Content Strategy and Words for Business on the Web • • Feature Post Sales vs. Marketing

« Worst Bad Sales Habits, Part 3 - Dumb, Fat, and Happy | Blog Home | Sales Manager - The World’s Hardest Job »

Worst Bad Sales Habits, Part 4 - Prisoner of the Past

By Brad Shorr | January 9, 2008

word-sell-pops-order.JPG
In all cases, experience drives outstanding sales performance. Depending on how you apply your experience, your performance will be outstandingly good or outstandingly bad.

Experience without perspective is catastrophic. In sales, there is a trap we fall into called “the halo effect”. It means taking one experience and generalizing it to apply to all similar situations.

  • This printing company hated me and my products. Therefore, printing companies are poor prospects.
  • This buyer stopped doing business with me because my repeated emails annoyed him. Therefore, I won’t send emails anymore.
  • This product failed disastrously at my largest account. Therefore, I won’t sell it anymore.

This sort of inductive reasoning is full of fallacies, but in sales, it is often rooted in emotion. We remember bad experiences and don’t want to repeat them. We become gun shy. If we fall into this habit, eventually we will be unable to do much of anything.

New Year’s Resolution!
I won’t let a bad experience throw me off track. A negative incident is simply that - incidental.

Related:

  • Worst Bad Sales Habits - Recap
  • Worst Bad Sales Habits, Part 5 - Dwelling on the Negative
  • Worst Bad Sales Habits, Part 1 - Winging It
  • Worst Bad Sales Habits, Part 6 - Losing Respect
  • Worst Bad Sales Habits, Part 2 - A Freeze on Cold Calls

    • 6 Responses to “Worst Bad Sales Habits, Part 4 - Prisoner of the Past”

    1. Robyn Says:
      January 11th, 2008 at 11:21 am

      Brad, the worst thing about negatives is that our brain registers each one and it becomes harder to turn them around. We then build a self-image based on negatives. Worst part is they become self-fulfilling prophecies.

      You’ve developed an excellent picture of how that plays out.

      To kick this kind of thing myself, I began to name a possibility to replace the negative and then I acted on it.

    2. Brad Shorr Says:
      January 11th, 2008 at 12:27 pm

      Robyn, I really like your technique. If you don’t mind I may suggest it in to my coaching clients.

    3. Robyn Says:
      January 11th, 2008 at 1:21 pm

      That would enhance us both Brad our work, Brad. Let me know the results!

    4. Robyn Says:
      January 11th, 2008 at 1:23 pm

      Oops, I can see I put too many Brad’s in my last comment… Now that’s something to think about… What if there were more than one of you?

    5. Brad Shorr Says:
      January 11th, 2008 at 1:25 pm

      Perish the thought, Robyn! :)

    6. Worst Bad Sales Habits - Recap | Word Sell, Inc. Says:
      January 16th, 2008 at 12:12 pm

      […] Bad Sales Habit 4 - Prisoner of the Past. Don’t let a bad experience ruin your day - or your […]

    Comments