If you can't be optimistic, pretend

When I talk to lawyers about how advertising principles can help them increase sales, people often ask: which principle is the most important one? The correct answer is: It depends on the person and the situation. But on the days when I want a simpler answer, I say it’s AdverSelling principle #7: Be optimistic and credible.

If you’re a lawyer, credibility is probably second nature. But optimism may go against every fiber of your being. When you’ve spent an entire career preparing for things to go wrong, and cleaning up after things that actually have gone wrong, it’s hard to be optimistic. But researchers have consistently found that optimism is linked to sales success.

For example, in the 1980s, Metropolitan Life Insurance hired Psychologist Martin Seligman to study the five thousand new agents they hired every year. Since eighty percent of all new agents leave the profession within a few years, they wanted to save money by improving their retention rate and/or hiring practices

Now it’s very hard to sell life insurance. For both successful and unsuccessful agents, most sales calls fail. That’s why it’s called a numbers game – you have to be willing to approach a very large number of people for your low success rate to produce a good living.

These researchers expected that the agents who succeeded would begin doing better soon after they were hired. But to their surprise, the percentage of success in the first year was quite similar for agents who lasted in the profession, and for those who later quit. What was different was the way they interpreted their many failures. The most successful sales agents were consistently optimistic. When they lost a sale, they never said it was because “selling life insurance is hard” or “I’m no good at it.” Instead, every unsuccessful sale was an exception: “that guy was too busy” or “they just happened to be eating when I called.” The sales people that lasted were always convinced that success was just around the corner. And so it was.

Can a pessimist succeed at sales? Of course it’s possible. But it will take some work.

In the book Learned Optimism, Seligman provides detailed instructions for actively changing the way you react to adversity and setbacks. I have a summary of his suggestions in big letters on my bulletin board. And when they don’t work, I pretend.

Comments

[Thom Singer]

Great Post. Seeing the glass is half full is always better than seeing it as half empty. In the end, the level of the glass is what it is. Too many people like to whine and complain about what they do not have, rather than rejoicing in what they do have.

This is true when it comes to business development for lawyers, or any profession. I have found that those who believe that they can grow their practice usually do....and those who are stuck in rut, stay in that rut.

But in the end it takes action. You can plan, research and over think all day long....but until you take action that leads to success....nothing substantial will ever happen.

Believing in your self and your practice is the first step.