This may be a strange thing to hear in the light of the classical sales training programs, which fervently advocate a maximum of enthusiasm and self-confidence. The trouble is, they don't tell you when to stop. Too much of any good thing can turn out to be a problem: ingesting too much vitamin C or drinking too much water can end up by damaging your body. It's the same in sales, the reason being that your customer won't be on the same wavelength as you at the beginning of the call.



Listen, align and adapt

So where does this leave us? You need to do a little personal development to be ready to present yourself to your customer. Positive thinking is fine and positive actions are even better. They just need to be aligned to the situation in hand. One good thing that it is difficult to do too much of is listening to your customer. If you listen with all of your senses, meaning not only listening to the words they speak, but also picking up on body language, even the way they shake your hand at the beginning of a meeting, you will pick up a great deal of information about their receptivity to your call. By using this information, you will know how to adapt your level of positivism for the best sales effect.

Making sure that you listen will help you to avoid unwarranted assumptions. Another potential trap from sales development training folklore is the notion of believing so hard in a certain outcome that you end up getting the results that you want, simply by the power of your belief. Get ready for some bad news. You can believe as hard as you want that the customer will buy from you, but if they don't want to, then they don't want to and that's all there is to it. Belief is good when it is in your own capabilities and the things that you control. The law of attraction has shown that when you want something related to your own capabilities and the things you can control, you can make positive changes in your life. Customers, however, are often not controllable. Your job in sales is typically more to create a situation that optimizes the chance of the customer wanting to buy from you.

Your customer wants warmth and naturalness

On the other hand, marching into a cold call with nothing but cold logic is unlikely to win you many sales either. Customers appreciate a minimum of warmth in a relationship. They like the idea that someone will make constructive suggestions as a friend meaning in a way where it is evident that you have the customers best interests at heart.

Warmth and naturalness that you adjust to the nature of your customer are the two things that will stand you in best stead. Listen actively to all the verbal and the nonverbal communication and while speaking to your customer politely, take the stance of a business friend who wants to bring them a maximum of benefit.