Thanks to the joy of the internet, I watched this TED Talk yesterday and was struck by the message and its application to sales. Please watch it first, it is worth the 5 minutes (at least the first 2 minutes – you can pay attention that long and get the point):

The message’s relation [...]

Let go of your fear of failure – you’re going to fail.
Customers can smell fear like dogs, if they know that you “need” a sale they’re going to make it worse for you. You must always be negotiating from a fearless position. If they perceive fear your credibility in [...]

It is easy to give up. Walk away and say that you’re just not going to be able to do it:
“The economy is too bad”
“People just aren’t spending money right now”
“There are no leads”
“No one is answering the phone”
“blah blah blah whine”
Those are all bullshit excuses for giving up. Take the challenge, [...]

I broke one of my own Rules of Sales this week and went to a meeting with only one business card in my possession. This could have been disastrous with me being unable to leave my contact information with new contacts who could want to get ahold of me later. I [...]

When you read things on the internet or in magazines or see them on TV and say to yourself – “Who believes this stuff? That’s not how it really is!” You need to step back and remember one very important thing – your client probably does believe that stuff.
They don’t know the [...]