The Two Things You Can Control: Attitude and Activity
There are a lot of things that impact a salesperson’s life that are simply outside of his or her control:
A client’s schedule.
A client’s budget.
A client’s fears and motivations.
A client’s decision making process.
A client’s organization skills.
A manager’s personality.
A manager’s leadership style.
A manager’s decision to change the compensation plan.
A coworker’s effort (or lack thereof).
A coworker’s attitude.
And on and on the list could go.
It is tremendously common for salespeople to get focused on these things and lose their motivation for their work.
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Stephen Covey in his classic book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People suggested that we all exist with two spheres in our lives: the sphere of concern and the sphere of influence. There are things that are of concern to us. Important things. Things that impact our lives. Things that matter. They keep us up at night. They are our concern. And then there are things that we have some influence over. They are the things we can impact, control, and effect. Successful salespeople have learned to spend their energy and resources on things that are within their sphere of influence.
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I’ve identified two primary things that are within the control of a salesperson – your attitude and your activity.
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Attitude
It is easy to let our mood or attitude be determined by the things that are happening around us. If we get a “yes” or have a really productive meeting, we can be positive and upbeat. If someone is rude to us or we disagree with a management decision, it can ruin our whole day. For many of us, having a positive attitude is easier on sunny days. But Covey suggests that really effective people “take their own weather with them.” They don’t let their circumstances dictate their attitude.
This is not an area of sales or life that I have mastered by any stretch. I have made some progress on making my days great, which I write about here.
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Activity
The other thing that every salesperson can absolutely control is their activity. Even if your attitude is miserable, you can still keep putting one foot in front of the other and do the job. Make the phone calls. Send the emails. Do the drop-by visits. Nothing but your own reticence is keeping you from doing the work. You can absolutely control that, even when you don’t feel like it. In fact, more than once, I’ve been struggling with a bad attitude but forced myself to keep up my activity … only to have a positive interaction with a prospect or client that immediately changes my attitude and outlook. There is no substitute for activity, and there’s no really good reason to stop.
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Today’s there’s a double-feature. Make sure to read the article about making your day great.
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