We all know that person. That one who you have never seen frown. The one who is up at 4 am and singing and feeling punctual as ever. They don’t ever have anything bad to say about anything or anyone, and hey- great for them! But it makes you wonder, how real is this person? When someone is so incredibly positive and jumping with enthusiasm it makes most wonder if they are telling you the full truth. Now I would not consider myself a pessimist by any means, in fact I think I have a pretty positive outlook on life for the most part, but there is a scale of optimism where there isn’t enough and then there is too much.
Something I learned about in Sales in the Start Up is a little thing called “Positivity Ratios”. These ratios show amounts of what is not enough, just right and too much. Beginning with the 1:1 or even 2:1 ratio, this is when people languish. When you have just as much positivity about the person you are selling your product to, (which they may have very little!) they are immediately going to become bored and realize there is nothing to get excited about in this sale. If you are not positive enough about your own product, you will come off as less confident and dispassionate is whatever you are trying to sell. That doesn’t go in the sales world. Passion and confidence are key. But say you bump yourself up a notch on the scale to a 3:1 ratio, you are at a positivity point where your prospects will flourish! It is at this golden ratio of positivity where you have a little more than the customer (as you should), but you are not faking smiles until it hurts. It is at this point where people see your enthusiasm and love for the product you are selling, but they see it as genuine happiness and positivity. Lastly, we reach the crazy ratio of 11:1, seller to customer. Oh gosh. You are now that person that is so positive and happy you look crazy and people think you might blow at any minute.
If this is you… TONE IT DOWN. We know, you hold positivity as a key piece of your selling process- well you aren’t wrong, but like I mentioned, you may turn off customers who are looking for authenticity (most).
It is okay to be positive, and in fact it is much better and necessary to be an optimist as a sales person, but just know your limits! Give your cheesy grin a rest and be the real you- that should be enough to win them over.
BoweryJE22
It definitely is a turn off to me when people are too positive and trying to sell me something. Nothing is perfect, so I would rather be given the truth in a pleasant way than feel faked into buying something because a person was so “jazzed” about it.
It’s so important in sales conversations to appear and be honest and real with people. Over the top positivity, even if it is genuine, rarely comes off that way. Sales people need to tone down a personality, or tone it up to achieve the sweet spot of the ambivert.
When it comes to positivity ratios I find that it is a delicate balance between just negative and unrealistic. Humans have a natural negativity bias, this is common psychological knowledge, but to break free of that to the point of delusion is dangerous and we optimists necessarily need to be careful.