Why are some people seemingly more able than others to convert their leads into clients? It certainly doesn’t look like it’s any easier for them to make those calls than other people. It doesn’t sound any easier when you “overhear” their one-sided phone conversation in the office. It just seems like it’s easier for them to face the challenge of making that call in the first place and then dealing with the anxiety associated with having to actually do it.
One thing that may be in that person’s favor is her ability to see or visualize what she wants to have happen beyond that challenge, after she has met that challenge. That person may have said to herself, “I want to have five new clients by the end of this month and I know that the only way that’s going to happen is when I call five people every day. So those five calls a day for 20 days will total 100 calls a month…out of those 100 calls with odds at say 5%, I might be able to get 5 new clients a month.” Next, beyond saying what she wants to have happen, this person is able to actually see, actually visualize five new clients in her office.
With this visualization in her head, this person is seeing the reality she wants to create and because she’s seeing it, the challenge, the obstacle of making that visualization real is no longer difficult. There’s no more anxiety associated with making those five calls. This person just faces the challenge, makes the calls and believes that her visualization of five new clients will become a reality.
Athletes and coaches have honed the ability to use visualization to a tee. Tim Gallway, author of The Inner Game of Tennis, coached his students to visualize the fuss on the ball landing in the backhand corner of the service box. Gallway didn’t coach his students how to get the ball to land in that spot…he coached them to visualize the ball landing in that spot. Gallway trusted his athletes to figure out for themselves how to make that visualization a reality.
Michael Jordan, arguably the best basketball player of all time, said, “…obstacles (challenges) don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall…figure out how to climb it, go through it or work around it…if you want something bad enough, push through whatever’s stopping you and you’ll get it…” Jordan, in the same way that Gallway trusted his students, trusted himself to figure out how to make each specific success happen for himself/themselves respectively.
Visualizing what you want, seeing the outcome, is much more powerful that saying what you want. Visualizations travel with you in your brain; words may or may not. Visualizations “see” the results…they are the first steps in getting past, getting beyond the obstacles/challenges in the way of making those visualizations real.
