July 2008
How to Stay Positive During Talk of Economic Downturn
At a Sheryl Crow concert in Colorado recently, the songstress said to the audience, “It is going to be a great summer—even if we don’t have gas!”
And on the last day of school I took a group of 10-year-old kids to Six Flags. While waiting in line I overheard the kids talking about gas prices instead of the Mind Eraser (I kid you not, they were ALL talking about gas prices)!
Every news station is babbling about gas prices, job losses, lay-offs, the Dow Jones—yikes! It makes it kind of hard to keep a positive outlook on life, doesn’t it?
Try these three easy strategies for coping:
Develop a coping statement for conversations that are negative about the economy. If you are in sales, you simply cannot afford to engage in these types of discussions. My current statement is, “Well, it will all magically get better as we get closer to the election.” The idea here is not to cut people off but not to engage in the negative talk, either.
Go on a news diet. Being informed is one thing. Allowing yourself to be inundated with the latest “awfulizing” news story is career suicide for a sales person. Besides, you are too busy to be listening to the news five times a day.
Improve what you have. Face it, not everyone fails during a slow economy. Lots of people and industries succeed. If you do not want to be in the failure group you may have to work what you have more fully. Take REALLY good care of your clients. Have patience with your prospects and take time to improve your game.
“If all the economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion.”
George Bernard Shaw
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Prepared exclusively for clients of Brenda Abdilla and Management Momentum
