way to put these failures behind us, but again it isn’t a cure. It’s loading more onto the foundations of a problem that we would be better off riding ourselves from.

The answer? In the following visualisation method I call ‘The Two-Minute Time-Machine, you’ll be able to put past declined sales behind you. You’ll then be able to move on fearlessly gaining new sales without the negative effects of the past.

The Two-Minute Time-Machine

1. With a pen and paper in hand, consider all of the sales pitches that you have delivered that have ended in rejection. Further, consider all events that you feel have contributed to your fearless attitude being diminished.

2. With one of these failures in mind, close your eyes. Slowly begin to build up a relaxing scene around you. The stronger your visualisation the more effecting it is to your subconscious mind (and rem

Making sales – whether from the sales floor in a retail outlet to gaining big money clients for a big multi-national – is a truly exhilarating thing. But as big as the buzz is when you’ve gained a new client or sale, when losing a client or sale, it really can add weight to the truthfulness of the expression, ‘once bitten twice shy’. It’s easy to blame ourselves, blame our methods, something we’ve done; when really it could be that the customer or client just wasn’t ready to buy.

Rejection in sales can create a big impact on us after time; rather than having a fearless attitude in our job, doubt can sneak in. We can wonder ‘what if’ and may question whether we can actually make the sale before we even try. This doubt is a powerful thing and can show in our body language. No matter what sales technique we then use, this doubt can leak through, and when combined with a sales technique that we feel is polished, the client can see through this (albeit subconsciously) and doubt can sneak in about our authority in our field.

When addressing this leakage we have a hard task set out using traditional methods. Our gut reaction is usually to polish our communication skills, learn a new sales technique. But even the top salesmen and women are human; none of us can control our pitch and body language completely. There will always be something that shines through.

For that reason, it’s necessary to look a little deeper than learning a new skill. It’s time to bring out the big guns, to consider techniques learned in psychology and life coaching. Why? Because once we can tackle these leaks in our communication we can give our clients a pitch that is not only effective, but is also seen as more credible and sincere.

This new technique? It may surprise you to know it’s born from a hybrid style of visualisation. Seemingly wacky to those who know little about it, it is truly a godsend to professional sportsmen and indeed any field where precision and practise is key.

Why, you may wonder, is visualisation so powerful? Where tackling things from a verbal point of view – telling yourself you won’t lose a sale – is effective, it’s also weak in its strength to affect your mental state. Words come across blockages from our conscious mind in the form of, ‘yes but’, and, ‘what if’. It can appear mere nagging. Images, however, have no such block. Further, since our subconscious mind works in images (as you may have noticed while dreaming), it’s a sure-fire way to push whatever message we want to give ourselves straight past any blockages and straight to where it’s going to get to work.

But back to the technique. Consider this. How much more powerful, more fearless, more effective will your sales be when you can go ahead without doubt, knowing that you have nothing to lose? Past failures have all added up and doubt exists in many salesmen. While sometimes healthy, it may make us hesitant, and he who is hesitant doesn’t get the sale. So for this very reason, we need to consider ways in which we can reduce the impact of our past failures. We need to be able to put them behind us, instead of looking back into the rear view mirror we need to look ahead. Because once we are looking ahead and we’ve learned from our past mistakes, the leaks in our communication that can affect our sales will stop happening. When we reach a confidence in our sales ability and reduce doubt, our whole body can work as a whole to deliver a pitch that is effective and polished.

Positive thinking is one way to put these failures behind us, but again it isn’t a cure. It’s loading more onto the foundations of a problem that we would be better off riding ourselves from.

The answer? In the following visualisation method I call ‘The Two-Minute Time-Machine, you’ll be able to put past declined sales behind you. You’ll then be able to move on fearlessly gaining new sales without the negative effects of the past.

The Two-Minute Time-Machine

1. With a pen and paper in hand, consider all of the sales pitches that you have delivered that have ended in rejection. Further, consider all events that you feel have contributed to your fearless attitude being diminished.

