An optimistic outlook is essential if you want to improve sales in 2017. Here are five tips for developing a winning attitude.

1. Know That You Have What It Takes:
Success starts with self-belief. It’s not enough to simply want or hope that you’ll meet or surpass your sales goals. You have to believe in your heart that you have the power to drive success – that, by consistently executing a smart strategic plan, you can positively influence outcomes. If you’re lacking in self-belief as a salesperson, take proactive steps to bolster confidence. This can include taking additional training, accepting tutelage from a mentor, and attending industry events to strengthen your sales skills. As you hone your craft, your self-assurance will grow.

2. Believe in What You Sell:
It’s much more difficult to sell products and services you don’t believe in. Many buyers will sniff out insincerity – a lack of confidence in your pitch that reveals you don’t buy what you’re trying to sell them. Conversely, showing belief in the solutions you offer is infectious, influencing buyers that the positive outcomes you’re highlighting will come to fruition. Fortunately, there’s no reason for you to lack confidence in the products and services you provide. Promotional products have among the lowest cost per impression of any advertising medium and, as ASI studies have shown, are proven to generate recall among target audiences. Our industry helps clients build their brands and achieve their goals, so take heart.

3. Practice Positive Reinforcement:
Whether in sports, entertainment or business, high achievers have a penchant for focusing their thoughts on successful outcomes. This motivates them and reinforces the confidence they need to keep striving after their aims. Do the same. Routinely visualize, in detail, positive outcomes to everything from individual sales opportunities to broader business goals. Picture the actions you’ll take to realize desired results and affirm your commitment to making them. Similarly, chat yourself into an upbeat mindset with affirming self-talk.

4. Stay Upbeat in Tough Times:
Even the most successful sellers occasionally descend into a sales valley. What keeps them from staying there, however, is a firm belief that the down times are only temporary. For sure, high-achieving pros don’t wallow and hope for better. Instead, they get active. Drawing on the confidence that they can affect positive change and buoyed by the belief that brighter days are ahead, they develop a plan for sending their sales soaring back to the peaks. Then, they go about enacting the plan, optimistic that it will work and also remaining flexible – willing to adapt the plan as circumstances evolve. Take this approach, and you won’t remain in sales valleys for long.

5. View Rejection as Opportunity:
Maybe you failed to land a lucrative sale. Perhaps a quality client defected. Whatever the case may be, rejection is a reality of the sales profession. Still, stressing over it isn’t going to help anything. Instead, do what top-performing sales representatives do: Turn the setback into a productive learning experience. Reflect on the situation: What could you have done differently to possibly affect a better result? It can be helpful to discuss these things with a trusted colleague, manager or mentor to gain deeper perspective. Going forward, the insights you gain will enable you to better meet the challenges of similar situations. Approached this way, rejection doesn’t feel fatal. Rather, it’s a stepping stone toward greater success.