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Get Out of Negative Mindset: How To

Posted on by Jason Kanigan

Get out of Negative Mindset: How To

Today's post comes from a very good question asked in a group I'm a member of that is full of personal trainers and weight loss coaches. They know the value of exercise. They know about nutrition. But sometimes that isn't enough.

“How do you get out of a negative mindset?” one asked.
“When things go wrong, either in business or in your personal life, how do you put it to one side and move forward?
“Negativity crushes creativity and I know I have to get away from it to move forward with anything I want to do but how do you guys actually do it?”

get out of negative mindset identity beliefs self-concept

Here's my answer:

You can't simply forget about the negative situation and move on (at least, without practice)...but you can come up with a plan to get out of the bad situation.

So what happens when you feel 'stuck in the suck' is that your brain gets into a loop. It goes over the same thought again and again and again. "OMG this is TERRIBLE...and it's NEVER GOING TO CHANGE."

You get stuck inside the idea!

The Truth of How To Get Out of Negative Mindset

The ego believes you are separate from everything else, and this feeds directly into the tremendous sense of isolation most people feel when undergoing hard times.

But reality is not actually that way! You are not truly isolated—you are in fact connected to everything else.

As long as you remain the effect of this negative idea loop, you'll continue to spiral down. What you want to do is re-exert control to get out of negative mindset and get back in charge of your reality: be the cause, instead of the effect.

The key to accomplishing this is to get conscious. Instead of unconsciously following along the loop of this nasty idea, address it consciously. "Wait a minute... NEVER going to change? Things are going to stay this way FOREVER?"

Nahhh.

Right?

Change is constant. Things never stay the same. But as long as you allow yourself to remain in that negative thought loop, your conditions will continue to decline.

The key here is Belief that you can get out of that situation. Detach from it. "Yeah, this thing is happening, and it sucks...but it can't keep happening forever. That's impossible. What my mind is trying to convince me of is false. Things cannot stay this way forever."

Then get creative.

Now that can be a toughie in this condition, but do something different. Get up from your desk or your couch. Go outside. Go for a walk. Break your routine. Then, while you're out of the usual comfort zone, address your situation.

What is actually happening?

Are the collectors or evictors banging on your door RIGHT NOW?

Probably not.

You have some time. At least a little time. Nothing horrible is happening at this exact moment.

You should feel a little relief at this point.

Now step outside the problem. Imagine someone has come to you with this problem, and they want you to advise them.

Solution To Get Out of Negative Mindset

What would you suggest?

See, things are almost assuredly not nearly as dire as your mind has been telling you.

And you probably have more resources (friends, family, business contacts) available than you have considered.

Relax as much as you can. Then ask yourself, "If money and resources weren't an issue, what would I advise this person to do to change their situation?" The first part of that question is what allows you to be creative. Detaching to get out of negative mindset, then asking without limits.

Limits are artificial, anyway. They're mostly self-imposed, and yet we act as if reality was that way (see my video on The Stretch for a clear example.)

Write all this down.

Write everything down. Order and movement are the creators of success: Bob Proctor was sharing this in his pre-Internet 1980s seminars. Although the media may have changed, reality has not.

Get a plan together.

What does a plan look like? It has SMART goals. It has actions listed to achieve those goals. And all together, it is something you believe in. Your plan should excite you. Enthusiasm dramatically counteracts negativity.

Then, make another list. Look at your contacts and assign each of them to help you with something. Their help may be an approximation of what you wrote down; it may be even better than what you thought of. But ask them.

For instance, you may have realized that you need more sales. Jason here is a business strategist and sales trainer. Surely he has free resources or something he can give you, if you let him know you need the help.

Will some say No? Of course. Some people you thought were 'friends' may even disconnect from you (and aren't you glad to discover what they truly are?). But you won't be any worse off than you are now. And some will say Yes. They will help you.

Having a plan to move forward that you believe in, and that others are injecting confidence into with their help, is an astonishing turn-around device. It changes your mindset. You have something you can see working.

Sitting there, doing nothing but replaying the negativity loop, not taking any action, is the kiss of death.