2. With one of these failures in mind, close your eyes. Slowly begin to build up a relaxing scene around you. The stronger your visualisation the more effecting it is to your subconscious mind (and rem

les technique that we feel is polished, the client can see through this (albeit subconsciously) and doubt can sneak in about our authority in our field.

When addressing this leakage we have a hard task set out using traditional methods. Our gut reaction is usually to polish our communication skills, learn a new sales technique. But even the top salesmen and women are human; none of us can control our pitch and body language completely. There will always be something that shines through.

For that reason, it’s necessary to look a little deeper than learning a new skill. It’s time to bring out the big guns, to consider techniques learned in psychology and life coaching. Why? Because once we can tackle these leaks in our communication we can give our clients a pitch that is not only effective, but is also seen as more credible and sincere.

This new technique? It may surprise you to know it’s born from a hybrid style of visualisation. Seemingly wacky to those who know little about it, it is truly a godsend to professional sportsmen and indeed any field where precision and practise is key.

Why, you may wonder, is visualisation so powerful? Where tackling things from a verbal point of view – telling yourself you won’t lose a sale – is effective, it’s also weak in its strength to affect your mental state. Words come across blockages from our conscious mind in the form of, ‘yes but’, and, ‘what if’. It can appear mere nagging. Images, however, have no such block. Further, since our subconscious mind works in images (as you may have noticed while dreaming), it’s a sure-fire way to push whatever message we want to give ourselves straight past any blockages and straight to where it’s going to get to work.

But back to the technique. Consider this. How much more powerful, more fearless, more effective will your sales be when you can go ahead without doubt, knowing that you have nothing to lose? Past failures have all added up and doubt exists in many salesmen. While sometimes healthy, it may make us hesitant, and he who is hesitant doesn’t get the sale. So for this very reason, we need to consider ways in which we can reduce the impact of our past failures. We need to be able to put them behind us, instead of looking back into the rear view mirror we need to look ahead. Because once we are looking ahead and we’ve learned from our past mistakes, the leaks in our communication that can affect our sales will stop happening. When we reach a confidence in our sales ability and reduce doubt, our whole body can work as a whole to deliver a pitch that is effective and polished.

Positive thinking is one way to put these failures behind us, but again it isn’t a cure. It’s loading more onto the foundations of a problem that we would be better off riding ourselves from.

The answer? In the following visualisation method I call ‘The Two-Minute Time-Machine, you’ll be able to put past declined sales behind you. You’ll then be able to move on fearlessly gaining new sales without the negative effects of the past.

The Two-Minute Time-Machine

1. With a pen and paper in hand, consider all of the sales pitches that you have delivered that have ended in rejection. Further, consider all events that you feel have contributed to your fearless attitude being diminished.

2. With one of these failures in mind, close your eyes. Slowly begin to build up a relaxing scene around you. The stronger your visualisation the more effecting it is to your subconscious mind (and rem

may surprise you to know it’s born from a hybrid style of visualisation. Seemingly wacky to those who know little about it, it is truly a godsend to professional sportsmen and indeed any field where precision and practise is key.

Why, you may wonder, is visualisation so powerful? Where tackling things from a verbal point of view – telling yourself you won’t lose a sale – is effective, it’s also weak in its strength to affect your mental state. Words come across blockages from our conscious mind in the form of, ‘yes but’, and, ‘what if’. It can appear mere nagging. Images, however, have no such block. Further, since our subconscious mind works in images (as you may have noticed while dreaming), it’s a sure-fire way to push whatever message we want to give ourselves straight past any blockages and straight to where it’s going to get to work.

But back to the technique. Consider this. How much more powerful, more fearless, more effective will your sales be when you can go ahead without doubt, knowing that you have nothing to lose? Past failures have all added up and doubt exists in many salesmen. While sometimes healthy, it may make us hesitant, and he who is hesitant doesn’t get the sale. So for this very reason, we need to consider ways in which we can reduce the impact of our past failures. We need to be able to put them behind us, instead of looking back into the rear view mirror we need to look ahead. Because once we are looking ahead and we’ve learned from our past mistakes, the leaks in our communication that can affect our sales will stop happening. When we reach a confidence in our sales ability and reduce doubt, our whole body can work as a whole to deliver a pitch that is effective and polished.

