Are you trying to boost sales but feel like you’ve lost your Midas touch in your business? You look back on those years when sales came so much easier to you and wonder why you might be suffering a sales slump now?

The good news is you’re not alone. Many entrepreneurs and even the seasoned self employed have felt the same way. What I found is the right thoughts can pull you out of your sales slump. It’s often the missing surge you need to boost your sales and turn your business around.

Figuring out what’s killing your sales can be as simple as answering these 5 questions. I’ve included short action exercises after each question. You can download the PDF version of
this here.

Let’s dive right into the 5 key questions to help you discover how to use your thoughts to boost sales.

#1. Are you more competitive or comparative?

If comparison constantly keeps creeping into your mind, I can tell you first hand ­­ it’s killing your sales and it’s killing your fun. Here’s my comparison confession:

I started out in the direct sales industry in 1990 where I honed my sales skills for six years. The company was run franchise­ style. They supported hundreds of locations throughout the country. I was one of them.

As many companies do, they mailed sales reports every week that ranked how each of the independent business owners were doing in weekly sales volume. I enjoyed many aspects of sales and sales management; however, seeing these weekly reports was not one of them.

Instead of adding fun, healthy competition as it was meant to be, I somehow turned it into an intense emotional roller coaster ­­ — and I don’t like roller coasters. It was not until
years later that I finally realized the problem wasn’t that my sales rankings went up and down.

The torture was I let my self worth go up and down.Looking back I was letting my sales numbers define me. My subconscious thoughts kept telling me that my sales results was a reflection of my IQ level. The weeks when I was at the top of the sales leader board I felt so smart, but I let myself get puffed up thinking too highly of myself.

Other weeks when my sales sank to the bottom of the national ranking reports I was crushed at the realization of how dumb and untalented I must be. This went on week in and week out.

You would think after six years I would have recognized the root cause of my insanity. But, in those years I never paused long enough to even think about what I was thinking about. So, I just tolerated the torture. I hope you choose to stop torturing yourself.

ACTION QUESTIONS:

> Are you pausing long enough to think about your thoughts? ________________________________________
> How often do you find yourself comparing your results with others? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
> What advice do you need to give yourself about this? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

#2. Are you serving yourself or serving others?

I doubt anyone would immediately answer this question saying, “Yes, I live to serve myself”. But, let me differentiate the two another way:

• Serving myself is wanting to make an impression to let people know how great I am.
• Serving others is wanting to make an impact to let people know how great they are.
• Serving myself is trying to get others to buy largely, to help you meet your goals.
• Serving others is trying to help others meet their goals through what you have to offer.

We can all start out with a heart to truly serve others, but sometimes life’s worries can subtly shift our focus off of others onto ourselves. If you want to boost your sales, I invite you to take the daily challenge to give yourself a ‘Check up from the Neck up’ with this one question:

ACTION QUESTION:

> Are you more focused on making a great impression or making a great impact? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

#3. Are you driven more by fear or desire?

Studies on marketing have shown an interesting fact about consumer behavior. People respond more from fear of loss marketing than they do from desire to gain marketing.

In my business coaching practice I have seen that same fear of loss driver kill more sales than a lack of sales skills among the solopreneurs and entrepreneurs I coach.
Here are a few common behaviors that reflect fear driven decisions:

• You slash prices leaving little or no profit margins from fear of losing the business to someone else.
• Instead of pruning back the C and D clients you tolerate 80% of your headaches from the 10% of your clients that represent at best, only 20% of your revenue.
• You need more clients, but you stop advertising for fear you might lose money if it doesn’t work right away.
• You send people price quotes, but you don’t ask for the order for fear that you might sound too salesy.

When you’re driven more by fear you also end up trying way too hard ­­ and it shows. Whether you are presenting a proposal to a prospect one one one or your are delivering a sales presentation to a large audience, people can smell fear.

Fear revolves around you and not around them. Fear can make you forget to listen, forget to smile and even forget to breathe.

ACTION QUESTIONS:

> What is the worst thing you are afraid might happen in your business right now? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
> If that “worst thing” did happen what difference would it make in your life … in 10 days? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
> How about in 10 weeks? _________________________________________________
> How about in 10 months? _______________________________________________
> How about in 10 years? _________________________________________________

#4. Are you proactive or reactive?

When you go through a streak of no sales or your whole year has been a sales slump it is easy to be reactive and slip into worry mode. Worry can keep you stuck in a cycle of struggle if you let it become a daily habit.

“Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do,
but never gets you anywhere.”
(Erma Bombeck)Worry and fear go hand in hand. Worrying is reminding yourself of all the negative outcomes you fear might happen and playing that tape in your head day in and day out. I looked up what is the opposite of worry in the thesaurus. It said “confidence”.

ACTION QUESTIONS:

> What is one area in your business do you want to gain more confidence? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
> What is one area in your business (with some training) you could get better results to boost your sales? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
> What is one thing you can commit to doing differently to increase your sales? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

#5. Are you getting bitter or getting better?

Challenges are inevitable. But, if all you do is continue to rotate your mind and dwell on your frustrations you’ll only grow more bitter.

Success in anything, whether at school, sports or sales, there are only three areas we can focus on getting better at. We can intentionally improve:

• our thoughts
• our delivery (execution)
• our strategy (technique)

Are you committed to getting better in your business every day?
The right strategy can boost sales. How is your sales and marketing strategy working for you?

ACTION QUESTIONS:

> What is one marketing or sales strategy you want to intentionally improve in your business this month? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
> What is a new sales­-marketing technique/strategy you want to learn? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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