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Guest post by: Cheryl A. Clausen Become an Author

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At some point in your business your sales will be down. When this happens you have a natural desire to do the very three things that will keep your sales down. The three things you don’t want to do are: panic, be pushy, and allow your self-confidence to tank.

As your bank account dwindles and you have few if any sales in the pipe you start to panic. When you panic it triggers feelings of desperation. But the more desperate and needy you appear the less likely anyone will be to actually buy something from you. This happens a lot in the insurance industry as producers get about 18 months into the business. The reason being frequently they work off a two year draw with the expectation they will sell enough insurance to payback the income they’ve been drawing. When they can do that they get to continue with the company they’re associated with, and when they can’t they’re out. Thus when they hit the 18 month mark and realize they’re really short in fulfilling their sales quota they begin to panic. The more panicked they are the more desperate they become, and the more desperate they become the fewer appointments they get. Panic and desperation are like a death gas killing any chances for an appointment before you can even ask.

The more panicked you are the pushier you become, and you don’t even realize you’re being pushy. Desperate people do desperate things and one of those things is to try to coerce people to do things they don’t want to do. You’re so focused on you and your needs you’re not even paying attention to the reactions you’re getting from potential prospects. And consequently no one wants to talk to you, or meet with you.

As this cascade of negative consequences progresses your self-confidence plummets. You begin to think you can’t do anything right, that you can’t sell, and you start wondering what the heck you’re going to do now. You may even be tempted to start blaming everyone and everything around you. If you find you’re doing any or all of these things take a deep breath, and step back and away from the whole situation.

It’s time to focus on the facts and just the facts. Don’t focus on the information you may have, but the facts you have. Fact one, if you’ve had sales success previously you’re capable of sales success again. So, what’s different between the circumstance when you had sales success and your circumstances today? Focus only on the differences within your control. Fact two, if you allow your self-confidence to go down you’ll project your lack of self-confidence in all your behaviors. The behaviors you display as a result of your lack of self-confidence will lead to more poor results. So, what actions will you take to restore your self-confidence? Fact three, you always have to earn your sales. What actions do you need to take to earn those sales? Fact four, the best way to have sales success is to have a plan. What’s your daily sales plan for success?

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