Your attitude will eventually lead to success or failure in what you do

Your attitude will enable you move forward into progress or backward into oblivion. PHOTO | FILE 

By JOHN KAGECHE

In Summary

• Just take action against a negative attitude. Snap out of it or it will kill you.

Your attitude will either empower you or poison you. This is true in life as it is in sales. It will enable you to move forward into progress or backward into oblivion.

There are no half measures with attitude; only polar opposites. You are either having a positive attitude or a negative one.

The dictionary defines attitude as a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a person’s behaviour.

And there you have it. Your behaviour is a sure indicator of your attitude. Just as one cannot see the raging forces beneath the earth that manifest on its surface as hot lava, one can also not see what is going on in your mind but can tell from your exertions, exploits and executions or idleness, inertia and indolence.

Whereas a desk job is structured in a way that work comes to it, selling requires that you go look for the work.

Wise in your closing

It means you diligently prospect, be empathetic in your interviewing, genuine in your demonstration, reasonable in your validation, honest in your negotiations, wise in your closing and while doing all this; remain enthusiastic through the entire experience.

Success or failure in selling hinges on these emotions and how you manifest them in a world fraught with triggers (like rejection and pressure) for having a negative attitude.

Goods and services may attract buyers to you but what will repel them is your negative attitude towards them.

It’s an open secret that we buy from people we like, which many times overshadows buying the best product there is in the market.

You like your barber/hairdresser and his work which doesn’t necessarily mean he’s the best. News is news yet TV stations go to great lengths to choose who delivers it to you.

If news alone was enough, would you continue watching it if the anchor was grumpy or indifferent about it? I know I wouldn’t.
Ebola is highly contagious and kills quickly. Your attitude is equally contagious and will (professionally) kill you just as fast.

Negative energy (attitude) is an emotional drain to you and those around you (colleagues and buyers). Misery loves company and you will want to infect others.

So they will take precautions just as with Ebola, and avoid you. Not only do you lose your support structure (colleagues), you also lose the sale.

Just as with Ebola, death in sales is painful, swift and almost guaranteed, if not arrested in time.