Robinson is out the door and out of a sale – his guiding fiction had become the major obstacle on the way to a sale. We all have guiding fictions –


unrealistic expectations we have acquired during childhood. In Rob- inson’s case, whenever he runs into trouble during a sale, he starts com- paring himself with what he thinks he ought to be (in this situation, a better planner). Of course, he then feels inadequate and insecure. Successful selling calls for confi- dence. Anything that detracts from your belief in yourself is sure to ruin the sale. Sitting before a buyer is not the time to dig into your personality looking for faults and inadequacies.


FILTERING OUT FICTIONS Like Robinson, many salespeople are plagued by their own guiding fictions. They fail to concentrate on their buyers during the sale and end up self-conscious, insecure, and unable to get the order. They fail to filter out their fictions.


Did you ever notice how easy it is at a noisy party to concentrate on the people who interest you? Successful perception depends on what you can ignore as well as what you can see or hear. People who can ignore what is unimportant to them have a real edge.


Filtering out information is vital to successful living. Scientists estimate the human eye can handle about five million bits of information per second. According to a 1967 study, however, the brain can process only approxi- mately 500 bits per second. This may help explain why our perception needs to be guided.


In selling, learning to focus your attention on the buyer is essential. Every time you meet a prospect, you must determine what is and isn’t vital to your sales success. Perhaps the greatest distractions to success come from within the salesperson, however – not from the buyer. Your inner feelings, triggered by your guiding fictions, can be the


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greatest obstacles to sales success. When your buyer frowns, interrupts, or objects to your major product feature, these messages can quickly prompt your guiding fiction to be- come the dominant theme in your mind. The key is to quiet or neutral- ize your guiding fictions. Before we can accomplish this task, though, we first have to become aware of what those fictions are.


FIND YOUR FICTIONS Which of the guiding fictions listed below belong to you? Which of these “shoulds” and “oughts” do you secretly use to measure your own success or failure? How are they get- ting in the way of your success as a salesperson? • I should always be in charge during the sale and never let the buyer control the decision.


• Buyers should always like me. We should be friends as well as busi- ness partners.


• When I don’t get the order, it’s because I’ve made some mistake.


• Customer objections are a sign I haven’t presented my product well enough.


To become a good salesperson, I have to overcome my insecurities. On the surface, each guiding fiction


above seems to be true. Some of them echo the shoulds and oughts we learned as children. As adults, these guiding fictions often give us the illu- sion of security. We believe, if we can always please others and never make mistakes, we can control our lives and achieve all we wish.


Neither assumption is true. We cannot control the customer’s decision – we can only influence it. Not everyone can like us, nor do we have to like everyone. Friends are those who like us as we are, not as we think we ought to be. We can’t expect perfection in everything we do, but we can try to view mistakes as oppor- tunities for learning, not as sources of shame. We can’t completely over- come our insecurities, but we can learn how to manage ourselves. Become aware of what guiding fic- tions are operating during your sales calls. It’s the first step to neutralizing your guiding fictions. To silence them is to accept your adulthood and real- ity. Remember: No buyer can do or say anything to defeat you unless you give him or her the tools to do so. It was Eleanor Roosevelt who said, “No one can make you feel infe- rior without your consent.” Take her advice. Silence your fictions and you’ll silence your insecurities. 


MINDSET MINUTE: SAY "YES" TO WINNING


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