Selling Boldly

9Boldness versus Meekness

The previous chapter covered confidence and fear, which are the thinking precursors to the behavior approaches we turn to in this chapter.

You can behave boldly (if you are confident) or you can behave meekly (if you are fearful).

Just like the rest of the mindset shifts we look at in this part of the book, the choice is entirely yours.

It is entirely within your control to choose to behave boldly or meekly.

Even if it's uncomfortable, you can choose to be bold—right?

Being meek isn't comfortable, either, but we default to it, don't we? It's not comfortable to cower, but we do it. That's what meekness is, avoiding the action we know we should be doing.

And, unless we are intentional about our mindset, we will find that we tend to behave meekly. That's human nature. We are intensely afraid of rejection and so avoid putting ourselves into situations where it is possible. Do you know where failure is not just possible, and not even probable, but pretty much definite and expected? The sales profession. This work demands failure so we can get to the successes. We must work with the customers who say no so that we can bring them to the yes, and then find the others who will also say yes.

Fear is automatic and meekness is automatic.

But confidence and boldness require our active attention and effort to develop.

What Bold People Do

Because boldness is about behavior, bold people simply do things differently from meek people.

• When we are bold, we take more ...