Get Out of Negative Mindset With Clarity

As you gather resources, do not wait. Get into action. Use whatever you have and move forward with it. Remember: order and movement. The TV show The Profit recently had an episode visiting Cuba. Entrepreneurs under that harsh anti-business environment were literally using whatever was available to accomplish their goals. One was using a crock pot to melt down commercial soap as the base for her specialty soap business. They weren't waiting. They didn't need everything to be perfect. They were in motion, with a clear idea behind their actions.

You can do this, too.

You will likely encounter a delay between starting your actions and putting your plan into place to get out of your negative situation, and the results you desire. That's normal. The delay is caused by your beliefs and resulting mindset. Keep at it. Be consistent and persistent. The results will arrive faster than you imagined.

If others are around you who continue trying to feed the negativity, cease or limit communication with them. You don't have to be rude. “I have to concentrate on this right now; I'll be happy to talk with you again once I'm back on my feet.” Of course, if it's a family member or significant other that can be more challenging. But you can always steer the conversation away from the negative topic in times you must be with that person.

But get into order and motion.

Get conscious. Break out of the negativity loop. Develop your plan. Assign helpers. Ask them for the help. Use what you've got and get into action with it. Forget perfection. Look to results.

Update for 2022 & 2023: Changing Your Mindset For The Better

As with most fundamental concepts, things have not changed since I wrote the first version of this post in 2016. What you can use are apps, reminders, and even online chat programs to jolt yourself out of a troublesome mindset. Remember that your life can and will start delivering you different results the moment you decide it will. Don't forget to reach out to a friend. You have more support than you think. You've had a bigger impact than you believe.

If you missed my free report on what makes for a good client and how you can identify them, grab it here. No opt-in required. Even simply seeing this could be the big first step in making the mindset change and getting out of a negative point of view.

>> Jason Kanigan is a business strategist and Conversion expert. Book a call with Jason to discuss your situation here. <<

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The Value of Good Prospecting

Posted on by Jason Kanigan

Good prospecting is a rarity. If you prospect well, you can stand out in a way your competitors won't. You'll shorten your sales cycle. You'll get to the point faster with more prospective customers than you have before, and faster than your competitors do. Your ideal customers will be saying, "How can we work together?" rather than, "So what's your price?"

Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay

I've covered what's wrong with prospecting before. And I've also provided a FREE solution. But I have to tell you, the records show that you folks don't click over and follow that free course from someone else who's not associated with me, ie. I have nothing in the game in sending you over there. It's simply great stuff.

The Effective Prospecting Course I Share For Free That No One Gets

Yet almost nobody hits that link.

Why?

Is the idea that you're going to have to learn something, do some work, actually go through a course to be able to prospect well too much? Or did you not see the link because it's at the end of the article? Curious.

Anyway, I signed up for a free accountability program from another sales trainer who I respect. It offers to accelerate your results through the rest of 2022, the final three months of this year. I wasn't struggling, but I do always want to be better. It's been about a week and I've already:

1 - made a new series of videos on effective prospecting, as my daily video content creation per the program

2 - hit a personal best in closing six five figure sales in one day.

And my prospecting & qualifying method, as outlined in this video series, is responsible for a lot of that result.

Here is the playlist. Keep coming back to it because I'll be adding more videos, sharing more prospecting tips. As people have pointed out many times over the years, my stuff isn't some idea, some unproven concept: it's based on trial and error and real results in the sales world over the past two decades. (Man, when I think back to the late 1990s, after I got out of college and was in my first bizdev job, just how little I knew about selling...and that nobody trained me on anything beyond technical features of the products!)

Good Prospecting Training Videos Playlist

 

The first video alone will show you the difference between the spam-a-lot outbound leadgen machine, "throw spaghetti against the wall and hope something sticks" method almost everyone has adopted and something that looks, sounds, smells and is treated differently by the prospect.

Why Is Bad LeadGen So Rampant?

Why do you think it is the automated spamming outreach method is used so often? Is it because "that's what everyone else is doing" and so that must be the way you do it? Is it because people are afraid to be human beings, and want to hide behind that automation? Then you have something to blame, right? Must be the email deliverability. Must be that headline. Must be the message content—too long, or too short. Must be anything but YOU, the person ultimately responsible for your performance.

