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by Leigh Ashton
I don’t normally watch ‘Match of the Day’ on TV but it was on over the weekend and I overheard a premiership football player talk glowingly about his “visualisation coach” (he’d just scored the winning goal!) and how they work together as part of his match preparation.
Back in the studio, ex players from a previous era were quite quick to ridicule the concept…”we didn’t need those in my day” etc etc.
Yet visualisation as a tool for improving performance is growing fast. Sports stars have used visualisation techniques for years. One rowing gold medalist I spoke to confirmed that, having won a silver medal at one Olympic Games, they reduced their physical training and upped their psychological training – and won the gold medal four years later.
Not just sport. Visualisation is used more and more in business. It’s a great tool for helping your sales people increase their sales success.
What should I visualise? You can use visualisation techniques for anything from an upcoming chat with the boss though to next year’s sales strategy. From 1-2-1’s, customer pitches and presentations, upcoming internal presentations — and importantly you can also visualise that winning feeling, ie how you feel AFTER you’ve achieved your goals.
For example Nick Faldo speaks of how he visualised himself coming down to breakfast the day after winning golf’s major tournaments, rather than visualising the winning of the championship the day before. What would work for you?
When? The best times to visualise are immediately on waking and just before you go to sleep. Tonight – what fabulous goal can you visualise?
Am I watching my movie or in it? Either, try both. You can be ‘associated’, which means you’re watching through your own eyes, a full-on mental rehearsal of what you’ve chosen to visualise. In football terms you’re on the pitch, looking at the action through your eyes.
Or you can be ‘dissociated’ — meaning you’re watching yourself, perhaps on a massive movie screen, achieving your success. Personally I believe it’s more powerful to be associated, to be in there watching the action through my own eyes.
Preparation Make sure you’re relaxed first. Go somewhere quiet and get into a physically comfortable chair or couch. Generate three to five deep breaths to release as much tension as you can. The more time you can spend on this the better but if you need to act quickly just stop for a few seconds, breathe and start the visualising — it’s better than doing nothing to prepare.
Run the movie Once you’re relaxed, close your eyes and use your imagination to run a mental movie of yourself being brilliant at whatever it is you want to achieve. Turn up the colour, the sounds, the happiness levels, the feelings, the tastes, everything. Really live that moment in all its glory. Get your juices flowing!
What’s the logic? Why does such a simple tip work? Because planting these positive images in your subconscious will switch your brain into the mode whereby it will automatically generate the endorphins that will give you the natural ‘high’ you need to succeed.
If you mentally rehearse those key moments, when those situations come around for real, you’ve already been there, practiced them, succeeded. Your brain’s already done it.
When the sporting heroes do those brilliant moves to win trophies, they do those moves naturally because, as well as the physical practice, they’ve done those same moves thousands of times in their mind beforehand.
It won’t happen by itself It doesn’t matter how much you want something or how much you visualise a successful outcome…if you don’t take any action it won’t happen. So make sure you’ve got a plan of action to bring some further momentum towards achieving your goals.
Visualisation — another reason to embrace The Psychology of Selling.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. Until next time.
Leigh
About the author
Hi I’m Leigh Ashton of The Sales Consultancy
Whether you’re a small business or a leading brand, an area manager or a Chief Executive, whether you’re new to sales or an experienced sales professional. Even if you’re not in sales at all but want to understand it, you’ve come to the right place.
The World of Sales is changing.
Today’s conventional sales training doesn’t address the psychological barriers that get in their way.
My approach takes your sales team through a process that:
* Helps them identify their psychological barriers and gives them the tools to overcome them * Teaches them how the mind works so they can keep motivated and stay focused * Gives them the ability to identify the psychological patterns of their clients and prospects so they connect with them at a deeper level and close more sales
And at a higher level…
* It creates more success in other areas of their lives so they are happier generally…and happier sales people generate more sales
Wherever you are on your personal sales journey what’s the best course of action for YOU.
– Sales Training – that actually gets results – Leadership and Management – Personal Coaching and Mentoring – Sales Mentoring Programme – NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and how it can help you accelerate your success – Keynote Speaking