How do we identify a true sporting hero or a remarkable team? There are various attributes we could use to measure their performances. One of the most important is their fighting spirit or mental toughness.

Who remembers when Liverpool beat AC Milan in the Champions League final in 2005 after being three-nil down at half time?  or when Ali beat George Forman, the younger, fitter and stronger fighter against all the odds. These are just a couple examples of the ultimate in Mental toughness.

One of the most powerful of all mental skills you can develop is truly a skill of champions. It is the trait of mental toughness. Mental toughness is one of those things that it is only possible to prove that you posses it by actions not words.

What is mental toughness?

Mental toughness is driving yourself to do whatever it takes to get the job done. It can be defined as ‘not letting any one or any thing break you’. It can also be called psychological hardiness, mental mettle or the good old fashioned fighting spirit.

In fact this area of your sales life will be the determining factor of how successful you will be. If you’re having a bad day, when or if you mentally ‘throw the towel in’ is the difference between success and failure

Demonstrating mental toughness is a combination of many of the first few mental skills we have discussed. Here are some of the composite which make you display that fighting spirit, they are called the four ‘C’s of mental toughness.

Commitment

Could you climb Mount Everest if you were not really committed to it? Do you think you could win a gold medal in the Olympics? Could you play football for England if you were not sure football is what you wanted to do in your life? No you could not!

In the same way you can’t be successful in sales if you just play at being a sales person. You need to be committed to it. Many feel that if they are not committed then if they fail it won’t feel as bad. The ‘I’m only in sales until something better comes along’ mentality actually masks a strong fear of failure. If you’re not committed to your sales career get out! You are fooling your self, your sales Manager and your Company and you will not be successful.

Concentration

In work time you are at work body, soul and mind. You are prepared to concentrate your energy on your work and get the best possible results from the time you spend there. It means you will ignore the various distractions you have to cope with every day.

Other distractions can be worries you may have in your private life, anxiety about your career, money problems, tiredness, and the weather, fear of rejection, negative thoughts or the constant intrusion of your mobile phone with personal calls and texts.

To be successful you need to ignore all these distractions by concentrating on the job at hand

Confidence

Self confidence comes as you see you’re self as successful over and over again. It comes from the knowledge you have of your product and the sales process. It comes from the confidence you have in your self as a person and a communicator. It comes from the knowledge that you are a good decent person and your customers will like you.

It will also come from the fact that you deserve to do well because you have worked hard from it.

Control

When the fear of failure (which we know is an absolute destroyer of any kind of action) meets the fear of rejection (which you as a sales person experience every day) the results can be emotionally traumatic for the sales person. This marriage of fears is what accounts for more people leaving the sales industry than any other factor.

The control of your thoughts and feelings during your performance is the final part of building mental toughness. What you have to control is your reaction to the anxiety that can sometimes develop if our performance seems to be suffering.

Developing these skills will lead you toward an attitude of never giving up, even if it looks like your day or week has been a disaster by exhibiting mental toughness then it really is never over until the fat lady sings.

You can find out more about mental toughness in our seminar the inner game of selling and we are also planning some more articles on our free section.  Click here  for our next article.

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