Are you an innie or an outie?
Psychologist Julian Rotter first described this human personality trait in 1954, determining that some people are driven by an internal locus of control (they believe they have control over the events that happen in their lives) and some by an external locus of control (they believe the events that happen to them are caused by external factors out of their control). Many move between both depending on the circumstances.
Why is this relevant to selling?
Many salespeople when they win a sale will take credit for the work they did to make the sale happen. They believe that the won sale was a direct result of their control over the process. This is their internal locus of control. And yet those same salespeople, when they’ve lost a sale, will attribute this to an external factor – maybe price, competition being stupid, or maybe that the customer is an idiot. This is now their external locus of control coming in to play – “it is not my fault, something else happened that had nothing to do with me”.
They now play the victim. The difference between the two scenarios is that with the sale they won, the customer and themselves were on the same page, whereas in the lost sale scenario the customer and themselves were not on the same page. Because of the customer’s objection, they shifted from an internal locus of control to an external one.
What is the problem with this?
When we play the victim and blame external factors rather than taking responsibility for what we can do better, we stop learning……Dead in its tracks.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a huge disruption to the way in which salespeople communicate, relate and sell. This found many, many salespeople unable to cope with how they continued to sell if they couldn’t call on customers. Many became the victim, some however continued to tap into their internal locus of control and found new ways to build trust and develop their relationships. Those salespeople will flourish in a post-pandemic world. The others might find themselves looking for a job.
It is not too late to challenge yourself and say,
what if I had to win this customer, even though they aren’t yet trusting me? What do I need to do differently to show them the value we bring to the table? How do I develop the relationship using all sorts of technology, not just the phone?
Once you start working to find the answers you are ensuring that your internal locus of control is healthy and working for you.
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Andrew.




