THE ENEMY WITHIN / Online Marketing

THE ENEMY WITHIN / Online Marketing

This article will share some insight into the mindset of professional sales people and their online marketing, as I have worked closely with them for over thirty years. In my relationships with countless of these professionals, it became clear that accepting the job and its responsibilities was the easy part.

With attrition rates as high as 30 to 40%, sales people come and go. The challenges faced by sales people that didn’t make the grade start internally and then manifest themselves into their daily lives, sabotaging the sale and possibly the relationship with their customer. Use these online business ideas to help your situation.

We are going to cover five criteria that can develop into obstacles and road blocks to our online business ideas. As humans, we now know that by the time we are three to four years of age, we have already developed our emotional, belief, and value systems, driving our behavior in later life. I could go off on a tangent and develop that line of thought further, but ultimately we have to understand that we are literally trapped within our own skin and mind. If you stop and listen to the conversations that you hold within your mind, you will find some that are very encouraging, yet many that demean and belittle us. You are your own best friend and your worst enemy. In that process we create self sabotage and lose out on what should have turned out in our favor.

The following criteria are all part of this self sabotage and need to be considered as areas for self help . The objective is to define them and to find ways to counter or neutralize them, as each one can become the thrust of failure in our daily lives.

The first one is one that many people have and can be detrimental to their growth. It is Doubt. We doubt the past, future, each other, government, possibilities and of course opportunities. Doubt is that internal chatter that we have within our heads, telling us that there is a possibility that we are not up to par, that we don’t have the goods. Doubt creates fear and fear can paralyze our self development. Unfortunately we are not trained on listening to our internal conversations. If we heard what we talked about to ourselves, we might have more support to make the right choice at the time. Doubt is that nagging feeling that this won’t work. It can make perfect sense when seeing or hearing it, but as soon as that feeling comes on, it starts to change our minds. This happens all the time with online marketing opportunities. We see one, get all excited about jumping in, but all of a sudden because of the doubt we create internally, we change our minds and decide to hold off. It is a sign of insecurity, as we always fall back to our subconscious, which drives almost 90% of our automatic behavior .

All of us landed here exactly as the other. We landed here naked to the world, with only two fears as a newborn. One is the fear of falling and the other is the fear of loud noises. Everything else is learned. No one landed her with Winner stamped on their forehead or Loser. If anything we all should be stamped with Chooser, as we do have the ability to make choices. Choice separates us from the animal kingdom. The point is that Doubt can create a situation where the wrong choice is made and ultimately hinders our life progress.

The next criteria is Worry. I explain it as making mountains out of molehills. Know anyone like that? Of course you do. I cannot tell you how many times we blow things out of proportion because of the internal conversation that creates the worry we are speaking about. By the time we get through discussing and mulling it over in our minds, worry can set up. A good example is “I don’t have the money to start my online business.” There are ways around this and today we can find offers that do not require massive investment capital. By saying it and then starting to dwell on the basic thought, we can easily turn a small pimple into a giant abscess. We all worried about our current state of circumstances. Who would have thought that the Middle class in our country would almost be a thing of the past? Life is not as easy as it used to be and I believe it will get worse before it gets better. The point with Worry is that it is not going to go away. We need to reach a logical state where we acknowledge the concern, plug it into our overall plan, and make the mental adjustment to move forward regardless of the worry.

The next criteria is Indifference. This is a back handed way of saying “Let it slide. I’ll just drift along.” In sales it is obvious that there are two sides to the equation; the seller and the buyer. The best sales people are the ones that plug directly into the association they currently have with their customer. It is all about Ship building. I cite three stages of this process and have seen them become pivotal to a sales person’s success. It starts out with Friendship as most people will say hi to you and are open to conversation. Friendship leads to the next stage called Relationship. I have told sales people for countless years that it will take them at least 6 to 7 visits or times for the buyer to know who they are well enough to make a decision. They may know you by name at this stage and still not buying, but you are in the door. Consistency and repetition will move the process forward and lead to the eventual third stage, Partnership. At this third stage, we now are committed to our customer as they have listened to our pitch and bought whatever we were selling. This is where growth can really flourish and open the door to greater sales. Once you are in the door with one or more products, it allows you to continually add to what you are selling with internet business ideas and online marketing tips.

Another challenge to sales people is Indecision. You have heard the pitch, it sounds like you understood all points that matter to the product and then you tell the seller, “I think I will wait.” The sales person obviously did not go through the basic steps in the sales process, as one of them is covering all objections. Indecision will steal your chances for a better future as second guessing yourself can become self sabotage. This falls under the cliché’ “Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail.” If you are following a well thought out game plan, your chances of reaching this state will be minimized tremendously.

The last criteria that holds a person back in life and part of the enemy within is being Overly Cautious. This behavior stems from a timid approach to one’s life. I consider it another form of insecurity. Today’s sales presentations in general are fairly well done. With technology on our side, we have access to Power Point and numerous online tools to properly get our points across. If we see and feel over caution in the sales process, it is up to us as the professional to determine what is needed to neutralize their concern. This supports following the consistent theme of your plan of action.

We sometimes forget that we all have unique and different filters that we use subconsciously as we interact with other people. These filters are all learned and programmed though our life journey. It all started with where you were born, who your family is, what schools you attended, what friends you made and what churches you were a part of. The point to take away from this short article is that we are all unique individuals and unless we really dig deep and establish a solid trust bond, where everything can be put on the table, we can be sabotaged by internal thinking and conversation that we are not privy towards. As professional sales people, we have to go the extra mile in creating partnerships from our relationships and friendships.As a closing thought, we are all coaches in putting together our teams. It is ultimately up to us to dig deep enough to offset some of these destructive criteria that will come up as we are trying to close. As professionals, we have to take affirmative action in any area that we see as a challenge or obstacle to our set objectives. The key is to learn to listen to your internal conversation, which constantly offers clues as to what might be holding us hostage in our personal growth and development process.

James Hobart, an industry leader in the Professional Beauty Industry for more than 40 years at every level, has certification in hypnotherapy. His insight and experience have helped many companies and individuals with their growth and development over the years. His book, Happiness Is Your Birthright, supports his philosophy on life and is a practical handbook to create positive change throughout one’s life.