Stop Being Negative
For more than two and a half years, we had been coaching Michael about how he worked with his staff, both in person and on the phone. It took a while before he began to understand the relationship between employees having an above-the-line attitude and producing results.
But the light bulb moment came when Michael’s daughter, who had been moping about a school project and procrastinating from starting it, finally shifted her attitude and completed the project in about a half-hour.
When he told us about this, he said, “Now I understand what you’ve been saying about the relationship between attitude and producing results!”
The monthly sales results have come in and they’re far short of where you needed them to be. In fact, you’ve missed your targets for three of the last four months. You’re starting to worry.
You’ve kept a brave face, trying to rally the troops to take the next hill, but it’s just not panning out. Your top gun is threatening to go to the competition. Three of your salespeople have raised moping and moaning to an art form. HR can’t find anyone else for your team who actually knows how to sell. Your product line is woefully lagging behind the competition. The “sure deals” you were counting on to pull you out of the fire have all fallen through. To top it off, the biggest sale of the month just crashed.
Sound familiar? Selling is tough. Managing salespeople is even tougher, because you must work through others to get your number, and most of your team are nowhere near as experienced as you are. Let’s face it, you would probably be reaching – even exceeding – your targets if you were the one selling.
When you’re not succeeding, it’s easy to get down on yourself, your team, and your company. You try to keep an “up” attitude, but after a while you can’t help it. Your negativity starts leaking out. It starts with a light, well-placed jab, a complaint disguised as humor, an under-the-breath sarcastic remark. Soon, your frustration boils to the surface. You’re angry at what’s happening and you want things to change.
You’re smart enough to know that expressing your negativity makes it a problem for everyone else. Either you’ve learned the hard way that indulging your frustration and blowing up generates more heat than light, or you’ve watched other sales managers do this and you’ve seen the mess that needs to be cleaned up afterward.
There’s only one transformative solution: get off it! Get over your negativity, let it go, quit indulging yourself and get on with finding solutions to the problems you see.
Why do this? There are three very good reasons:
Your sales team won’t sell well as long as you are unsettled and upset. Please believe us when we tell you that nobody is fooled - they all know when you’re upset.
You won’t be able to think clearly and act wisely. Your unresolved negativity will prevent you from being at your best.
The extent to which you cannot get over your own negativity matches your inability to help your team get over theirs.
So, how do you do this? How do you free yourself from the grip of exasperation, frustration, and cynicism before things change? Now that’s a question in search of an answer! If you could master that, wouldn’t it have a huge impact? It would indeed.
Here are some steps to take if you want to develop the mental strength to let go of negativity and start fixing things.
Choose something with which you are frustrated: something someone has done, something they’ve said, a policy that doesn’t work, a communication that has created problems, etc.
Put pen to paper and write the conclusions you have drawn about this situation: why they did it, what it means, what caused it, how it was heard by others.
Keep writing. Write the predictions your mind is making about what this situation will bring: now what will happen? What will others feel and do? What problems will you now have to deal with?
Stop and accept the possibility that your negativity is being fueled and maintained by these conclusions and predictions. Keep thinking them and you’ll keep being upset.
Now write something different: what you want and why you want it. What do you want instead? Why does it matter to you? Add the words: “Because I want…” and keep writing more sentences that deepen your “why”.
Once you feel yourself lightening up, choose one thing to do that will help you get what you want, then go do it.
Your ability to lead and develop a crack team of sales professionals will rely greatly on your ability to manage your own negativity, disappointment, and frustration.