In yesterday’s post I described a difficult sales call I made very early in my career.

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What would you do in that same situation?

Most sales people don’t have to deal with rude prospects, right?  After all, isn’t it the sales person who is the rude one?

In many cases, it goes both ways.

So why does one sales person deal with a negative call by simply moving forward and making the next call; and a different sales person deals with an identical situation by getting depressed, frustrated and quitting?

In his work, The Descartes Error, Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain, neuroscientist, Dr. Antonio Damasio established the inevitable link between logic and emotions in the decision making process.

Thus, using my example – whether I chose to toss the brick or to make the next call – the decision was a result of logic and emotion combining at that moment in time.  Logically, I understood the mathematical equation of the sales process.  I also logically understand that the man was very rude!  And emotionally, I had both positive and negative emotions competing for the lead role in my decision.

My positive emotions were focused around three key areas:

  1. Love – I had a strong desire to provide for my family.
  2. Pride – I had a strong drive to succeed and have an aversion to failure
  3. Belonging – I felt a camaraderie with others on my sales team that I enjoyed

My negative emotions were centered around my anger, frustration and embarrassment.

When I was in the heat of the moment, I will have to admit that my negative emotions came fully into the forefront of my mind.  I will also tell you that each of those negative emotions were accompanied by a physiological feeling in the pit of my stomach.  That feeling is often referred to as “butterflies”.  In my case, I think I just wanted to “throw up.”

So why did I – and why do all successful sales people, sales leaders and entrepreneurs choose to persevere after negative situations occur?

For that answer, think simple physics.

My positive emotions carried more weight than my negative emotions.

When your negative emotions carry the most weight – the connection of logic and emotion creates a collision point.  The result of decisions made at that time can be disastrous.

However, when your positive emotions are clearly in the lead – the connection of logic and emotion creates  a Fusion Point®.  The result of decisions made at that time can be outstanding!

Choose Fusion Points® over collision points.[lightbox link=”https://jeffcwest.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/fusion-3.jpg” thumb=”https://jeffcwest.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/fusion-3.jpg” width=”300″ align=”right” title=”fusion 3″ frame=”true” icon=”image” caption=””]

We will talk more about how to do that tomorrow… stay tuned.

QUESTION:  What emotions give you the “butterflies” in your stomach?