Wake up with purpose, sleep with impact

Unfortunately, as sales can often be a high-pressure profession, there are a lot of sellers who struggle with things like stress and anxiety. So, a good and solid positive attitude is a major key to success. It impacts how you interact with clients, handle objections and challenges and hit your sales goals.”

Jeff Sleete, a 50+ year broadcast industry veteran

The song “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive,” written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer and sung by Bing Crosby, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1945 after being used in the film “Here Come the Waves.” Many artists covered it over the years, including Paul McCartney, Aretha Franklin and Van Morrison. It also includes the line “eliminate the negative.”

The tune’s overall message is about keeping a positive outlook and focusing on what’s good, even in challenging times:

[Chorus]
You got to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive
And e-lim-i-nate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
But don’t mess with Mr. In-between

John Dunlop, MD, a gerontologist at Johns Hopkins University and author of several books about older folks finishing well, practiced geriatric medicine for 38 years and taught in the bioethics program at Trinity International University.

He has two rules for staying mentally healthy as we age:

1. “Wake up every morning knowing what you are going to do that day.”
2. “Go to bed every night knowing that you helped someone.”

 Great advice and points that can be applied to a productive career in sales, whatever your age.

Unfortunately, as sales can often be a high-pressure profession, there are a lot of sellers who struggle with things like stress and anxiety. So, a good and solid positive attitude is a major key to success. It impacts how you interact with clients, handle objections and challenges and hit your sales goals.

Dr. Dunlop’s rules have a direct correlation to maintaining a positive sales gig mindset …

1. “Wake up every morning knowing what you are going to do that day.”

To be really successful in sales, you need to master time management skills — especially with out-in-the-field sales, where distractions come at you from all directions. It is essential to have a daily sales plan in place.

If you search for the average percentage of time that salespeople spend actually selling, it’s only about 34%. You must do better than that.

They say, “time is money,” so having a structured daily plan is critical. A plan that blocks out your day into specific sales activities, keeping you focused and allowing you to boost productivity with more time connecting and engaging with prospects and clients.

2. “Go to bed every night knowing that you helped someone.”

I read a stat somewhere that 69% of sellers have trouble sleeping. I’m not sure whether that’s true. I do know that there is nothing better than being able to reflect on the positive impacts you have made with your customers. If your sales act is built upon standards of researching them, being a good listener, asking relevant questions and trying your best to get a grasp of their needs, there will never be a day when you will not have customers who will be a little better off as a result of the time you have spent with them: 

• Imparting knowledge about their industry, the marketplace in which they operate or their competitors.
• Helping to solve a problem or to meet a business goal, etc., that wouldn’t have happened without your time.

On a grand scale, creating genuine, meaningful relationships between you and your prospects and established clients makes the marketplace where you live and work a better place by helping people. You can rest well in that.

“Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate” for yourself a richer appreciation for how the businesspeople you serve benefit from your services, new every morning. And with a structured daily plan, reach more new ones to serve each day.

Jeff Sleete is a 50+ year broadcast industry veteran — sales manager/GM/corporate sales head. He most enjoys helping sales departments position themselves as “mavens” (experts) of business to be more successful at selling advertising. Fundamentally, Jeff is a salesman. Through his media sales consultancy, Sleete Sales Script, he provides a daily road map for sellers of any media outlet type to be more consultative in their approach to their clients and set themselves apart from all their competition. Learn more about Jeff at https://www.sleetesales.com/. Or reach him at jeff@sleetesales.com.