A winning attitude beats a losing attitude. We know that. Some producers have a losing attitude right now. We want to turn that around and extol the virtues of a winning attitude in your pursuit of success.
Attitude starts with a thought. You take stock in your career, your clients, your employer, your future and you toss those thoughts around in your mind. You roll it all together and form an attitude.
Customers and peers can pretty much read the attitude on your face like a dime store paperback. Even more so, your attitude becomes crystal clear when you speak. Those around you then judge your attitude as a positive or negative opinion. A negative attitude has a bad edge to it and makes positive people want to shy away from you. Not good in sales! Conversely, a positive attitude draws people to you and what you have to say.
Positive attitude transforms your song into a symphony of good things. Customers like that. Your boss and colleagues like that too. Are you down in the dumps? Resolve to perform an attitude check and, if necessary, change your attitude to accentuate the positive.
The winning attitude in sales
It is easy to look around at the business world and formulate a bad attitude. That is what losers do all the time. Their speech and countenance are a downer to customers. Do not be a downer.
A harder task is to see the many bright opportunities before you and build, maintain and project a positive attitude. That is what winners do all the time. It is hard, but it has a good pay-off. Besides, your employer says the alternative is not very savory.
Some health care sales may go away next year, but not all. If health insurance is your bag, be encouraged by surveys telling us that many employers will not throw their employees on the exchanges next year. Consider the findings of a recent survey of 593 plan administrators polled by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. The findings - 84% of U.S. employers say they are very likely to, or definitely will, continue to provide health insurance for full-time employees after the exchanges open. This survey was taken after President Obama's reelection and it is one of many that indicate such positive results for the continuance of selling group health.
Everything else you sell is still there to satisfy your customers' wants. In fact, each customer's world is getting more complex for the products, advice and services you sell them. That bodes well for you if you morph with your customer's needs. That is absolutely essential. Your worst-case scenario is that you learn some more product knowledge and selling strategy, and tweak your sales mix.
You will have to sell more, but that's what you do best. If you have not already done so, start up-selling into larger accounts and ASO groups. Those groups will be less prone to jump on the exchanges.
Attitude is everything. What can you do to improve your attitude toward selling employee benefits? Take console in the fact that many producers are down in their attitudes at the moment. You owe it to yourself to not follow such negative thinking. Avoid it like the plague because negativity is very contagious. You have much to sell, and developing and maintaining a positive attitude is key. This is the beginning of a fun and lucrative new phase of your career. Believe that because it is true.
Davidson, CEBS, is founder of Davidson Marketing Group and FutureOffice Network. He is also on the faculty at the Sheldon B. Lubar School of Business at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Reach him at
