Sell or Be Sold(14)
CONVICTION IS THE MAKE-OR-BREAK POINT
One time I put a house up for sale and the best realtor in town told me it was worth maybe $6 million. I told her to put it on the market at $8.9 million because the location was irreplaceable, and I believed it was worth that much. I was 100 percent convinced that the house was worth that price because I could have actually made sense of paying that price myself. I sold the house two months later for almost the asking price, and everyone in the neighborhood loved me. The new owner went on to sell the same piece of property a year later for $10 million. It wasn’t until after I became convinced of the value that others agreed with me.
The conviction that you have regarding your product is more important than the conviction that others have about their facts and figures.
The word “conviction” is defined as a “firmly held belief.” It comes from the word “convince,” which is derived from the Latin word “convict,” meaning “to conquer.”
Conviction is the ability to be so firmly sold on your beliefs that you demonstrate to your buyer with such complete and utter certainty that no other choices appear to be available.
A sale is made when your conviction and belief about something are stronger than another’s, at which point they give up some of their conviction. That’s the moment when the sale becomes possible. I’m not even talking about a product or service at this point. I’m talking about the conviction of the individual himself. The real issue becomes who is more sold on what he believes to be true. Who is the most believable and the most convincing? It will always be the one who is most sold!
A highly trained U.S. Army Ranger is so deeply sold on his mission and so sold on the cause that he’s able to do things that would appear superhuman to others. He’s convinced of the need to perform at this level and he does. Why? Because he’s sold on his mission. He doesn’t think; he operates. He doesn’t have to think because he’s already decided. He believes in it to his very core, and because of this he’s able to achieve the impossible.
Alexander Graham Bell was considered a lunatic when he talked about inventing a device that would transmit the human voice over long distances through wires. He was told that his invention, called the telephone, was impossible. But that’s the interesting thing about the impossible. It’s only impossible until someone makes it possible! Look at photography, flight, space travel, e-mail, the Internet, and on and on. All of these things were considered impossible once upon a time—until someone became sold on them being possible.
Why is it that some people do things that others wouldn’t dream of doing? It’s because they are sold on the idea that it needs to be done for some reason. To the degree that they are sold and become unreasonable in their quest, they will succeed.
While it’s unfortunately promoted in our society to be reasonable and sensible, these characteristics will not serve you in sales or in life. If you really want something great to happen, you’ve got to be unreasonable, even if it means convincing yourself beyond reason that what you have is better. We aren’t talking about some trivial pastime here like riding bicycles! Anyone can learn to ride a bicycle. We’re talking about becoming a great in your field, and to do that you have to be completely and unreasonably sold on yourself, your product, your company, and your ideas.
You might be wondering, “To get to this point of being unreasonable, do I have to be crazy or insane to be successful?” The answer is no. You need to make a decision to be unreasonable. If a person acts insane, it doesn’t mean he’s insane. It means that he decided to act insane.
If you’re unreasonable in your belief and sold to the degree that you see no other options available to the customer that would make sense, it doesn’t mean that something is wrong with you. It means that you’re unreasonable in your convictions.
Being unreasonable means that you are sold on what you’re selling, and it is your conviction alone that will sell others on it.
You must be completely IN if you are to fully maximize the opportunities before you. Do not even attempt selling to someone else until you yourself are completely sold. To the degree that you aren’t sold, you’ll have difficulty selling to others. Anytime you find yourself having trouble getting your way, look no further than your own degree of conviction in what you’re selling.
Perhaps you allowed your certainty to waver, or maybe something entered your head that made you doubt yourself or your product just a tiny bit. Whatever it was, find it and throw it out like yesterday’s garbage.