As we get close to the New Year, like many people, I now realize I am behind in majority of my New Years Resolutions. So its time to focus and start reading more! So here is the continuation of the Bravado Book Club!
Chapter 5 has 3 main parts on how people need to stay buoyant, or persistent with all the rejection and Daniel Pink walks through numerous ways the top sales reps stay buoyant.
Pinks starts with what happens before the meeting starts on what makes a top sales rep successful, Pink calls it "Interrogative Self Talk". This is not using the old school way of pumping yourself up or saying you are the best thing since slice bread. But you ask yourself questions like "Can I run a great meeting?" Leading to you to answer the question either positively "Yes I have done it dozens of times and know xyz about the CFO's initiatives, or negative "No I do not feel prepared" leading to you to realize to need to prep a lot more in order to succeed.
During the sales activities, Pink site numerous studies on the importance of positivity and a positive tone. One that stood out is during a negotiation study, people where put into 3 groups. Those who have the demand in a friendly way, another in monotone, and finally my way or the highway. Even though the demand was the same and background was the same. The group who said it with a positive tone outperformed everyone.
Also Pink writes about the positive emotion ratio to success. This is a ratio of the positive emotions you feel compared to a negative emotion. There is a correlation on how successful you are to this ration, being 3:1 positive to 11:1. The reasoning is you need more good than bad to be persistent, however you need some bad to keep you learning from your mistakes.
After a sale, Pink then says what hurts many people's buoyancy is their reaction to a negative outcome. Most people treat negative moments as more personal, pervasive, and permanent. Example being you boss was mean in a meeting so you think "My boss doesnt like me" or "My boss is always mean" or "All bosses are mean". Pink ends with sales reps who are more optimistic consistently outperform pessimistic reps.
Action-Able Takeaways:
Use Interrogative Self-Talk to start your day
Monitor your positive ratio to make sure you are in a good ratio
When feeling a negative emotion ask yourself "Is this permanent" "Is this personal?' "Is this pervasive"
Keep track of your rejection, if you tally how often you were rejected in a week. Its going to be a lot more than you think, and on Friday you will feel you can overcome anything after still meeting your goals in spite of the rejection you faced
Get negative every once in awhile to learn/remember your mistakes
Write yourself a rejection letter, once you see a client say no to you, it takes a lot of the fear and sting away.
Kosta's notes:
Really like this chapter and really like asking myself questions like "is this permanent" when feeling a negative emotion. Whether it being not able to set a meeting, or land a role after getting laid off
The only critic I have is the correlation between optimistic sales reps and success. And I believe the reps are more likely to be optimistic due to their previous success, not a positive attitude being the reason you are successful
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