What if, instead of (Option 1) spamming 1000 attempted connections with automated tools over an afternoon...

...using the same bland and personality-less outreach message aimed at all those undifferentiated people you probably know next to nothing about other than "They are in X industry"...

...you (Option 2) focused on 30 leads you personally pre-qualified, who are likely to be receptive to your message because of where they're at and what situation they find themselves in...

...and your intention was to start a genuine dialogue with them as individuals, not immediately whip your offer out and shove it in their face?

I can tell you from personal experience that the second option, applied consistently and not as a one hit wonder, gets you much better results over time. Just like the results I experienced, closing six high ticket offers in a single afternoon.

It is not because I am such a great salesperson. Or that I always know exactly what to say. It is because I chose my prospects and hence where to put my effort carefully.

You Can Have An Effective Outbound Lead Generation Method In Place Today

Get started on that playlist! Apply what you learn, apply it consistently, and watch what happens.

What if your employer uses the automated mass outreach approach to generate leads for you?

No problem! Use the same methods on the leads that you're given. Filter them quickly. Qualify for those indicators I teach you in the videos to look for that show you this is likely to be a good lead. Follow up using the process I demonstrate.

Just about everyone in the online marketing world whines that "If only I had more leads" they would be so much better off.

This is a lie. A falsehood. Generating increasing quantities of poor quality prospects that lead to no engagement will only waste the time and energy of the front line salesperson.

You don't need more leads.

You need good prosecting in place to bring you a manageable number of better leads you can personally engage with.

This isn't something I've made up. I've been talking about it and building my process for many years.

>> If you're ready for the full version of what is explained here, including Challenger Sale instruction, how you should think as a founder beginning to operate your business, what to give your new hires to train them up quickly on effective selling, then get Sales On Fire <<

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Buyer and Seller Money Tolerance: What Kills Sales Before They Start

Posted on by Jason Kanigan

Buyer and seller Money Tolerance differences can kill the sale.

This is a relatively advanced and powerful concept you're unlikely to hear about from other sales experts.

Money Tolerance, as we’ve discussed before, is your personal answer to, “How much is ‘a lot of money’?” This is a sort of thermometer we use all the time in our daily lives, though we are not aware of it.

Everyone is walking around with this number in their heads. The chief problem with it is that they believe this limiting belief, which they are typically not conscious of but heavily impacted in life by, is the same for everyone else.

Not so.

My money tolerance is almost assuredly different from yours.

money tolerance money comparison dollar bills buyer seller sales tactics

Photo by Karolina Grabowska

How Buyer and Seller Money Tolerance Impacts The Sale

In my observational experience over the past decade, for people in North American countries like the United States and Canada, the money tolerance level you’ll usually encounter is $500 - $2500. Anything over that number is “too much money” for the average individual. Translate that into Euros or Pounds and we have something similar for European residents. Now consider:

A woman who works at Walmart and makes $15 per hour walks into a cell phone store. The salesperson knows the latest phone model is $999. The retailer and manufacturer know this, too, so they break the investment down into “Just $33 per month.” This is well within the buyer’s money tolerance, and in fact is such a swallowable amount that she is delighted to be getting the new toy for “such a deal”. Never mind that she’ll be paying this thing off for the next three years—that doesn’t enter into her head.

Buyer Money Tolerance Up Against A Higher Value Offer

This same woman later looks at an advertisement for a Mercedes-Benz SUV. It’s a beautiful car. She loves the ad. But she also knows the price is going to be over $100,000. And her gut tells her the monthly payment is going to be over $2,000. She instantly knows, with a quick sad feeling, that this will never work. She closes the ad and wistfully moves on with her life.

Take a careful look with me at what happened with this second example. Her money tolerance could not allow her to entertain the possibility of getting the Mercedes-Benz. The idea collapsed. She withdrew. She could not even consider the idea of going to the dealership. Consider this deeply.

