Positive, negative or neutral?

Your attitudes and beliefs create your thoughts and feelings, which determine your choices and decisions. Your attitude is often one of the first things people notice about you. It’s the foundation and the support of everything we do. Your attitude today determines your success tomorrow.

Having the right attitude when you’re selling is as important as any technique you’ll use in sales and business. Have you checked your attitude lately? Is yours worth emulating? I never doubted I had an attitude because I still hear my dad’s voice saying, “You’d better watch your attitude, young lady.” Years later, I still watch my attitude, but I make sure it’s one I’m proud to have and one that I know is contagious. I never leave home without it.

Your attitudes and beliefs reside at your core. They determine how you act and react in your life and business. Attitude can be a powerful tool for positive action or it can be a poison that cripples your ability to close sales and earn the money you deserve and desire.

Dale Carnegie once said, “It isn’t what you have, who you are, where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It’s what you think about it. Two people may be in the same place, doing the same thing; both may have an equal amount of money and prestige—and yet one may be miserable and the other happy. Why? Because of different mental attitudes.”

You’ll find great salespeople and business owners who sell the same or similar products or services. With all things equal, who comes out the winner? The person with the positive attitude stands out from the competition every time. Winners have tremendous mental abilities to focus and produce results. They pack their good attitude everywhere they go, take it on every sales call and expect to win.

Occasionally, people with good attitudes have bad days. Emotions rise; they get angry and feel rejected and hurt. However, people with winning attitudes use those emotions as stepping stones, rather than barriers to success. They don’t let emotions derail who they are or how they feel about themselves. They have a wonderful ability to shake off any negativity.

We all know friends, co-workers or family who can’t shake off negative situations. They love to dwell in the negativity, making sure everyone knows what happened and why they’re in a foul mood. They bathe in pessimism and bask in the glow of reliving awful situations. Days or weeks pass before these pessimistic people shake it off and let it roll off their backs. What a lousy way to spend precious days or weeks! You have a say in how long your lousy mood lasts. People with good attitudes know that it’s a waste of time—time you never get back.  

Where are you on the attitude scale? Are you positive, negative or neutral? Have you checked in to find out where you are? I’m not suggesting you should run around town smiling and being “Patty Positive,” but no one will buy products or services from you if you possess a bad attitude. It doesn’t matter what you sell: a salesperson with a negative attitude instantly repels a buyer. It’s important to take stock of how your attitude is affecting others and influencing your bottom line.  If people aren’t buying what you’re selling, you need to assess and adjust your attitude. 

A good attitude is a great skill to possess when you’re in sales. The old saying goes, “If you can’t change the situation, change your attitude about it.” Recognize precisely how attitude control comes into play in your life. Thoughts, feelings, emotions and attitudes are choices, and you make the choices as to how they’re played out.

A good sales attitude empowers you, challenges you and gives you a new level of confidence. Your attitude today determines your success tomorrow. You have a choice.