As a salesperson, two of your most valuable assets are your attitudes and your emotions. Whether you make or lose a potential sale often depends on how you manage these assets. By engaging in positive self-talk, you can master these assets and be in charge of yourself at every stage of the sale.

I have outlined below several typical selling cases. Put yourself in the salesperson’s shoes. How would you react and respond? Without censoring your thoughts, write down what you would say to yourself if you were that salesperson in that situation. After you’ve written down your reaction, read the two examples from other salespeople responding to the same situation.

Case Study 1. Problems during the sales presentation
A computer salesman has been working to make a large sale to the management information systems department of a division of a Fortune 500 company. He has designed an elaborate presentation to deliver to key decision makers in the MIS department.While giving the first half of the presentation, the salesman realizes that it is not going well at all. Audience members are not responding positively; their body language is discouraging; and their questions seem somewhat hostile.

What is your self-talk?
Salesperson A’s self-talk: I’m bombing! I’m blowing the whole deal. These cold, dead fish are really getting me uptight, just staring at me. Wait till my manager hears about this. He’ll never let me present a big deal again by myself. I wish this were over!

Salesperson B’s self-talk: Things are not going well. I thought they would receive this much more positively. I’ve got to find out what they are reacting to: is it the proposal itself or how I’m delivering it? I’d better stop at a logical point and make a sincere effort to get their honest feedback, so I can focus better on their needs. If I can work in a break, maybe I can get one-on-one feedback from some of them and find out exactly what’s going on. Then I can make some improvements. OK, take a deep breath, dig deeper and concentrate.

Case Study 2. After making the sale
Roberta L. sells advertising for a radio station in a small Northeastern city. For the past three weeks, she has been working toward selling a large amount of advertising time to a local chain of restaurants. On Friday afternoon, the vice president of the chain calls and tells her that her proposal has been approved, and they want to buy the time she suggested. After working out some details and thanking him, Roberta hangs up.

What is your self-talk?
Roberta number one’s self-talk: I got it! This calls for a celebration. I’m going to call Joe and take him out to eat in our favorite restaurant.

Roberta number two’s self-talk: I got it! This calls for a celebration tonight. While this sale is fresh in my mind, I’d better take a few minutes to go over and write down what I did right. What steps did I take? What were the factors under my control that contributed to this sale? I don’t want to have to reinvent the wheel every time, so what do I want to make sure I do again in this type of situation?

Case Study 3. After losing the sale
A large real estate-development corporation has built a new resort in a Sunbelt state. The resort is located at a considerable distance from current travel patterns, and the corporation has decided to use a variety of incentive-marketing programs to bring prospective purchasers to the resort. Currently, they are selling lots, patio homes on a golf course and time-sharing villas.

The marketing program is effective, and many visitors come to obtain the incentives (such as trips and cameras) and to see the resort. The on-site sales force consists of nine men and women including John H., who has toured 15 couples in the last two trips without making a sale.

Today, he has taken another couple on a sales tour, and again, he has failed to make a sale. After the couple has left, John walks back to the office.

What is your self-talk?
John number one’s self-talk: These people don’t want to buy. All they do is come up here for some freebies and waste my time. What a pain! How am I supposed to sell anything with the way they are developing this place? There’s construction crap all over. It looks like a war zone. They’ve got all these number crunchers running things, and folks don’t know what they’re doing.

John number two’s self-talk: This is bad. I’m zero for two weeks. I can’t pass this off as bad luck or bad prospects, because some of the other people are making sales. If I start putting these prospects down or taking my frustrations out on them, I’ll really dig a hole for myself. I’m in a slump. I’ve been in slumps before, and I’ll get out of this one, but I’ve got to get some feedback about what I’m doing. All these no’s I’m getting show me I’m off track, but I need to identify the specifics I need to change. I’m going to ask Ann about her approach, because she seems to be doing pretty well. I’m also going to go through my entire presentation strategy with Dan and get his feedback.

You have now seen that some self-communications are more helpful than others are. Review the self-talk responses you wrote after reading each case. Underline the self-talk you think would be useful, and circle the self-talk that would create attitudes or feelings that might hurt your performance. Reflect on past selling experiences and the self-talk associated with them. Can you come up with any negative patterns of self-talk between the above exercises and your past experience? Put these negative patterns on 3×5-inch index cards. On the flip side of each negative pattern, rewrite a positive pattern of self-talk. Review these cards until more positive self-talk patterns become second nature.

The best path to make new thinking part of your mental environment is to take action consistent with the new attitudes and beliefs. In addition to using helpful, positive self-talk, it is important to act on that new attitude. Try some new sales approaches to see what you can learn. Instead of covering mistakes, you could start to discuss them with other salespeople or with your sales manager. By setting up specific feedback systems, you show yourself and others that you really want to learn and improve.

Martin J. Seldman, PhD, is president of Seldman Executive Development Programs and a pioneer in the field of executive coaching. His book, Super Selling Through Self-Talk (Price, Stern and Sloan, revised in 2005), explores the power of positive self-talk. For more information, contact Dr. Marty Seldman at Seldman Executive Development Programs, 107 South Fullerton Avenue, Montclair, NJ 07042, telephone 973/233-0678, Web www.seldman.com.