. And now I have to spend weeks in hospital.” “What terrible luck,” the civilian bemoans. “how unlucky can you be?”

The civilian expects continued health not a sudden need for hospitalisation. therefore the civilian feels anxiety rather than relief, and anxiety increases pain.

Two ways of looking at the world

essentially there are two ways of viewing the world: optimistic and pessimistic.

When your are optimistic and expect success you transmit a positive attitude. When you are pessimistic and expect failure, your attitude is usually negative.

Two ways of thinking

Pessimist                                                 Optimist

It cant be done                                     It’ll be a challenge

It will  never work                                We’ll give it a try

Its too difficult                                     Lets try a different way

We’ve never done this before               We have the chance to be first

Its good enough                                   Everything can be improved

Our customers won’t buy this               We have to educate our customers

It’s not my job                                       I welcome new responsibilities

Its against policy                                  Anything’s possible

Its not going to be any better                Let’s try one more time

There’s not enough time                        Let’s recheck out priorities

Its too radical                                        Let’s be bold

We can’t compete                                  Let’s find a new way

No one else does this                           Let’s be leaders not followers

No I can’t                                              Yes I can!

Optimists Persist

Optimism produces confidence and persistence. history is littered with stories of highly successful people who persisted in spite of overwhelming obstacles and setbacks.

One of the remarkable examples of persisting in the face of repeated knock backs is Abraham Lincoln.

He lost his job in 1832.

he was defeated for the legislature, also in 1832.

He failed in business in 1833.

He was elected for legislature in 1834.

He suffered the loss of his sweetheart, who died in 1835.

He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1836.

He was defeated for speaker of the state legislature in 1838.

He was defeated for nomination in Congress in 1843.

He was elected to Congress in 1846.

He lost his renomination for Congress in 1848.

He was rejected for the position of land officer in 1849.

He was defeated for Senate in 1854.

He was defeated for the nomination for Vice-President of the United States in 1856.

He was defeated again for the Senate in 1858.

Abraham Lincoln was elected for President of the United States in 1860.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Selling in a tough, recessed market calls for extra resilience and the ability to bounce back from rejections and belligerent customers.

Over the next few sessions, I am going to focus on how you can develop and hone your mental skills.

Winning the mental game in selling has always been a key to success. Here are the skills, attitudes and techniques.

Much of the advice is based on the research we began into mental toughness. In the early 1990’s I wrote a book: The Mental Edge which was based on work which was being pioneered at Autralia Institute of Sport and other high performance sporting academies.

Achieving Optimum Performance

• When you perform you are operating in one of three mental performance zones.
• With the right mental skills you can control the zone you perform in.
• The key to peak performance lies in maximising your time in your zone of mastery - the flow zone.

The Three Performance Zones

Flow Zone

The flow zone is where you feel your skills are equal to the challenges you face. Tasks seem effortless, tasks flow. Hence the name Flow Zone. This is the zone of exellence, acheivment and mastery.

Panic Zone

In the panic zone, the challenge seems too great for the skills you have. You burn up your energy trying to accomplish more than you feel you can tackle.

Drone Zone

In the drone zone, you have all the skills but there is no challenge. The tasks are too small, trivial or demotivating. The result is lethargy and boredeom.

Exercise: Performing at your best

Think back to a time when you performed extraordinarily well. it might have beern at work, at sport or with your family. Note: it does not have to have been of great imprtance or monumental significance.

Picture:

1. Ther background to the experience.

2. Who was there, what happened, what was said.

3. Your feelings, thoughts and emotions during the experience.

When you have described your peak experiences use the checklist of performance stats to analyse your experience. The attributes you choose arwe the performance states that collectively put you in the Flow Zone.

Checklist of Performance States

Performed extremely well        1 2 3 4 5 6 7     Performed  extremely poorly

Extremely relaxed                    1 2 3 4 5 6 7     Extremely anxious

Extremely confident                 1 2 3 4 5 6 7     Not confident at all

Extremely motivated                1 2 3 4 5 6 7     Not motivated at all

Complete control                      1 2 3 4 5 6 7     No control at all

Automatic                                 1 2 3 4 5 6 7     Constantly thinking

Muscles relaxed                       1 2 3 4 5 6 7     Muscles tense

Extremely energetic                 1 2 3 4 5 6 7     Extremely fatigued

Positive self-talk                       1 2 3 4 5 6 7     Negative self-talk

Extremely enjoyable                 1 2 3 4 5 6 7     No control at all

Focused concentration             1 2 3 4 5 6 7     Unfocused

Effortless                                  1 2 3 4 5 6 7     Great effort

High energy                              1 2 3 4 5 6 7     Low energy

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Are we really persuaded when retailers price something at $19.95, rather than $20?

Yes we are!

University of Florida marketing professors Chris Janisewky and Dan Uly investigated the way the human brain thinks about value and shapes bidding.

Their research is reported in Scientific American Mind (April/May 2008). When people judge an opening price they create mental measuring sticks. If they see a $20 Kettle they wonder why it is worth $19 or $18. That is rounded numbers.

