From Amanda's very early writing (1990s to early 2000s), shared as it was originally written.
Wellness and Selling - more secrets.
Last week I discussed the importance of your state when you are communicating with others. What you say to yourself, vividly imagining what you want the outcome and process to be, mentally rehearsing your performance , keeping fit, standing with tall, balanced posture and grinning all release chemicals into your system that can help to put you into a good state.
To balance your posture, a simple four step process will have you standing tall and looking confident and credible. Firstly, make sure your feet are parallel and about 10 centimetres apart. I know, you feel pigeon toed and convinced that you are going to fall over! I promise you won’t. In fact by standing with your feet like this, you stop giving yourselves flat feet, straining the inside of your knees, turning your hips out in their sockets, blocking the movement of your pelvis and affecting your low back. And you thought you felt comfortable! If you watch toddlers, you will see that they don’t stand like Charlie Chaplain - it’s a learned behavior and it’s bad for your body.
Secondly, rock your pelvis around so you tuck your bottom under and reverse a sway back. It helps if you imagine you have a clock on the right side of your hip and 12 o’clock is towards your ribs and 6 o’clock is towards your feet; most people stand with their bottom stuck out at 8 o’clock. You need to rotate from 8 o’clock to 4 o’clock and keep it there to align your posture.
Thirdly, grow tall. By that I mean move your bottom ribs straight up about one centimetre away from your hip bones. Most people suck in a great breath as they do this! Keep breathing normally as you make this slight movement - it’s only subtle. You will notice if you are doing it correctly, that your chest raises and stomach comes in a little but your shoulders stay relaxed.
Fourthly, clasp your hands lightly behind your back and gently stretch them towards the floor. This ‘opens’ your chest and puts your shoulders in a balanced position. Remember to keep breathing normally while you do this!
So now you will feel like someone has stuck a ‘broomstick up you’ - others description not mine! - and that you couldn’t possibly move in this position but you can! and what’s more you will look fantastic. Have a look at yourself in the mirror and see the difference. And when you sag back into your normal posture you will really notice the amount you slump. To emphasize the difference if you have a video camera, have someone catch your posture in film - side on and front on - have a drink handy, it may be a shock!
If you learn to stand like that you will not only have more energy and vitality and feel ‘up’, but you will also create an impression of confidence and credibility.
Another very effective way of improving your state is to use a ‘brain game’. Your body can’t tell the difference between a vividly imagined experience and reality. Think of when you have a nightmare and you wake up with your heart pounding , you’re breathless and you would swear that what had just happened was real. But it wasn’t! your brain just thought it was. And so it responded by releasing the stress chemicals it thought you needed to handle the situation. It doesn’t know the difference between reality and vividly imagined.
If we turn that fantastic ability around from a negative to a positive experience the same will happen. Close your eyes and vividly recall a specific (the more specific the better) experience you have had; a situation where you felt fantastic about yourself - moments of praise, births of children, marriage moments or divorce moments! And relive that experience as if you were back in time at that moment. It’s better if you relive it rather than view it on a TV screen in your mind because you can fool the brain more effectively and you will release more ‘up’ chemicals than if you just see it in your mind’s eye.
This is something we do naturally a lot of the time. When we are with friends or family and we sit around and laugh and say ‘remember the time when .....’ and the tears of laughter come back and everyone feels good. That’s the same technique but you were not aware of how you made yourself feel so good.
If you are on your way to a sales presentation, try reliving a number of past good experiences and you’ll be amazed at how good you feel. Every time you have another great experience, add it to the list of those you recall when you want a lift. Try starting a ‘magic moment’ book. This is a book you write in each night about all the great - or good things that happened to you that day. Think of all those little precious or special moments that are forgotten the next day if you don’t write them down. I keep one of these and every time I flip through it I smile as I am reminded about those special moments.
Brain games are a smart way to improve your sales performance - understanding the importance of the chemical and physiological state you are in is really like a secret weapon - and far more effective when combined with the traditional sales techniques that everyone else uses in isolation.
