Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a standard tool in psychotherapy to help individuals become aware of negative thinking so they can effectively respond to uncomfortable situations. This type of therapy helps treat mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety, and many others. But you don’t need a mental health condition to benefit from CBT.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy can be the key to unlocking your salesperson’s true potential. Sales can be overwhelming to the inexperienced person; the objections, situations, and expected goals alone can cause hesitation for the novice salesperson.
The root of uncertainty in the amateur salesperson comes from a lack of confidence.
That is when CBT comes to place.
Therapy can be expensive and time-consuming, but you can do this yourself by identifying the uncomfortable feelings you experience when you are pitching your client or customers. Usually, these feelings come with changes in the body; tense muscles, sweating, stuttering, weak posture, and twitching eyes, to name a few.
Negative thinking usually accompanies these changes in the body, increasing the discomfort associated with uncomfortable situations such as sales.
When you start to experience these symptoms, please take note of what triggered those responses and realize that it’s ok to feel that way.
Unfortunately, you might not get the results you want with those responses.
A lack of achievement is when individuals decide if they wish to quit or want to get better. It takes a particular person to be able to utilize CBT. They have to realize the potential they have and the work it takes to reach the next level.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy takes effort.
Exploration within yourself can position you in uncomfortable places, ultimately facing problems that you’ve avoided before. But what happens when you face your challenges? Not much until you act on it.
For example, entry-level salespeople can experience anxiety when they start to pitch their clients. This anxiety can stem simply from previous rejection and can lead to negative thinking, such as “they don’t want to buy my product.”
This negative thinking can lead to subconsciously expressing doubts in their pitch.
These doubts are observable in the lack of confidence in their voice or stature. You can also see this in the way they respond to their goals. Many will be quick to say that they don’t care about the outcomes, but it’s because they don’t want to fail. Lessening their expectations takes away from the simple fact that they could not meet their goals.
Replace this negative thinking with positive thinking.
You will have the ability to change the way you think once you start to acknowledge your psychological patterns regarding adverse situations.
Let’s re-evaluate the previous example of a salesperson that thinks, “they don’t want to buy my product.”
Acknowledge that this negative thinking can stem from previous experiences of rejection. Instead of reacting like you would from expected failure, act like you would from expected success.
You can do this by standing with confidence and speaking like you’re going to convert your client.
Instead of thinking, “they don’t want to buy my product,” think, “I’ve got the best product in the world, and my client would be crazy if they didn’t buy from me.”
But listen, you can commit to CBT, but chances are you’re not going to see immediate results.
Life usually has more failure than success. This is part of the process, an additional layer of CBT. The understanding that people cannot control anything besides themselves will free the salesperson. No longer will you seek opportunities when you can create them in unfavorable situations.
When you experience an uncomfortable situation, how do you manage your thinking and actions?
At Paramount, we focus on building confidence when it comes to training our representatives. You can have the most fine-tuned script with every rebuttal to every objection in the world, but that won’t matter when your representative doesn’t believe that they can make it work. Being positive is a lot easier said than done. Does your team know what it takes to sell successfully?
Connect with us to learn how to motivate your team to make more sales.
