buoyancy is critical in the sales world, because without it, the fear of rejection will prevent any possibility of success. It’s necessary to be able to bounce back after rejection and to be able to apply some key concepts to get to that point. Pink describes three key elements when he discusses buoyancy: interrogative self talk, positivity ratios, and explanatory style. I discussed the first element, interrogative self talk, in a previous blog post.

The second element occurs during your sales conversations and that is positivity ratios. It’s important that you focus on the positive emotions during the sales process, so that you are showing your customer that you truly believe in the product you are selling. You shouldn’t be fake or delusional about your positivity, but showing that there is reason to believe in your product will help the customer get on board.

Frederickson discusses the golden positivity ratio when people flourish as 3:1. If your positivity ratio is too high, then you come across as self delusional which “suffocates self improvement.”  If your ratio is too low (1:1 or 2:1) then he describes it as “people languish” meaning that your preventing yourself from making progress because you’re focusing too much on the things you or your product does not have.

Pink is not saying to never be transparent about the drawbacks of your own skillset or your product’s services, because an “appropriate level of negativity” is necessary. The key is to be honest about the negative aspects while not letting the negatives outweigh or match the positive aspects. Always come back to what makes you and your product fitting for the customer’s needs.

2 thoughts on “Three Elements of Buoyancy: Positivity Ratios”
  1. I like this a lot. One of the phrases that we talk about at grove city football is the idea of Stockdale’s paradox. This is the idea of facing the brutal facts, but maintaining faith that you will prevail in the end. I think this is similar to positivity rations because it is being positive but realizing that you are not always going to succeed.

  2. I like this article a lot I think that buoyancy is one of the most important things that a salesperson can master and if they do then they are much better off than their competition. you will face rejection whether you like it or not and If you can deal with it effectively that is important.

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