It can be somewhat discouraging when you miss a sales goal. Some agents start to doubt their abilities as a salesperson. This often leads to negative thoughts like, “I just don’t have what it takes” or, “I’m not good enough.” However, you do have a choice when this happens. If you start feeling sorry for yourself and begin to doubt your sales ability, then your headed to a dark place that leads eventually to failure and self-destruction.
Self-confidence is built upon success. When you first begin to do any task, you are likely to have very little self-confidence in your ability. This happens because we haven’t yet learned from experience that we will be successful. This is true no matter what the task. Whether it’s riding a bicycle or performing open heart surgery. When you consider that success breeds more success, even a little success can be used as a step ladder to greater confidence.
Reflecting on past success will serve to avoid a negative self-image. Positive thoughts like, “I’ve been successful before and I can do it again”, will go a long way toward building your self-confidence. Once you learn to associate your past successes with your current circumstances, you are on the road to building a very positive self-image.
Past successes can even build self-confidence in your ability to successfully perform a completely new task. Just recall the previous success you had when you tried something new in the past. Even if it’s in a completely separate part of your life.
We as real estate agents far too often seem to forget our past sales success. The next time this happens, try making a “success record” of all the good things that happened in your career and your life. A success record can be any source of strength that you can draw upon. Try to remember times where you have faced adversity and achieved. So examples might be:
- A certificate for a difficult course or achievement you successfully completed
- A picture of you completing a marathon
- A thank-you card from a seller that was overjoyed with your service
- A report card from one of your children
- A list of all the FSBOs you have listed and sold
- A list of all the Expired Listings you have listed and sold
- A list of all the cold calls you have converted into appointments
So use slumps, errors or mistakes as a means of learning and then purge them from your mind. Make a deliberate effort to recall and picture your past successes. Everybody has been successful at doing something at sometime. Especially when starting a new job. Use your success record as a way to reinforce these memories of these past successes. No matter how insignificant they may seem.
The ultimate prescription for getting rid of your feelings of self-doubt and lack of self-confidence is to dismiss your mistakes in favor of remembering your successes.
(c) 2008 Leading Example Enterprises Inc.
