Adam Hankinson, Managing Director at Furniture Sales Solutions, talks why attitude is the unsung superhero of sales attributes.
Introduction
Attitude, I believe, is the unsung hero of sales attributes. It’s a cliché that we hear all the time, that “Attitude is everything”, but the decades I’ve spent in the furniture industry have only worked to cement this truth in my mind.
Rather than believing that “I’m a realist”, “They’re a pessimist”, or “He/She’s an optimist” I truly believe that we can choose our attitude, and what’s more, there are a few key techniques that I’ve found to be a huge help to create that consistently positive attitude.
Be a rock-solid 8
The first lesson I try to instil is to aim to be an 8 out of 10. You might ask “Why not a 10 out of 10?”, well I’ve found that people find this off-putting. They create this idea in their mind that 10 means bouncing about, grinning like a Cheshire cat and high-fiving customers as they walk through the door.
Instead, imagine smiling inwardly, our positivity should ooze out of us without even saying a word. Aim to build a quietly positive attitude.
Choose an attitude trigger
Wherever you first enter the store, whether it’s the front, back or side entrance we should create a vivid image in our mind of this being our ‘trigger’. Picture it like a switch, as soon as we step through that door or over that threshold it flicks our good attitude to ON.
Any negativity that we were feeling beforehand due to an argument, the bad weather, the person cutting us off in the car this morning, it all gets left outside.
The most important order of the day
In our goal of creating that unalterable positive attitude we should treat every single customer with the same amount of care and attention. This begins with the very first customer of the day.
Instead of rushing around with our head down or trying to catch up on yesterday’s paperwork we should be ready to greet that first customer with a genuine smile and a friendly “hello”.
Not only is it just good practice to treat all our customers in the same thoughtful way, it’s also a great way of getting our sales day off to a good start. A quality conversation, even if it doesn’t end in a sale, will get the ball rolling on a successful day on the shopfloor.
Conclusion
Does our attitude make a difference to our sales ability? Of course, it does. When I ask this in our training sessions, I’ve heard suggestions that the difference could be as much as 100% uptick in sales, which in my mind might not be far wrong.
If we all agree that our attitude can make a significant difference, then we should all be putting as much effort into improving our attitude as we are to product knowledge, closing, and all the other aspects of a well-rounded sales process.
Try the few suggestions I’ve given you above for a week. I guarantee that the benefits won’t be confined to the increase in sales, but will trickle down into your everyday life too.
