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Selling as a Profession - Mental Basis

Written by: Hans-Peter Holzwarth

Article Overview: Salesman is a profession that can be learned. It's even a profession requiring an apprenticeship, although many learn during this time everything you can think of, but not how to really sell.

Selling as a Profession - Mental Basis

"What was the intention for you to sell houses for XYZ", an author asked years ago a young real estate salesman of a leading supplier of industrial manufactured buildings.

"Well, at first I was employed in a pet's shop, which then, however, had been closed. After that I was out of work for 8 months...."

It wasn't necessary for him to continue to clearly show that he was really unsuited for his profession. Consequently, he wasn't for long working in his profession.

What is it then that makes people suitable for the profession as a salesman?

Salesman is a profession that can be learned. It's even a profession requiring an apprenticeship, although many learn during this time everything you can think of, but not how to really sell.

Similar as in other professions, you also need talent for this Job. At first this talent exists independently from the relevant product that should be sold. Which criteria make up such a talent?
- Sociable and outgoing personality
- Enjoys to learn new things
- Openness
- Imagination and flexibility
- Intelligence and vision
- Self-confidence and stability
- Patience and drive
- The ability to recognise motives of others and to give time and attention to them (empathy)

The person who has those characteristics seems to be regarded in general as being very friendly and sympathetic.

From the potential customer's point of view this sympathy is a very important basic requirement for the positive judgement of the salesman and for a successful relationship. On the other hand, good communication skills are the prerequisite for success in sales. Communis = Community! This means the ability to establish relationships with the customer by means of his talents. This will create success that will mentally act like a dynamo (Greek: dynamis = dynamics): Success always produces new success! And this dynamic success generator creates a Situation in the respective person and its relationships in which he feels the "greatest possible, mental, material and social satisfaction in complete health."

Success means to achieve goals. Therefore successful people are acting in an objective-oriented and methodical way. They live instead of being lived; they act instead of "being acted by others".
It is wrong to believe that you can achieve everything, you only have to want this. Rather, the following principle is true:

If WILL and BELIEF are in competition with each other, then without exception always BELIEF wins!

It is therefore important that you believe in yourself!

The system of the human organism that processes all Information, the brain, is organised in such a way that practically all of its components are linked with each other. The section in which the conscious thinking takes place influences the ones not accessible to our consciousness and vice versa. In other words: to think, feel and act influences each other. Negative thoughts result in negative feelings and negative actions. The person, who believes in his success and has no doubt about it, feels good and communicates confidence. A result of this confident Charisma is in general a positive interaction with other people, and of course, also with customers. This increases the chances for success.

This knowledge has been first applied in Professional sports. "If you don't have a clear mind, you will never win", that say many world Champions from their own experience and use a lot of time by exercising "mental behavioural trainings" in order to exceed their competition. A top skier is mentally skiing the total distance in advance many times when he prepares for the WorldCup-Slalom. All movements necessary for this slalom are therefore programmed in his mind and automated to a large extent. Therefore he can focus his mind during the race on being the decisive hundredth seconds better than his competitors.

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Gardening reduces stress - Hi Anon, In my case I think that my physical health does suffer - and I am pretty sure I am not doing a great job taking care of it. Finding the time to exercise seems impossible. The more probably reality is that I dislike going to a gym so it just isn't important enough for me to find the time. Mental health is different - I try to purposely set aside some time each week to recharge a little, sometimes it's a simple as going into my backyard and doing some gardening. Dead-heading flowers for about half an hour is pretty much stress free. If I really need a break I go to my cottage for the weekend - no cable, no internet and no phone.
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