How much do your beliefs affect your ability to increase sales? Would modifying your beliefs really change your behavior or lead to increase sales performance?
You probably already know the answer, but to illustrate how changing your beliefs can increase sales performance I would like to remind you of Sir Roger Bannister’s story.
Roger Bannister was the first person to ever run a sub four-minute mile. In all of recorded history no person had ever run a mile in under four minutes. In fact, conventional wisdom at the time said the human heart/lung capacity combined with our muscular skeletal system made it an impossibility. Some said he might even die trying. Some also once said the world was flat.
Roger Bannister knew it could be done. He knew he could do it. He knew this even though he had never breached the four-minute barrier. On May 6, 1954, Roger ran the mile in 3:59.6.
The fact that he broke four minutes for the mile is interesting. What happened next is amazing. Just six weeks later an Australian runner broker Bannister’s record. Within a year more than 20 people had run sub four-minute miles. Today it is not uncommon for high school athletes to run the mile in under four minutes.
What changed? Did our species suddenly become faster? The answer is of course not. The only difference was the beliefs these athletes had before they started their races. They believed they could achieve at this higher level…and they did.
What is your four-minute mile? What beliefs do you have that are holding you back from an increase sales performance? Is this “limiting belief” the truth…or is it just a bunch of bull?
What are you really capable of doing, having or being? What new belief would you have to have in order to increase sales performance? How could you condition this new empowering belief so it becomes real? What could you do to break the pattern if your old “BS” belief starts to show up?
“Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you are probably right.” -Henry Ford
When would it be a good time for you to break your four-minute mile?