It’s 10 am on Monday morning at Hal Company. Everyone knows it’s time for the sales meeting run by Jay, the sales manager. Jay begins by describing the company’s successes over the last week. He mentions that Martin gained commitment from a new client. Everyone claps for Martin but he’s not there. As Jay continues to talk about the company’s goals, he notices Sam disengaged, reading through what appears to be a contract. Adam and Valishia are always upfront. They thrive on these meetings. Jay knows that they both rely too heavily on excitement to keep their sales up.Jay has a problem, but it is hard to see.Now, let’s investigate the real issues.Martin is at his desk working on a proposal. He doesn’t see the need to attend the meeting. From his experience at a large company, he found meetings to be a complete waste of time. In addition, he and his old compatriots would frequently joke about tactics they each used to escape meetings. This cemented the belief that “Meetings are useless, so I won’t attend.” Jay has experienced difficulty changing this behavior. He has pulled Martin aside on several occasions and requested that he attend the meeting. When he doesn’t, Jay permits it to slide because Martin is bringing in more sales than anyone else.Jay notices that Sam is consistently disengaged in various settings. In other meetings and trainings, Sam usually has something to distract him. While sitting with clients, Sam spends more time talking than listening. This prevents him from attaining a high level of sales. He believes that what he has to say is more important what others have to say. This gets in his way.Adam and Valishia learned once-upon-a-time that sales is an excitement game. They believe that if they stay excited, they will close more sales. Because of this, they attend every meeting, event, internal and external training, and industry meeting. The problem is they spend more time meeting people and very little time selling.From the article, “How Beliefs Affect Your Resiliency” we know that beliefs can’t be changed directly and aggressively. They must be changed through coaching. We recommend professional coaching because changing beliefs is difficult, but permanent. In lieu of using a professional coach, we would recommend that Jay sit down with each of them, explain how beliefs work (from the article mentioned above,) and asked questions that get to the heart of their belief. Asking questions such as, “You didn’t attend the meeting, this was the behavior. What was the expectation behind that?” He may say that he expected no value to come from the meeting. Then ask him, “What belief creates this expectation?” He may say something like, “I believe that all meetings are a waste of time.” Then ask him what would need to happen at a meeting to make it valuable for him to attend.Once you know, ask him that if you incorporated this new concept into the meeting, if he would attend. Then ask why he would attend. His answer builds emotional value into the meeting.Follow a similar format with the other individuals.This article was written by SBA Network Consultant Cory Halbardier.SALESPERSON: If you are a salesperson, receive a FREE copy of our audio program Being More Productive by sending an email to me at cory@sbanetwork.org with the name and email address of your sales manager. We will send him this article along with a special audio program titled Motivating Your Staff. SALES ADVANTAGE: We are starting the next session of the Dale Carnegie Sales Advantage class. If you are a salesperson who wants to learn the structure of effective sales, or just to improve your skills, the new class starts March 17th. Sign up today by contacting Aaron Kent at aaron_kent@dalecarnegie.com or 562-426-8327 x210.Have a great week!-Cory Halbardier (cory@sbanetwork.org)