Positive thinking is one way to put these failures behind us, but again it isn’t a cure. It’s loading more onto the foundations of a problem that we would be better off riding ourselves from.

The answer? In the following visualisation method I call ‘The Two-Minute Time-Machine, you’ll be able to put past declined sales behind you. You’ll then be able to move on fearlessly gaining new sales without the negative effects of the past.

The Two-Minute Time-Machine

1. With a pen and paper in hand, consider all of the sales pitches that you have delivered that have ended in rejection. Further, consider all events that you feel have contributed to your fearless attitude being diminished.

2. With one of these failures in mind, close your eyes. Slowly begin to build up a relaxing scene around you. The stronger your visualisation the more effecting it is to your subconscious mind (and rem

ue. Consider this. How much more powerful, more fearless, more effective will your sales be when you can go ahead without doubt, knowing that you have nothing to lose? Past failures have all added up and doubt exists in many salesmen. While sometimes healthy, it may make us hesitant, and he who is hesitant doesn’t get the sale. So for this very reason, we need to consider ways in which we can reduce the impact of our past failures. We need to be able to put them behind us, instead of looking back into the rear view mirror we need to look ahead. Because once we are looking ahead and we’ve learned from our past mistakes, the leaks in our communication that can affect our sales will stop happening. When we reach a confidence in our sales ability and reduce doubt, our whole body can work as a whole to deliver a pitch that is effective and polished.

Positive thinking is one way to put these failures behind us, but again it isn’t a cure. It’s loading more onto the foundations of a problem that we would be better off riding ourselves from.

The answer? In the following visualisation method I call ‘The Two-Minute Time-Machine, you’ll be able to put past declined sales behind you. You’ll then be able to move on fearlessly gaining new sales without the negative effects of the past.

The Two-Minute Time-Machine

1. With a pen and paper in hand, consider all of the sales pitches that you have delivered that have ended in rejection. Further, consider all events that you feel have contributed to your fearless attitude being diminished.

2. With one of these failures in mind, close your eyes. Slowly begin to build up a relaxing scene around you. The stronger your visualisation the more effecting it is to your subconscious mind (and rem

way to put these failures behind us, but again it isn’t a cure. It’s loading more onto the foundations of a problem that we would be better off riding ourselves from.

The answer? In the following visualisation method I call ‘The Two-Minute Time-Machine, you’ll be able to put past declined sales behind you. You’ll then be able to move on fearlessly gaining new sales without the negative effects of the past.

The Two-Minute Time-Machine

1. With a pen and paper in hand, consider all of the sales pitches that you have delivered that have ended in rejection. Further, consider all events that you feel have contributed to your fearless attitude being diminished.

2. With one of these failures in mind, close your eyes. Slowly begin to build up a relaxing scene around you. The stronger your visualisation the more effecting it is to your subconscious mind (and remember your subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between something you have visualised and something that has actually taken place, so this kind of technique really is powerful). Add as many emotions and senses to the scenario as you can. For example, if your relaxing scene is the seaside, then hear the seagulls flying over you. Feel the surf lapping against your toes. Feel the warmth of the sun.

3. Allow the person to whom you’d delivered the failed sales pitch to appear in your mind. Ask this person why he or she didn’t buy your products or services. Tell them that it’s ok and you understand that your product isn’t suitable for everyone.

4. Consider for a second what you have learned from the sale failing. Consider how what you have learned can then go on to positively teach you about your own ability to sell in the future.

5. Tell this person what you have learned and thank them for teaching you this lesson. 6. Extend a hand to this person, say goodbye.

When you gently open your eyes, know that you have learned all you can from this lesson and that you can now leave it in the past. Since the failure your techniques have improved enormously and it’s importance on your life is no longer strong.

Repeat this technique as often as you like, but please, if you have read this article and told yourself you’ll do it at a later date, consider doing it now. The map is not the territory here, and this simple technique really does give a powerful bang!

Here’s to your personal best.