How to Protect Your Attitude…
How to Protect Your Attitude…

What you see is what you get.” - Unknown

Because we’re only paid on what we produce, most people in sales understand why getting and keeping a positive, success focused attitude is critical. We all have bad days, okay days and bell ringers – and the more of those bad and just okay days we can eliminate, the more sales we’ll make.

When we talk about how your attitude controls your success though, there’s a lot more to a ‘great success attitude’ than being a happy person in general.

I know a lot of very happy salespeople, who aren’t quite as happy about everything that has to do with selling. And even if you’re happy but you still can’t sell or you don’t go to work to work every day, you could just end up as a happy underachiever.

Our attitude is the foundation of just about everything we do in sales, even in our skill development.

If you don’t like (attitude) follow up, you won’t apply yourself for six short weeks to train online daily and do it correctly to develop the follow up skills that will pay you back in extra units and income the rest of your life, selling any product.

Same with selling, closing, and negotiating – if deep down you don’t like selling because you’re fearful, or feel (attitude) selling is pushy, sneaky or dishonest, you’ll never devote six weeks to developing your skills so you can sell on a professional level – which is the total opposite of pushing or tricking.

If you think (attitude) you deserve a sale just because you show up and wander around with a customer for a few minutes telling them what you know about the product and offering the lowest price on the planet, you’ll miss most sales and you’ll have way more bad days than good. Why? Attitude again.

I met a guy like this the other day. He felt because he spent 20 minutes with me that he deserved a commission. In real life, he didn’t know his product very well and he couldn’t close a door with a spring on it, much less close a sale on an expensive product.

His attitude was the pits and he’ll never be any good if he won’t spend the time it takes to actually sell his product instead of just doing paperwork when someone buys his product. He’ll always go home and explain to everyone who’ll listen why he doesn’t sell more.

Another example – I recently talked to a salesperson who doesn’t like trucks. He only sells cars and loses half of the sales he could make. Other salespeople don’t like their product and say that’s why they can’t sell it. If you only sell what you like, wake up: Buying isn’t about your likes, it’s about what your customers want.

Do You Need An Attitude Adjustment?

Your attitude is everything. You need to take inventory of your attitude in everything you do that affects selling and earning an income. When or if you find something you don’t like, learn how to fix it. In real life, almost everything that affects selling – including the hours and the pay – is solved when you develop real skills in sales and come to work for just one reason – to work!

Take a couple of minutes and do a realistic assessment of your attitude in some of the most critical areas in sales.

Then start training and start by ordering my free books. Do everything it takes to turn selling cars into a highly profitable, fun profession.

Check the statements you agree with...

  • Your attitude about being in sales affects your performance.
  • Your attitude about your product affects your performance.
  • Your attitude about your dealership affects your performance.
  • Your attitude about your customers affects your performance.
  • Your self confidence (attitude) affects your performance.
  • Your attitude about success affects your performance.
  • Being around negative people affects your attitude which in turn affects your performance.
  • Negative customers affect your attitude and performance.
  • The stress of your away-from-work life also affects your attitude and performance in sales.
  • Problems at work with people, service, deals or problems with the product affect your attitude and performance.
  • Almost everything can affect your attitude and performance.

Yes - Yes - Yes - Yes - Yes!

I’m betting you checked everything on the list because those topics affect everyone. So the real question you need to answer is how do you protect your attitude?

Everything above – being in sales, your product, your success and your customers...are all controlled by your education in sales or the lack of a real education in selling professionally.

Look at the list above again – from top to bottom, everything negative is directly related to a lack of skills on your part. Even those things on the list you don’t control directly (negative people / problem deals / tough customers) are also eliminated as you continually develop more skills.

I disliked almost everything about selling cars my first five years because I didn’t understand selling, success, or the customers.  I always had tough sales, problems getting deals cleared, etc. But when I learned to sell correctly, I made more during my next seven months than my first five years combined, and you can, too.

I rarely run across anyone who attends our training who doesn’t immediately do a 180 on everything we’ve just talked about. Your success is completely in your hands. When you learn more, you can deal with more things that affect selling, your income and your attitude. If you’ll devote one year to learning to sell – your life in sales will never be the same.

About the author
Joe Verde

Joe Verde

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Joe Verde Sales & Management Training, Inc., is an automotive sales and management training company focused on leadership, management and sales training. Joe Verde holds workshops across North America and pioneered virtual training with JVTN.

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