Posted by QuickReadAbout.com Staff in The term baggage is definitely an overused pop psychology term in our culture. We use it to describe the excesses and useless junk we carry around with us from our worst childhood memories to when our romantic relationships went bad to all manner of past problems we can’t seem to shake or get rid of.
It’s as if we’ve packed away tightly all of these sorrows and frustrations and grief and resentments into metaphorical suitcases which we continue to carry around with us and which continue to define us and impact our belief systems through the lens of what we believe about the world.
That sucks, right? I mean, what a huge bummer. FORTUNATELY for you, you have come to the right place and this baggage can be checked and/or unpacked and the useless items we have carried along for so long can be discarded. It’s easier to repair than it might seem on the surface.
My first suggestion is to use try some tapping. If you’ve never heard me speak about this, stay tuned for an upcoming article on the subject.
Additionally, try this: Have an exploratory conversation with yourself, maybe on paper, maybe in your head, and focus on the following questions. What is your belief about persuasion? What are your beliefs about selling and sales and prospecting? What do you believe about closing the deal?
These questions are designed to help you set up the frame of how you view persuasion. It is so important that you start this analytic process because only by defining it will you be able to change it (if necessary).
‘The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.’ -Frank Lloyd Wright.
As a persuader, what do you believe? When you respond to the questions I recommend you start your statements in the following way: ‘A persuader is someone who. . . A sales person is someone who. .. A prospector is someone who. . .’ and write them all out explaining in detail your response to each question. It’s not as easy as it seems and at times you might need to wrestle with it.
If your answers are negative, you are impacting your clients with your own baggage attached to persuasion and sales. This is something that, as a sales person, you need to get clear on. There is not a whole lot you can do about it until you get clear. You will consistently be sending people negative intentions and therefore blocking sales and productivity.
When we have our beliefs about what we are, what we are aiming to accomplish, what our desired outcomes are, etc., we’re clear and open to the process of persuasion.
Anton Chekhov wrote, ‘Man is what he believes.’ Do you believe that persuasion is manipulation? Do you believe that sales people are high pressure?
If that is the other than conscious frame you have in place, you are doomed to fail.
Start to reframe this immediately.
Remember this: You are what you believe.