ACTION 5: PREPARE YOUR MIND TO ENGAGE WITH THE BUYER

The Actions for Waiting already shared are tangible and visual. However, your preparation in the Wait step includes an extremely important mental Action—preparing your mind.

Consider these situations: Your telephone rings; you arrive at the buyer’s location; you are sitting in the lobby of the buyer’s business; or you start to dial the telephone—what are you thinking about at that moment? Are you focusing on your buyer or the value you may bring to them? Or are you thinking about some other situation?

Winning conversations—and sales—begin in your head. Study top performers in any discipline and you will find that mental preparation often is cited as critical to their success.

Baseball Hall of Fame player Hank Aaron (who played for my home team, the Milwaukee Brewers) attributed much of his success to his mental preparation—before and during the game. He believed that mental preparation and doing his homework were integral to becoming a great, consistent hitter year after year.

Aaron was an athlete before many of you were born. Yet his message of preparation and homework still holds true today for world-class athletes and sellers. I’ve heard many top-performing salespeople tell me that they are more successful when they are in the right frame of mind before any sales call.

This pause for mental preparation is the final Action for the Wait step because it is the last thing you should do immediately before contact with a buyer. No matter how you connect with your buyers—telephone, email, or a face-to-face visit—your final preparation action should be preparing your mind to engage with them. Waiting and “getting your head in the game” saves both you and your buyer time during your conversations.

Try the following tips for your mental preparation.

Visualize Your Success

While some athletes and artists visualize every part of their upcoming competition or performance, others find that visualizing the outcome is what counts. Use the preparation tips in this chapter to mentally work through the conversation, and then focus on visualizing the benefits of a positive outcome—for you and the buyer.

Develop a Routine

Your routine is a repeatable process, a series of habits you develop to prepare yourself. Determine two actions for your mental prep, then pause and do them before your conversation.

After observing other people’s success with mental preparation I created a routine before my training workshops. Instead of making final phone calls, I spend a few minutes thinking and sometimes repeating out loud “it’s not about me, it’s about them.” It keeps my ego intact and focused on the people with whom I am about to engage.

Use Positive Self-talk

Tell yourself that the conversation will be productive and value-filled for all involved.

To illustrate how this self-talk and belief are “heard” by a buyer, I share this real message left on my business line. Of course, identifying information has been altered.

“Hi Nancy, my name is Jill with ABC Sales. Just so you know this is a sales call, a callback will probably not happen but I’m trying. Uh, we are a blah blah blah company. Our service enables you to blah blah blah, enabling you to blah blah. If this does strike interest you can call me back; the toll free number is 800-111-2222. I am at extension 123. Once again, Jill with ABC Sales, our toll free number is 800-111-2222, extension 123. Oh, and if you’d like to look at our website before calling me, and that’s wishful thinking, it’s www.abc.abcsales. Thank you, buh-bye.”

What do you think Jill’s mental prep and self-talk were like before calling me? Dread? Fear? Wishful thinking? It’s doubtful her thoughts were positive or focused on success. Now, if her strategy was to make me feel bad for her, it almost worked! This is a good example of the confidence discussed in Chapter 1. Jill was not feeling confident and she needed to address that and build her confidence before picking up the phone. She definitely was not able to fake it.

Keep Your Buyer from Ducking Your Efforts

Your attitude toward your buyer is an important aspect of mental preparation. If your goal is to be in collaborative conversations with prospective buyers, consider how your mindset and language about selling impact your buyer’s reaction.

Some sales terms create unnecessary barriers between sellers and buyers. For instance, consider the word “pitch.” Listen to a group of salespeople and you may hear statements such as:

• “Getting out there to pitch” to someone.

• My “pitch really worked.”

• I’m “working on my sales pitch materials.”

I also know of sales teams that have a Pitch Book. While I understand the intention of the “pitch” term in sales, its use and connotation often confuse me. In a collaborative selling approach focused on What’s in it for Them, how does “pitching someone” fit? Think about it . . . if you are being pitched to, what are your options? You can bat it away, or you can duck.

Neither of these actions are what I want from my buyer. How about you? And what does a buyer think about being “pitched to”? These types of old-school sales terms may contribute to buyers feeling like they are being manipulated. Instead, we can keep our buyers from ducking or batting away our solution by preparing our minds to engage with buyers professionally and collaboratively as we focus on What’s in it for Them?

This mental preparation is truly the beginning of the collaborative selling approach. It’s the start of you being ready to work with your buyers in a genuine, WiifT-focused, and value-filled approach.

Your collaborative sales conversation begins with a What’s in for Them attitude as you review your notes, your Quick Prep Tool, and any other research you have completed. This Wait allows you to stop, break your own preoccupation, prepare, and engage your mind so you can focus on Them. Now you are really ready to Initiate the conversation with your buyer.