What do you believe in? I’m asking you so you can have a clearer picture of why sales are made or lost.

“Jeffrey, you don’t understand,” you whine. “Our customers are price buyers!” No, Jackson, YOU don’t understand. You BELIEVE they’re price buyers, and until you change your belief, they will continue to be that way.

SIMPLE RULE: Change your beliefs, and you can change your outcomes.

SIMPLER RULE: Your beliefs control your sales performance.

SIMPLEST RULE: You can strengthen your beliefs with clear thoughts and deep commitment.

THINK ABOUT THIS: As you’re preparing for a sale, your belief system is so powerful that it will dominate your desire to get ready to win. Those beliefs have been present either consciously or subconsciously for as long as you have been employed by your company, and they deepen with every sales call you make, every sale you achieve and every sale you lose.

You may look at belief as “faith.” A common belief is: “I’ve lost faith in my company’s ability to deliver as promised.” Others are loss of faith in product, boss, company ethics or even the economy.

But your belief and your belief system are the root of your sales success, or the bane of your failure.

There are five elements to belief, and to be a great salesperson, you must be the master believer of all five. There’s also a 0.5 that enables you to change or strengthen your beliefs.

1. You have to believe you work for the greatest company in the world.

2. You have to believe your products and services are the greatest in the world.

3. You have to believe in yourself.

(NOTE: STOP here if the above three beliefs are not present and deep. The next two will be impossible to comprehend, let alone master.)

4. You have to believe in your ability to differentiate from your competition in a way that customers PERCEIVE as BOTH different AND valuable. If customers fail to perceive a difference, if they fail to perceive your value, then all that’s left is price.

5. BIGGEST ASPECT OF BELIEF: You must believe that customers are BETTER OFF having purchased from you. Not just believing this in your head. Rather, believing it in your heart.

5.5. You control your belief with your thoughts and your attitude. This understanding is critical to building and maintaining a positive belief for all you say and do. Once this belief begins to falter, it’s time to go. Time to move on to something you believe in.

These 5.5 fundamental beliefs will drive your preparation, and thereby your presentation, to new heights, new sales and new success.

Take a moment and rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 (10 being best) for each of the 5.5 elements above. If your total is less than 40, you’re losing sales due to lack of belief.

BEWARE: There are negative beliefs that will limit your success:

• Belief that your prices are too high.

• Belief that your competition has a lock on the business you’re trying to get.

• Belief that the sale is a bidding process and you’ll lose without the lowest bid.

• Belief that the sale you’re in the middle of won’t happen.

And about 20 more beliefs that are completely alterable.

GREAT NEWS: The deeper you possess the big five beliefs, the faster your sales cycle will end with an order.

KEY POINT OF UNDERSTANDING: Belief comes slowly over time. But once achieved at its highest level, it’s virtually impenetrable – and it will put passion in your preparation, not to mention money in your pocket.