The Impact Positive Thinking Can Have on Your Business

Think and Grow Sales
©Tessa Stowe, Sales Conversation, 2007


Just imagine for a moment that you have perfect sales skills. You know everything there is to know about selling and you know what to do in every sales situation. Now just suppose there is another person selling the identical products and services as you and they too have perfect sales skills.

Who is going to be more successful at selling? The person who is going to be more successful is the one who 'thinks' they can. Let me explain this further.

What sets the boundaries of your sales success is you, your thoughts and your beliefs. You can never sell more than the limits/boundaries you have set for yourself. You have thoughts and beliefs about the type and size of the sales you are capabable/deserving of and the amount of sales income you can earn.

So if you think and believe you are capable of earning $100,000 a year, your autopilot system will go into action to make sure you earn that $100,000. If you think you are a $500,000 a year salesperson, your autopilot system will go into action to make sure you take the actions to earn that $500,000. Yes, you may occasionally exceed what you think you are capable of but rest assured your subconscious will go to work to average it all out to what you think you can.

Your thoughts and beliefs are not the truth but you have made them your truth - probably subconsciously - and you will always be loyal to and live up to your truth automatically. All your actions will always be in alignment with making your truth a reality - whether you like it or not. So can you see now that your success at selling is not just about your sales skills?

Your sales success = your sales skills + your thoughts/beliefs.

It is interesting, don't you think, that most sales training simply focuses on teaching you HOW to sell and how to perfect your sales skills? The false assumption is that to improve your sales success you only need to focus on improving your sales skills. This is only part of the equation.

With respect to selling, there are specific thoughts and beliefs that have a significant impact on your sales success. These are your thoughts and beliefs around: what selling is, who you need to 'be' to sell and how successful you think you can be. Your thoughts and beliefs in these areas act as throttles holding you back and there are fairly simple techniques to take these throttles off.

Imagine you have a belief that selling is about convincing/persuading/manipulating someone to buy something they may or may not want. How does that make you feel? Uncomfortable? Resistant to having sales conversations?

Now change that perspective to one where you view selling as having conversations to see if you can help people get what they want. How does this perspective make you feel? Comfortable? More relaxed about having sales conversations?

Where there is resistance there is a throttle. Throttles regulate flow and with respect to selling they regulate the flow/limit of your sales success. With this example, by changing your perspective on what selling is you have effectively released this throttle (resistance) so your sales conversations can now flow more readily. I hope you are getting the concept.

Go in search of all your beliefs and thoughts around sales and look for thoughts and beliefs that cause resistance as you will then have found throttles which are limiting your sales success. Work on releasing these throttles so your sales conversations flow.

At the beginning I said that you unconsciously and automatically live up to the boundaries/limits you have set for yourself with respect to your sales success. Hence it is logical then that the higher the boundaries/limits you have set for yourself, the higher your sales results will be automatically. So if you can remove any throttles you may have around selling, you will automatically raise the boundaries/limits you have set for yourself and you will automatically sell more. It will be automatic. How easy is that?

So forget about trying harder and working harder. Focus instead on lifting your boundaries/limits and watch the quantum leap in your sales happen automatically.

You can really think and grow sales!

Tessa Stowe teaches small business owners and recovering salespeople 10 simple steps to turn conversations into clients without being sales-y or pushy. Her FREE monthly Sales Conversation newsletter is full of tips on how to sell your services by just being yourself. Sign up now at www.salesconversation.com.

Starting a New Challenge

Today is around Day 93. While I've been disappointed in what I've accomplished overall - entirely my fault - when I really sit down to enumerate the things that I have accomplished, I haven't done so bad.

However, I made the decision to restart my challenge a few days early, with this being October 1st, and the beginning of the Fourth Quarter. I want to accomplish so much in 2008 and I want to set out my plan and begin putting it into action now.

The Things I Want to Accomplish During This Season:

1. Get my Interior Redesign, Home Staging, and Personal Organizer business up and running.


2. Get four new clients in October, eight new clients in November, twelve new clients in December.


3. Complete Novel 1 in October.


4. Participate in NaNoWriMo and win in November, completing a brand new novella.


5. Finish Novel 3 in December.


6. Exercise one hour, six days each week.


7. Drink 64 - 128 oz. of water each day.


8. Lose one dress size each month.


9. Help son get his neighborhood snow removal business going.


10. Help husband get job out of state.


11. Get published in targeted consumer magazines.


12. Go on vacation.

I'm proud of myself because I've started off quite well today. I got my son to school on time. I walked for an hour, enjoying Songs About Jane by Maroon 5. I've already had two 8 oz. glasses of water. Yeah!

Namaste,

Samara Leigh

Wait Till I Get My Money Right

I had to laugh when I first heard this song. Simply because the phrase in the chorus - la, la, la, la, wait till I get my money right... - wow, I can remember hearing that ALL of the time as a kid. My father always talked about this magical time when his money would "get right" as if it was something wholly beyond his control.

In retrospect, I now see that as a sort of victim mentality that many cultures place upon themselves. (And no, I am not reading anything into the song, just thinking about my experience as a little black girl growing up.) I think of it as a victim mentality because the phrase because there was always a lot more emphasis on the "waiting" than on the "getting."

By all accounts, my father actually made a very decent salary. Probably a lot more than many in our neighborhood. So, why were we always renters who never once considered buying? Because what needed to "get right" was my dad's priorities.

Drinking, cigarettes, and other *stuff* took up a considerable portion of the family budget. Money that would have been much better invested in real estate or a college fund for my brother and me.

In a lot of ways I've kept that sort of "wait until I get my money right" mentality. Lamenting the things that could have, should have, and didn't happen for me instead of investing my time and energy into making the things that I truly want and desire a positive reality.

