---

Guest post by: Wendy Weiss Become an Author

Tweet

---

---

What separates the people who are amazingly successful from those who struggle? Why is one person able to start a business or begin a new job in sales and succeed, while others with similar qualifications and abilities fail? More and more I've come to realize that what makes the difference between those who succeed and those who do not comes down to thoughts and beliefs.

You see, whatever you believe affects your actions. If you believe that a certain action is negative, you will not want to take that action. If, on the other hand, you believe an action to be positive, then it will be far easier to move forward with that action.

Taking action (or not taking action), gives you results of one sort or another. If you evaluate your results and if you don't like what you find, or if you want different results or better results, it circles right back around to what you believe.

In a recent semester of "Cold Calling College-Live," (the 8-week, intensive, virtual coaching program to help entrepreneurs and sales professionals set more new business appointments in less time) one of the participants said that she was struggling with knowing what to say to prospects. I asked her to tell me about her company. She did so and her company has achieved some amazing results for its customers. I suggested to her that she simply say what she had told me. Her response: "If I do that, I feel smarmy (yes, she said this) and like I'm bragging."

I asked this participant, "Are all of these results that you have described true?" She told me they were. "In that case," I said, "you're not smarmy or bragging, you're simply telling the truth. These are facts."

Just because you feel something, does not make it so. In this case, this participant felt "smarmy" and as though she was "bragging." These were her feelings and she was truly feeling them. However, those feelings did not necessarily reflect reality. And in this case, those feelings were keeping her from prospecting successfully.

Here is a question that I received recently from an "Opening Doors & Closing Sales" (the twice monthly free e-newsletter) subscriber:

"Is there a good script I can customize to reach the hearts of my prospects without giving them the feeling I want to 'sell' them something?"

You'll notice that the word 'sell' has quotation marks around it. This subscriber obviously feels that selling is a negative activity. Selling is actually neutral; it is the ethics of the sales person that makes the activity positive or negative. I'm willing to bet that because of the way this subscriber feels about selling, her beliefs about selling as a negative activity have kept her from taking action, which has kept her from getting the results that she wants.

So what do you believe? And are your beliefs standing in your way? If so, it's time to change some of those beliefs. Remember: At one point in history everyone believed the world was flat. Most of us no longer believe that. It is possible to change.

© 2008 Wendy Weiss

Related Articles

  Mindset Is The Key To Your Business Success
  Manifesting With the Law of Attraction
  Sales Reluctance Is Not a Two-Letter Word Named No!
  Success or Failure Sequence
  Believe in Your Product
  The Foundation to Sales Success in Today’s New Economy of Buyers
  Emotional intelligence and the ABCDE Model of Coaching
  Business Success Begins By Partnering Attitudes with Knowledge
  Small Business Success Partners Attitudes with Knowledge
  Perceptions & Beliefs
  The Biggest Obstacle To Sales Success Is I Am Not A Salesperson
  Real Estate Marketing Strategies: Do Your Beliefs Create Your Reality, or Does Your Reality Create Your Beliefs?
  Big Bird’s Guide to Change Management - Learn your A, B, C, Ds
  Your Belief System is Why Money is Hard to Get
  3 Secrets to Enjoying Everyday Life So You May Live Your Life
  A-Z of sales success!
  Partner Attitudes and Knowledge For Business and Sales Success
  Increase Sales Simply By Raising Your Own Bar
  Laying the Groundwork for Manifestation
  Got Limits?

Related Forum Posts

Run a major competition
Re: Internet Marketing Dashboard for Business Owners
$3000 per mo Site for Sale: $65,000 OBO

Share this article. Fund someone's dream.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

The 13 Most Powerful Words in Marketing

Accessing Government Funding in Canada

The State of the Sustainable Furniture Industry

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.