A better motto is to "fake it until you become it."
1. Finding Your Voice
When most people start their careers in sales or who start a new sales position, they lack self-confidence. They are "Consciously Incompetent," meaning that they are aware that they don't know much.
This is a position of weakness for many and a position of opportunity for others. Seeing being "new" to something as a strength may take some "faking" until you see it as it should be. More »
2. How to be a Positive Thinker
Despite what you may feel or believe about the power of positive thinking, it is well documented that people who strive to see the positive possibilities are happier, more successful and are more liked than those who focus on the negative.
A great technique to eliminate negative thinking is Anthony Robbins' "erase" technique. Get in the conscious habit of telling yourself "erase" whenever a negative thought enters your brain. Since nature abhors a vacuum, the negative thought needs to be replaced consciously or the vacuum will be filled with another negative thought.
Replace the erased thought with something that empowers you and that challenges your brain to see a positive outcome.More »
3. Understanding the Need for Importance
Everyone has the need to feel important in who they are and in what they do. For those who struggle with feeling important, the simple act of pretending that you feel important is a powerful way to move towards fulfilling this need.
Make sure that you start with making yourself feel important and not on trying to convince others that you are important. People who try to get other people to recognize their importance are often seen as conceited and as focused only on their agendas.More »
4. Prospecting Tips
Ask 100 sales professionals what the worst part of their jobs are and you'll probably hear "cold calling" quite often. While there are many sales experts who will try to convince you that cold calling is dead, the truth is that if you don't prospect, your sales funnel will eventually dry up.
The reason people dislike prospecting so much is partly because it often takes a lot of calls before you finally find an interested prospect. That means you will have to face a lot of rejection prior to any success.
If you can act as if rejection doesn't bother you and that you understand that a rejection in nothing more than getting a step closer to a new customer, you will have a more powerful mindset and a more positive outlook on prospecting.
Cold calling, sadly, is not dead. So why not get great at it?More »
5. 10 Tips for Closing a Sale
The number of sales lost due to a sales professional not asking for the sale is a very, very long number. The fact is that many in sales simply never ask for the order, despite all the time, energy and emotion they invested in the sales cycle.
The main reason? Fear.
If you pretend that you have no fear of closing, at least for a few of your sales opportunities, you will approach closing much differently. Fake it long enough and you will become someone who does not fear closing a sale but someone who sees closing as an important, necessary and rewarding part of your sales career.More »
6. Where to Build Your Professional Network
Having an expansive and far-reaching professional network is a powerful way to open new opportunities for you as a sales professional. While many in sales will agree with the usefulness of networking, not all actively seek to expand their professional networks.
The reason? Fear (once again.)
It goes back to the fear of rejection and the fear that investing time in building a network won't produce the results promised.
Like any fear that holds you back, just doing it will erase the fear over time. Pretend that you are a great networker and that others will benefit from connecting with you. This mindset will help you expand your network and allow you to eventually become someone whom others view as a model to pattern themselves after.More »