Competition, love it or hate it, is an essential part of being in sales. Whether you’re dealing with internal competition from fellow sales reps or an external threat from competitor companies in your industry, competition drives us to be the best we can be. But when it comes to winning new business and increasing market share, what are you doing to differentiate yourself from the competition? If you’re not already testing new and different strategies or tactics, here are 5 ideas to consider as you position yourself against the competition.

It’s amazing how far a simple “thank you” can go.

As soon as you close a sale, what should you? Hopefully you’ll give yourself a moment to celebrate and give yourself a pat on the back. But the most important thing to remember is that your work isn’t over, but rather it’s only just begun.

Let’s face it. Time is the biggest factor when determining your sales success.

Before we explain how you can leverage the power of negative thinking, let’s first discuss what it is. There are two views on negative thinking: The first, and probably more common, view of negative thinking is linked to things like depression, complaining, worrying, and stressing about everything. It’s the process of finding the worst in even the best situations. It’s about inaction and fear. The second view, and the one we’d like you to focus on today, is about growth, understanding, and learning. It’s the process of visualizing all the bad things that could happen to you, so you become less afraid of taking action. This second view of negative thinking helped me train and successfully swim across the English Channel as well as start my own business in a recession.

All management roles are stressful to some degree, but managing a sales force is arguably one of the toughest jobs out there. With so many competing priorities and interests, pressures from key stakeholders across the organization, and not to mention the burden of the company’s financial success on your shoulders. And that’s just the beginning.