It is all in your perspective. And in your actions.

Namaste,

Samara Leigh

Redefined Goals for the Remainder of the Year

Okay, over on my blog Mindful Banter I talked about redefining my goals with just a little over 100 days left in the year. Here are a few of the goals that I want to accomplish by 11:59PM on December 31st:

1. Network, network, network - online and off.
2. Go down two dress sizes by year's end.
3. Get my brand new Interior Redesign, Home Staging and Professional Organizing business off to a great start.
4. Get two fiction works in progress completed.
5. Get non-fiction published in new markets.
6. Beat my husband in tennis. :-)
7. Take a much-needed vacation.
8. Relocate out of state.

Getting Back to Business on Day 60

I've been a simply horrid 100-day-challenger. Missing in action. Not sticking to my plan for the challenge. Every time I thought about the challenge again I'd feel absolutely terrible. But, the next day I'd just do the same thing: Go about my day without thinking much about it.

However, don't think that I haven't been doing anything toward reaching my goals. In a lot of ways I achieved an awful lot during my period of "inactivity."

1. I realized that some of the goals I originally set out to achieve, are not what I really want.
2. I stayed focused on achieving the goals that were most important to me.
3. I got in lots of physical activity - swimming, tennis, walking
   

Here is the list of goals that I developed within the first few days of starting the challenge, but never got around to posting. (Or is that wasn't willing to commit to them? Anyway, here is the list:

1. Complete the foundation for my new business venture.
   
2. Acquire 3 new ideal clients.
3. Fill three workshops to capacity.
   
4. Complete my current work-in-progress - a novel.
5. Get published in new markets.
   

My goals are basically the same for this 100-day Challenge. However, the megachange that has occurred is the focus of my business. Earlier in the year I had a great idea for a new business service that I wanted to offer. It was similar to the primary service I offered at the time and it was closely align with a business that my husband and I started together. While I set everything up, I never really pursued the idea. Fast forward to a few weeks before this challenge began.

My husband and I were talking about a need in our area and how we could help many of the homeowners in our community. Suddenly, it became clear. I took my idea and changed it to fit the need we saw in our area. What makes it such a fabulous idea is that it fits both our creative strengths and our passion for doing something that will really have an impact on people in our community.

As I've gone through the past few weeks I've been able to clarify my business goals and re-evaluate which ventures are truly important to me and worth my 100% commitment. I have also become much clearer on many of my personal goals and stepped up my level of commitment to achieving them.

A few weeks ago I was ready to just skip out on this challenge and wait for the next one. But, I realized that this type of mentality has kept me thinking - "Next time" - for the past two decades. I am jumping back in with both feet and working hard to achieve the goals that I have not achieved yet on my list. The ones I have achieved, I hope to achieve in a bigger, more powerful way.

Namaste,

Samara Leigh

The Power of Our Words

Our words can be so powerful. Not only do they effect those around us, but they have a powerful effect upon what we can achieve.

I've been spending more time really "listening" to the conversations that go on in my head. You know, when you either tell yourself, "I can do this. No problem." Or, when you tell yourself that it is impossible and that nothing but disaster looms on the horizon for you. Either way, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. So, why not choose the positive.

When I start my day with positive affirmations and meditation I always have a better day. I feel more accomplished. So, why do I often forget to start my day off with this important step? I am making it my goal to NEVER forget to do this. It really makes all the difference in the world.

One of my most exciting accomplishments is that my son - usually Mr. Gloom & Doom - now believes in the power of positive talk, as well. I'd been talking to him about it off and on for a while because it is a very big issue for him. Recently he started a new school program and I stressed that he go in with a positive attitude. He did. After three days he had this to say:

"Wow Mom, you were right. Everything has been going my way. This positive talk is like having my own wizard. I wished I'd discovered it sooner. Now we've got to get Daddy to start using it."

Indeed. While I wasn't very hopeful of that at the time, I had a conversation with my DH recently. I mentioned that I noticed that he states everything in the negative. It's never, "I hope I have a good day." It's "I bet the whole system will shut down again today." Or, "I hope they don't lose power this time." But, it's not just about work. Everything is stated this way. "I hope it doesn't rain today." "They will probably be out of bread." And, of course, he is usually right.

He seemed sort of surprised about it. Like he never noticed that he does this. He thought for a few moments silently, though he didn't commit to anything. However, I noticed that the next day he say, "I hope we have a great day at work." And you know what? He did. :-)

What I Learned From Maya Angelou & Venus Williams

The power of positive thinking works. There is no doubt about it. I've seen it in the past few months in my own life. After reading The Secret, where it talked about how teachers, and great leaders in the past have long known this secret and use it to their advantage I've started to really pay attention.

I recently got several books on and about Maya Angelou from the library. The one that impressed me so much and helped me to see that this Phenomenal Woman uses the secret in her own life is Maya Angelou - The Poetry of Living. What impressed me so much was what others had to say about this woman and how she affected their lives. How she inspired them. Over and over people mentioned her wonderful spirit, her positive outlook, refusal to give into the negative, and her determination that she could achieve anything she put her mind to. All I could think is that I would like to be regarded this way.

Venus Williams recently won her fourth Wimbledon after many would have considered her to be out of the game. What motivated Venus to win and to play the best tennis of her career? Venus called a friend months earlier, after watching her sister Serena win an unlikely Australian Open title in January, and said simply, "I'm going to win Wimbledon." Just like that. In her mind she had already won it. Next she would sure that she did everything in her power to make that happen. And she did.

Don't think that positive thinking and envisioning your future works? Just ask Maya Angelou and Venus Williams.