Guest Blog: 5 Steps To The Right Attitude In Your Direct Sales Business

As a new beauty consultant, I found success very quickly, earning my first company car only seven months after I signed my consultant agreement. Excitement, passion, and being too dumb to doubt anything my upline told me to do – these are powerful tools to building a great business. Once I accomplished that first goal, though, I faced my first real disappointments – people quit, people didn't do what they told me they'd do, and some of the challenges of direct sales started to hit. I went to sales meetings, watching other people's successes and feeling so let down. I would ask myself, "I know what to do, why is it working for them and it doesn't work for me? I've got a great booking script, but it isn't working any more." While I searched for the perfect script and most amazing hostess program, I kept hearing about protecting your attitude and silly truisms like, "What you think about, you bring about!" I didn't want any more of that "Head fru fru stuff." "Just tell me what to do and I'll do it!"

What I had to learn though is that the best script in the world won't help if you don't have the attitude or heart of your business in the right place. Thomas Jefferson said, "Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude."

So how does one find the right attitude when every booking you've had this month cancels, your best team members just quit, and you feel like NOTHING is going right? Here are five of my best tips:

  1. Watch how you talk to yourself.

    When our children have a bad day at school, do we suggest that they should just quit school, it probably isn't for them anyway? "Other people are successful at the fourth grade, but maybe you should just give it up! Third grade wasn't so bad! You're too busy for school anyway!" Of course, that's ludicrous, but don't we say things like this to ourselves? Those positive statements I used to hate are so important in regulating our attitudes. When you feel a negative thought or feeling approaching, immediately replace it with a statement of your goal — "I can't believe she cancelled at the last minute…I'm never going to get to the court of sales this way…." cancel the thought and replace it with, "I will go over, under, around, through — nothing will stop me from crossing that stage at seminar!" This isn't a natural response to disappointments, but it's a discipline that you can learn, especially when you practice it often.
     

  2. Garbage in, garbage out!

    What are you feeding your mind? Olympic class athletes don't eat a lot of junk food and expect their body to perform, but so many in our culture expect to spend their evenings watching "Jersey Shore" and then want to think like a champion the next day. Turn off the garbage and spend a few minutes, instead, reading a business building book, a book on leadership, or listening to a training cd from one of the people who is the most successful in your field. What you feed will grow… I once heard an inspirational speaker say, "Do you think the American Idol is at home every night watching to see what the judges think of YOU? They're out there working on their craft while you're stuck watching the television!" (See my list of favorite books by clicking here)
     

  3. Surround yourself with positive people!

    Everyone you come into contact with either adds or subtracts from your positive attitude. Some people give energy, and some suck the life out of you. Which do you choose? Except for the people in our homes, we have a choice about every relationship in our lives! If the break room at work is a negative place of complaint, don't go there – use that break time to pop on the headphones and listen to a book on tape. Seek out those friends who are encouraging and fun to be with, not the office gossip with the latest scoops about how someone has been done wrong! Some relationships may naturally fall aside as you start to change your outlook on life – your energy and enthusiasm will become toxic to the complainers and nay-sayers … And you'll find that you're attracting a whole new positive circle of friends who encourage and support their goals.

  4. Learn from those who are doing what you want.

    You will quickly find that everyone has an opinion about your business, you'll hear from those who quit – "Oh, I tried that once; it didn't work for me!" And you'll hear lots of great ideas from those who are sitting at training meetings, but haven't had the courage to actually go put the skills into practice. However, I have a firm rule – I don't take their advice unless I'd take their paycheck! When you're struggling, ask for help from those who are where you are. Go observe a party held by the best in your business, invite a superstar to lunch and ask her questions, friend the top producers on Facebook and watch how they interact with team members and customers through social media….absorb the positivity that they leak!

  5. Show up to everything!

    When your company or your upline has training and motivational events, it seems like there's a million excuses not to attend. "I need to be holding a party and making money that night," "I've been away from home so much lately," "It's too expensive to travel to seminar, "I've been there so many times – I know what to do, I just need to go put it into practice.. ." yahda, yahda…. No matter what, you need to be there! Mary Kay Ash told us, "When you've had a great week, the meeting needs you. When you've had an 'unbelievable week' you need the meeting." Those who show up, go up! Not only will you probably hear one tidbit that will help you get excited and move forward this week, but you cannot receive energy from others when you're at home!

Attitude is the cornerstone of any success you dream of. If you really believed that you couldn't fail, would you pick up the phone a little more willingly? Would you avoid procrastination, just a little bit more, if you totally knew, 100%, that this next party was the key to your success? Mary Kay Ash said, "The greatest pollution problem we face today is negativity. Eliminate the negative attitude and believe you can do anything. Replace 'if I can, I hope, maybe' with 'I can, I will, I must.". When your attitude changes, everything changes!



Meet guest blogger Kimberly Richey!

Kimberly lives in Belleville, IL, and began her Mary Kay business in 2002 when she was a high school English teacher. She earned her first career car seven months later, left her teaching career for full-time direct sales in 2005, and hasn’t looked back since! She has earned a total of six free cars from the company and has twice been honored on the court of sales and celebrated her highest unit club of $450,000 retail production. She is the mother of two teenagers and has been married to her husband for almost 23 years. She loves working with her large Mary Kay unit and blessing women all over the country, and will soon be developing a Mary Kay unit in India as she works with the company’s global development program. You can visit Kimberly’s website at www.marykay.com/krichey2 or follow her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kimberly-Richey-Makeup-Artist-Ind-Sales-Director/405862186119811

 

2017-03-24T08:33:46-07:00Goal Setting, Main, Motivation, Self Development|

4 Comments

  1. Positive Steps | Catherine R. Staat September 14, 2012 at 5:58 pm

    […] 5 Steps to the Right Attitude in Your Direct Sales Business Share this:Like this:LikeBe the first to like this. Posted in Women With Savvy | Tagged Attitude, Direct Sales, Inspiration, Women With Savvy […]

  2. Simona September 2, 2012 at 9:54 pm

    This was a fantastic guest blog! Appreciate the link to the great literature list with the comments. Thank you Kinberly and thank you Julie Ann!

  3. Sim August 29, 2012 at 8:00 pm

    "I don't take their advice unless I'd take their paycheck!" I absolutely love this! Learn from winners, not whiners. And it should be pretty easy to remember to keep front of mind when cornered by gossips and naysayers who (consciously or not) are undermining your business/life. Thanks for the great article.
    (Actually – learn from winners, not whiners – I'm pretty pleased with that as an adage too! See what a positive mindset can do, lol)

  4. Denise August 24, 2012 at 5:18 pm

    Right on, Kimberly! The best script in the world will not compensate for a bad attitude! Thank you!

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