Beliefs → Behaviors → Results
(Note: For this article, it might be helpful to have something in mind that frustrates you about your own performance – a hang-up, fear, or general sense of inadequacy. Think about that for a moment before you read on.)
If you’re like… well, everyone, you’ve got your fair share of hang-ups and frustrations that affect your performance in the sales arena. When we face a challenge or a doubt about our own abilities we have two options: 1) Work around it; 2) Work through it. The natural tendency is to work around it – to compensate by applying a strength in another area.
For example, perhaps you find that you are really strong in a face-to-face conversation, but not so strong on the telephone. Your tendency will be to rely on electronic communication (e-mails) and stay away from phone calls as much as possible.
This could be related to any number of different topics: closing skills, model demonstration technique, overcoming objections, listening skills, difficulty with certain buyer profiles – we all struggle somewhere.
If you are to overcome that deficiency in your work life (or your personal life, for that matter) you need to understand the true nature of the problem. We (erroneously) tend to focus on the end result: did we get the sale? But if we are going to overcome the problem we need to step back and focus first on the behaviors that got us to the result. And if we are going to truly understand the behaviors, we must first analyze our beliefs. The progression is as follows:
Beliefs → Behaviors → Results
Our beliefs drive our behaviors, and our behaviors drive our results.
This is true on both the positive and the negative side. On the positive, if I excel in a certain area – overcoming objections, for example – the positive results are driven from the fact that I utilize right behaviors when I get an objection. But I can only do that if I first believe in my ability to get this right.
On the negative side, If I struggle in a certain area – say listening skills – it is not because of my inability to nod my head, or feedback what they are saying, or listen between the lines… these are all behaviors. The problem lies first in my belief: if I do not believe I am a good listener then the behavior and results will inevitably suffer.
It might be time to face your fears and to identify the beliefs that lie beneath those fears. If you’re struggling with an end result, take two steps back in looking first at the beliefs and then at the behaviors. And if you want to do this right, I HIGHLY recommend you have this conversation with someone you trust. It is far easier to overcome these issues with outside perspective.
What frustrates you today about your own performance? Perhaps a belief change is in order???
