Humans are, by nature, driven by emotion. Any savvy sales professional knows how important emotion is in the decision-making process. When you’re in a sales situation, your demeanor and tone can have a significant impact on the emotional state of your prospect. For this reason, it is vital that you stay positive and that you actively avoid anything negative (words, body language, facial expressions, etc.). Not only does positivity help your prospect get in the mindset to buy, it also helps you perform better – both in the sales setting and in your everyday life.
In Tom Rath and Donald O. Clifton’s best-selling book, How Full is Your Bucket?, the authors explore the concept of positivity through the “bucket” and “dipper” metaphors. The bucket represents your well being, and the dipper is used to add or subtract from your bucket. Positivity fills the bucket and negativity drains it. The object of this metaphor is to get you to think about how your actions affect the people around you. Are you filling your prospects’ buckets or are you leaving them half full? Is your own bucket full? What can you do to maintain positivity?
Here’s a summary from Amazon Books:
“How did you feel after your last interaction with another person?
“Did that person – your spouse, best friend, coworker, or even a stranger – ‘Fill your bucket’ by making you feel more positive? Or did that person ‘dip from your bucket,’ leaving you more negative than before?
“The #1 New York Times and #1 BusinessWeek bestseller, How Full Is Your Bucket? reveals how even the briefest interactions affect your relationships, productivity, health, and longevity. Organized around a simple metaphor of a dipper and a bucket, and grounded in 50 years of research, this book will show you how to greatly increase the positive moments in your work and your life -- while reducing the negative.
“Filled with discoveries, powerful strategies, and engaging stories, How Full Is Your Bucket? is sure to inspire lasting changes and has all the makings of a timeless classic.”
