Inverted Thinking

 Instead of asking, "How do I succeed in sales?" try asking the opposite.

What would guarantee I fail?

That’s inverted thinking, and it’s one of the simplest tools I know.

How We Guarantee Failure

Ask yourself the question I ask myself: how do you and I guarantee we don’t succeed in sales?

We don’t take care of the customer. We respond slowly. We don’t bring the customer a single new idea. We skip the outbound calls, the emails, the touches that keep us visible.

Line it all up like that, and failure stops being a mystery. It’s a list of habits, and every one of them is something we choose, every single day.

Then Do The Opposite

Once you can see exactly what guarantees failure, success gets a lot simpler. You do the opposite of each one.

Take care of the customer first. Respond fast. Bring something new before they even ask for it. Make the calls, send the emails, keep the touches going even on the days you’d rather skip them.

We succeed in sales by doing what others don’t want to do.

Roy Waterhouse is the founder of Lean Sales Group, where he coaches salespeople on building trust and growing accounts.