Human beings tend to be negative. There are many situations that overwhelm us and lead us straight on a path full of obstacles.

When something goes wrong, however small it may seem, we usually think that it is the end of the world and that there is no way to solve it.

In addition to that, we also complain about everything. We see these bad experiences as something that we do not deserve or that takes a lot of time and effort to combat. But are they really something impossible for us to deal with?

When you are a business owner you need to figure out how to have a positive mindset in sales even when life sucks or else you won’t have a business for very long. That is exactly what we will do today. Either keep reading or listen to the podcast below.

How a Negative Mindset Can Spiral

When we are confronted with a difficult situation, we immediately reject it in our mind.

Then we seem to compound it with more negative thoughts that feed our negative perception of the situation.

This makes us feel incompetent. And everyone around you can see it.

If you think that your prospective clients can’t hear and feel that in your conversations you are wrong. Having a positive mindset in sales conversations makes a HUGE difference.

Our feeling incompetent has them feeling less confident about what we say we can do for them.

We then forget to take action, we stop accepting the reality that we are living, and we begin to long for what our mind thinks it wants.

Once, I was fired from what had been the best job of my life at Infusionsoft. I was making a lot of money, I had a great sales position, but suddenly my boss fired me.

When that happened, I automatically started thinking about my children and my pregnant wife.

I started asking myself questions like…

• Now, how can I support my four children?
• What will I do to cover all the expenses of the birth of the new member of my family?
• Can I get another job as good as that in less than six months?

At first, I thought asking these questions was normal, but then I realized they were part of an attack I was making on myself.

The situation sucked but I was only making it worse thanks to that negative mindset that everything was going to go wrong.

Unfortunately, things didn’t improve immediately. I was locked in my own black hole, unable to get out of it.

Instead of trying to get up and continue; I wanted to find a reason to justify my misfortune.

My negative mindset was causing me to spiral. I was telling myself that I was not as good as I thought at sales. I told myself that because I wasn’t good enough is why I was fired.

I was…

• Scared
• Anxious
• Frustrated

I just didn’t know what to do and I felt like this pit in my stomach, like such an anxiety, it almost made me feel like vomiting with just this weight on my shoulders. Not a good feeling.

Can Controlling Our Emotions Change Our Mindset?

Another thing that has always bothered me is that people have told me my whole life that I need to control my emotions.

Because of this, I preferred to pretend that everything was great on the outside even though on the inside was going crazy. I did this because I wanted to avoid someone coming up to me saying that I could control my emotions because it really wasn’t like that.

It infuriated me that they told me to do something that I was unable to do.

This lack of control was what brought chaos into my life. I know that many people feel the same way about it.

Many of us have been out of control, so people start looking at us and reacting to it. This really sucks and only makes us feel worse.

Everything Happens

Then, I attended a seminar, and I was able to understand several things.

The first is that basically everything happens.

• Good stuff
• Bad stuff
• Okay stuff

What is important is what we make that mean. So, I got fired. That’s what happened. It’s just what happened.

You know what, there’s a lot of different scenarios that could be why I got fired like…

• They had to make cutbacks.
• They needed to just shake things up on the sales team to get people re-engaged to realize.

There’s a lot of things. I have no idea what it was and it’s just a thing that happened. But what I made that mean was I wasn’t good enough.

And it wasn’t until I had this aha moment of okay, things just happen. I realized I can just choose to be happy in any scenario.

And if I choose that, if I think positively, that changes my emotion, and then my emotion changes that action.

This was liberating. Now I have a tool to change my negative mindset.

I can choose to be happy right now and that changes my entire thought process and all my actions based on that.

From there, I had this plan to always be positive.

But you know what? This technique was put to the test once again. But, this is what happens, and it is really important to understand it.

Practicing a Positive Mindset

I practiced this concept of making nothing mean something and choosing to be happy. That changed my thinking, my actions, and helped me get a different result each time.

I remember the first time I realized that this really worked.

It was Christmas. I had a fervent desire to be a good father and provide my family with the best Christmas ever. I just closed a great sales deal and thought it would be an extra Christmas bonus to make holidays better and happier.

Plans Don’t Always Go as Expected

But the plan did not go as expected. A lot of things happened.

I received a call from my bank telling me that my merchant account had been canceled. Because of this, I couldn’t charge the same amount of money onto my card because they had a limit. As a result, I had to call them constantly so they wouldn’t block charges.

Then, I got tired of calling and asked them to raise my limit.

They told me I should submit an application and they would do it, but this brought on more problems.

I received another call from the bank telling me that they had closed my merchant account. The reason was an issue with my social security number. Someone had altered it, and a guy who is clearly not me was using a credit card linked to my social since 1980.

I argued as much as I could but it didn’t solve anything.  So I activated an old merchant account.

Then, I attempted to release the funds, but they tell me that the money will be held for six months.

Can you even believe it? All the money I would use for Christmas would not be available until June.

My plans for Christmas had been completely failed, and how do you think I was feeling?

Do you think I could threaten people and create chaos in their lives to make theirs as miserable as mine?

In With the New Positive Mindset

Well, that’s what old Jeremy would do. But it was their policy and I wasn’t going to change it.

I told myself that it was just another situation that had happened and that it didn’t mean anything.

When I stopped having a negative mindset about it, I thought about how great it would be in June with all that money.

It was great to have that feeling. So, in essence, I felt like a different person because things no longer bothered me like before.

Applying Positive Mindset Techniques

Now, this is what really helps me through this process. I discovered that it was not only the fact that things don’t bother me like they used to, but now I am able to control my emotions like everyone told me I should.

This is what I do every time something happens that I perceive as negative.  Instead of spiraling when life sucks, I work backwards.

But how is this possible?

Work Backwards

I think “What’s the worst that can happen?”

From that scenario, I start to do a step-by-step regression that helps me understand that everything really isn’t that bad.

For Example: 

I was fired…

• I will not be able to support my family for six months.
• My savings will disappear.
• I will lose the house.

I think about all those things that probably won’t happen but, if they do, they wouldn’t be as bad as I can imagine.

So the worst case scenario for me, in my mind, is I’m just going to go back to selling cars.

They’re always hiring. I can go sell cars easily. I’ve done it before. Worst case scenario is I go sell cars for a couple months until I actually find a job that I wanted. That’s not that bad.

Now, the spiraling of my negative mindset that I feel like I’m living in suddenly comes down to “not so bad”.

Even if you are going to be homeless, it is not that bad.

I have been homeless. It is not too bad. There are programs, places, and so many different resources for me to feed and clothe my family, and have a place with an address to get another job.

So, if you feel like your life just threw you another blow avoid spiraling into negativity by  trying to work backwards considering the worst that can happen.

When you realize that the worst really isn’t that bad, it takes the burden and weight off your shoulders and anxiety disappears.

Next Steps

This has helped me to be a better person, husband, father, and business owner.

Now, you can focus clearly on what your next steps should be in terms of going where you want to go in your business.

Having a positive mindset in sales will transform your business.

Would you like to learn more about putting that positive mindset in sales to work for your business?

With The MP5 SALES METHOD You’ll More Than Double Your Sales & Never Feel Like You’re Selling Someone Again!

I’d love to hear how you overcome your negative mindset and transformed your business. Drop it in the comments below.