What "Just Looking" Can Show Us About Buyer and Seller Money Tolerance

In situations where the buyer is “just looking” and not aware of what the price really is, but did manage to get themselves into the showroom…

…you can imagine the seller has the money tolerance required to be comfortable selling $100,000 automobiles. They would be ejected quickly from the organization if not. But the buyer? As soon as they find out the price, they will “pull a fade”. Their money tolerance does not match the situation. They will collapse and withdraw. The buyer physically cannot stay in that location.

As a salesperson, observe your prospects. Whether it’s over the phone or in person, you can witness this behavior. Call up a prospect who was expecting the investment in the offer to be free, for example. You don't even have to see or be in the same room with them. As soon as they find out there is a monetary investment required, observe what happens. They’ll be off the phone with you so fast you’ll be wondering what happened. It is this money tolerance of theirs leading to collapse and withdrawal that takes them away.

In general, you will not hear the words, "just looking," from a qualified, offer-matching money tolerance prospect. Those people are always ready to buy—when the offer makes sense to them. I have to say, I have not said, "I'm just looking," to ward off a salesperson in over a decade. It doesn't match who I am. (I might say, "Leave me alone to look around for a bit," with a smile, which every salesperson understands without hurt feelings).

As a seller, you will become more effective by understanding your own money tolerance and that of your prospect. This is a key qualifying factor. The faster you can identify the prospect’s money tolerance, and see if it is a match for your offer, the better.

How To Uncover The Buyer's Money Tolerance

Some ways of accomplishing this are:

  • Be direct. Ask the question outright: “Before we go any further, Ms. Prospect, I’d like to share that the investment level in our services ranges between $10,000 and $20,000. How do you feel about that?” This is suitable early on in conversations where you have many leads and must filter quickly, or wish to cherry pick and the lead flow can handle doing so. Employ when you suspect their money tolerance may be far lower than your investment requires
  • Use a parallel question. “Mr. Prospect, what’s the most you’ve ever invested in” something similar—a coaching program, agency monthly fee, consulting package etc. Ask follow up questions about the reasons why, and whether that amount was capped artificially, say by the seller’s pricing level, ie. the buyer would have spent more, but that was all the seller asked for (oh look, there's money tolerance again). Utilize in the mid of the conversation, after you've developed some rapport
  • Asking about investments in their personal life during the rapport phase. Examples: skydiving experiences, boat or RV purchases, event facility rentals (they had to have their 20th wedding anniversary hosted somewhere), art investments and the like. By demonstrating their interest in investing over there, they show you their money tolerance and that they could invest similarly in this area of their lives. Best done when the typical prospect you attract is involved in such activities, and you want to know, "Are they one of us?"

As the seller, as always, it is your responsibility to run the process, guide the prospect, qualify the buyer, and manage the sale. Do not blame prospects for having too-low money tolerance to take advantage of your opportunity: they simply do not qualify at this time. It is usually quite clear to both of you when money tolerance is identified. There are no hard feelings. The prospect knows they do not have enough going on to be a fit for your offer. And they will collapse and withdraw.

I share this concept with you so you will understand what is happening. In understanding, you will not become confused, frustrated or disappointed. You will get a sense of how good the marketing is in attracting qualified vs unqualified prospects, and after awhile you can take quantitative not just qualitative evidence back to marketing as feedback. They will appreciate this—if not immediately, after awhile as they too wish to hone in on their message-to-market match.

On Talking About Money Tolerance In Public

One final word of advice: do not use the phrase “money tolerance” in your sales conversations. This is a technical term and useful for us. To the prospect, just as calling them a prospect to their face, it will seem weird. Use it as the tool it is but do not refer directly to it in discussion. Understanding buyer and seller money tolerance and the differences or similarities is a powerful qualifying and selling tool.

You can use it today to filter who should hear about your offer and who should not…and who is likely to be a straightforward buyer who “gets it” without convincing, arm-twisting, or pushing. Of course we do not want to do any of those things, as they often lead to buyers remorse, so understanding money tolerance helps us again by keeping us away from situations where as the seller we might feel like doing so.

>> Jason Kanigan is a business development expert who can dramatically accelerate your sales effectiveness. To book a time with Jason, click here. <<