Why Your Self-Image is a Key Part of Your Personality
Your self-image is the way you see yourself and think about yourself. It is often called your "inner mirror." You look into this mirror in every situation to see how you should perform on the outside. You always behave on the outside in a manner consistent with the picture you have of yourself on the inside.
How Do You See Yourself
For example, if you see yourself, as calm, confident and competent in any aspect of selling, when you are engaged in that activity, you will feel calm, confident and competent. You will be positive and happy. You will perform well and get excellent results. If, for any reason, it doesn't go well at that time, you will throw it off and dismiss it as a temporary situation. Your self-image is clear. In your mind's eye you see yourself as good and capable in that area, and nothing can interfere with your mental picture.
Change Your Self-Image
The most rapid improvements in sales results come from changing your self-image. The moment that you see yourself differently, you behave differently as well. And because you are behaving differently, you get different results.
My Own Story
Many years ago, when I was cold calling for a stock broker, I would call potential new clients and ask them if they would like to invest their money with our company and in a particular investment vehicle that we had at the time. I would end my speech by offering to send the prospect a booklet outlining the benefits of being with our company and encourage them to "think about it." My self-image was such that I could not bring myself to ask the prospect to make a buying decision then and now. All day long, I would go from telephone call to telephone call giving my speech and offering to send out a little brochure with descriptions to read. And as you might imagine, I was not making any sales. When I called people back after they had time to think about it, they would invariably say that they were not interested.
The Turning Point
I was getting desperate. I was living from hand to mouth at the time. Although I was speaking to lots of prospects, I was making very few sales. Then I had a revelation which changed my career at the time. I realized that it was my fear of asking for the order that was causing all my problems. It was not my prospects. It was me. I needed to change my self-image and thereby change my behavior if I wanted results to improve.
Make A Decision
The very next morning, I made the decision that I would not call back on a prospect. The size of the purchases were small and, when I had completed my speech, the prospect would know everything that they needed to know to make a decision. There was no benefit or advantage of sending out material or giving the prospect several days to think about it. At my very first call, and I still remember it, when I had finished my speech, the prospect said, "Let me think it over." I smiled to myself and told him that I did not make call backs because I was too busy, and then I said, "You know everything you need to know to make a decision right now. You know that this is an excellent opportunity so why don't you just take it?" I remember him remaining silent for about 15 seconds and saying, "OK. I'm in. How do I transfer money to you?"
Double Your Earnings
I jumped out of my chair in excitement and on a cloud. That very day I tripled my sales. That week, I closed more prospects than anyone else in my office. By the end of the month, they had made me the lead cold caller dealing with only the "elephant" prospects. I went from worrying about money to a much larger salary. My sales life took off and, with few exceptions, it never really stopped. And the turning point was that conscious choice to modify my self-image and make it more consistent with the results I wanted rather than the results that I was getting.
Action Exercises
First, begin to see yourself the way you want to be. See yourself as strong, confident, competent and professional in every way. The person you see is the person you will be.
Second, identify an area of selling where your own ideas about yourself and the situation are holding you back. You always perform on the outside the way you see yourself on the inside.
