Exposing Sales Myth #2 – Attitude Sets Altitude

Grant Leboff: Mark, we’re talking about debunking some of the myths about sales, and it’s interesting with myth #2, because you describe it as attitude sets altitude. That’s interesting because, to an extent, surely attitude does make a difference. So perhaps you can describe a little bit more about what you’re saying?

Mark Blackmore: Absolutely. This upsets lots of sales directors because they’re going; “Look guys, we need to create energy for us to sell these products” and I get that. The reality is, I’ve worked in organisations whereby we had energy – we had people doing 150 dials a day. The reality was, the product was rubbish. So no amount of happy clapping in the office at the beginning of the day is going to help a salesperson – when they pick up the telephone – and the customer says; ‘Your product is poor, I don’t want it’. So that’s the point. It’s not a case of attitude setting our altitude. It’s a firm belief in the value proposition of what you are selling. Get that right and the rest follows.

Grant Leboff: So we’re not saying here that attitude doesn’t matter. What we’re saying is, it’s not the principal, primary, motivator in the jigsaw puzzle. Is that right?

Mark Blackmore: Absolutely right. We say that it’s belief in your value proposition that will then set your mental state – your attitude – which will then set your physical state, which then should deliver a positive outcome. But it starts off with belief. You can’t go halfway in. Believe in your value proposition and everything else follows.

Grant Leboff: So even when you believe in your value proposition, sales people can often go through a bad spell, can’t they? They can have a bad patch, when it’s not quite working out. At that point, is ‘attitude’ damaging performance? Is there anything that salespeople should be thinking about at that moment when, perhaps, they feel ‘I love the product but I’m just having a few bad days at the office’. What should sales people be doing then?

Mark Blackmore: It comes back to; are they doing the metrics etc.? The number one area is that you are most positive and you believe in what you do. If you are positive about running, you don’t need to be kicked out of the bed in the morning to go running. So it’s positivity in what you’re doing, and that normally comes from re-analysing the product. I guarantee if their attitude is slipping it’s because they’ve been told ‘no’ too many times. So our job as sales directors is to then help them reinvigorate their belief in what they are selling. I guarantee that from there, everything flies.

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