But why the starting point is $19.95 our mental measuring sticks change. When we think about what it is worth, we start thinking about nickels and dimes instead of dollars, so a fair price for a toaster might be envisioned as $19.75 or $19.50.

The psychologists also looked at five years of real estate sales in Alachua County, Florida comparing list prices and actual sales prices of homes. They discovered that sellers who listed their homes more precisely at say $495,000 as opposed to $500,000 - consistently got closer to their asking price.

In other words, buyers are less likely to negotiate a price when they encounter a precise opening price.

So, the lesson is, if you are in a buyers’ market you should start with an exact list price.

Popularity: 43% [?]

The late Peter Drucker told us “the purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.” When businesses forget this fundamental fact they soon fall into decline.

When Lou Gerstner took over IBM in the early 1990’s, Big Blue was in deep strife, about to report its biggest loss ever, $8.1 billion. Here is how Gerstner saw his future:

“In the spring of 1993, a big part of what I had to do was get the company refocused on the marketplace as the only valid measure of success. I started telling virtually every audience…that there was a customer running IBM and that we are going to rebuild the company from the customer back.”

Gerstner went on to pull off one of the greatest turnaround stories of modern-day business, turning an $8 billion-plus loss into a $5 billion gain in 5 years by focusing on the needs of critical crown-jewel customers.

Popularity: 43% [?]

John Robert’s Spa owned by service guru John R. Dijuluis III, an American chain of high-end salons and spas whose is policy is that a ‘smile is part of the uniform’.

When you train your staff to greet your customers, ask them to notice the colour of the customer’s eyes.

Scientists using MRI scan machines show the names associated with smiling faces activate the orbitofrontal cortex – an area of the brain involved in reward processing.

People remember smiling faces. It’s simple - we want to remember people who were kind to us, especially when we are likely to come across them again in the future.

Even mega retailer Wal-Mart understands this. Staff follow a “10 feet greet” rule. Every time a staff member comes within 10 feet of any other customer or coworker, you must smile. If you run a service firm, make smiling a ‘non-negotiable’ behaviour.

The Chinese proverb ‘Don’t open a show unless you like to smile’, has more than a ring of truth to it.

Popularity: 38% [?]

Liz Bigham SUP/Director of marketing for Brand Marketing for Jack Morton Worldwide tells us just 9% of the 91 million viewers who watched the 2006 Superbowl ads could remember the ads a week later.

Combine that figure with the massive increase in consumers who distrust advertising (the number or complaints about deceptive advertising doubled between 1997 and 2001) and you have a serious disconnect.

If consumers can’t remember what you’ve said and don’t trust the medium you’re using to talk to them its time to change. Its time to reallocate your brand dollars to experiential activities that will generate advocacy for your brand.

Popularity: 87% [?]

If there is a car brand that is synonymous with trust it has to be Toyota.

Corolla, Camry, Hilux, and Landcruiser are all icons of reliability. When a brand oozes trust like Toyota you have a potent asset. The challenge for an advertising agency is to get the message across with flair and creativity. Here is one of my favorite Toyota adverts. It comes from Spain. We laugh because the underlying message that you can trust a Toyota resonates and rings true.

Popularity: 40% [?]

When you discover a compelling difference that sets you apart from your competitors leverage it for all you are worth.

Commerce Bank, from New Jersey, offers its customers extended opening hours - which typically run from 7:30am to 8pm, 7 days a week. These operating hours mean Commerce Bank is open for more hours than any other bank.

To drive its difference home, the branches follow the ten-minute rule. Branches open 10 minutes early in the morning and stat open ten minutes later than the official closing time. Can you remember the times when you ran towards your bank to see the staff close the doors at 4:59pm?

The 10 minutes dramatizes Commerce Bank’s key differentiator by adding an additional burst of creative magic.

Popularity: 100% [?]

One of the things that I admire about Disney World is the way it transforms its low paid workforce into a cast of brand evangelists.

Walt Disney understood that the words we use frame the way we think and often behavior. Disney created his own language to support the Disney mission of delivering happiness through entertainment.

In Disney Speak:

• Rides or shows are always called ATTRACTIONS
• Employees are always CAST MEMBERS
• Customers are always called GUESTS
• Jobs are always called ROLES

On the surface, language can seem superficial or trite. But words create images that reinforce assumptions. Take the word GUEST. A disgruntled customer evoked a different image to an unhappy guest. Guests always deserve special treatment, while customers often evoke images of indifference.

If you want to create a service culture where staff stay in role or on-brand, start by changing the vocabulary you use to label staff, roles and customers. The right words really can mobilize your culture.

Popularity: 47% [?]

When you calculate the downside costs of not achieving customer engagement, its worth reminding yourself of what the benefits of achieving customer engagement are.

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s report Beyond Loyalty found 80% of its respondents said achieving customer engagement would improve customer loyalty. 76% said engagement would increase revenues. 75% said engagement would improve profits. And 56% beleived engagement would increase bigger market share.

When marketers being to seriously address the issue of engagement they might improve their credibility with their CEOs and board. The average tenure for a Chief Marketing Officer might also increase to above its current 21 month average.

Popularity: 32% [?]