Which Will You Feed...

Theres are old story that goes:

One evening an old Cherokee Indian told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, ‘My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’ inside us all.One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.’

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: ‘Which wolf wins?’

The old Cherokee simply replied, ‘The one you feed.’

Have you ever stopped to consider what behaviours you exhibit in sales?  Some are positive behaviours we should promote, others aren't and should be demoted.

Positive behaviours which promote growth include:

• Positive attitude -staying focused on the successess and win rather than failures.  Visualising success rather than expecting failure
• Accountability - owning both the successes and failures in sales - being accountable to your outcomes
• Responsibility - being responsible for deliverables and seeing things through.
• Honesty - being true to yourself and others. 
• Respect - treating others appropriately and as you'd like to be treated. 

Behaviours that can create negative and devisive environment include (and are unsurprisingly the opposite of the above):

• Blame - placing respnsibility for your actions or inactions on others
• Justification - balancing your actions or inactions against those of others
• Resistance - fighting back against others and their ideas
• Denial - refusing to see your part in failures (or successes)
• Put Down - Either bringing others down to your level to have a group or doing so to seemingly elevate yourself
• Rejection - dismissing others and their ideas

In sales, these negative behaviours are simple traps and, once the emotions are fed, can quickly become consuming for you and, often, those around you.  For example - you miss a big deal and it can be easy to blame others (including your client), justify why you didn't win (your competitor was cheaper) and a host of the other emotions.

Often it is easier to err towards the negative as sometimes the positive takes more effort

This doesn't just play out in sales either - it's true in life in general

Which Do You Feed?