Beating the Blues

I’m away to the USA to run a week-long sales management programme so it’s going to be full on for me

As always, I’m going to give myself a psychological boost before I head across the pond. After all, we’re all human and in sales we need to handle the Inner Game.

Let me explain how I do this.

This week I attended a seminar on Sales Resilience – techniques to handle the ups and downs of selling. It was fascinating and run by a qualified psychologist with a background in sales. He reminded me of the Success Diary.

You may have a savings account but do you also have a success account that you can refer back to when you need some resilience from life’s setbacks.

Each week, think back to all the events and pick a success to jot down in your diary or note book. The success you choose must pass the PIG test to ensure it wasn’t just a lucky break and that you can repeat the success in the future. PIG stands for:

  • Permanent. The skill used or knowledge is permanently inside you.
  • Internal. The success was a result of an internal belief you held beforehand or one you’ve gained.
  • General. Can the success be repeated or applied to other situations?

Let me give you an example of a success I’ve had this week to show you how PIG works.

I had a need to relocate my office this week. Everything including broadband. It went well, I prepared for the move in detail, I always do. I created a checklist, as is my regimen. I planned extra time in case anything went wrong, as it always does. And it did.

Permanent, yes, I already had the skill. Internal, yes, I believed I could do it, it wasn’t a lucky break. General, yes, this success can be applied in a variety of other situations.

This accomplishment goes into my success diary and the next time you need a boost of mojo or a enhancement of self-confidence following a setback, you look at your success diary to remind yourself that for every setback you’ve probably achieved over a dozen triumphs. It’s about beating the blues.

Remember we’re all human.