Ready to go beast mode? Beasts at sales are energetic, engaged, and capable of accomplishing just about anything! Unleashing your inner sales beast means stepping up your game to succeed at sales. Being a sales beast is a state of mind that drives you to be the best at what you do, but it also has a lot to do with how you behave and the image you project. While it’s important to trust your animal instincts, sometimes it takes a little good, old-fashioned discipline before things become instinctual.

By practicing the five B.E.A.S.T factors – body language, eye contact, awesome attitude, smile, and timing – you can start building great habits proven to help you succeed at sales.

Body Language:Your body is communicating with customers even before you’ve said a word. It’s important to understand the message you’re sending. Leaning on counters, tables, or desks as customers approach sends the message you’re bored and disinterested in speaking to them. It also doesn’t look very professional. Good posture has been shown in studies to make you feel more confident and prepared to make a sale. Facing the customer during a sales pitch can feel too confrontational, instead, stand to their side while you show them information. Don’t invade their personal space by getting too close, and avoid touching them other than a handshake, a high five, or a fist bump. Many people prefer not to be touched by strangers.

Eye Contact: Ever heard someone described as “shifty-eyed,” or have you noticed when somebody won’t make eye contact when they talk to you? It’s never a good thing. Keeping consistent eye contact helps you earn the customer’s trust by demonstrating that you’re confident and that you believe in what you’re telling them.  It communicates sincerity and genuine interest. It also allows you to connect with the customer, build rapport, and improve their engagement in the conversation – all customer service wins. By focusing on the customer’s eyes, you encourage them to pay attention and listen to you, and you can gauge whether they understand what you’re saying.

Awesome Attitude: By working in sales, you are helping to connect customers with services and products. Thinking of your role in terms of serving the customer, rather than just selling to him or her, helps you create a better experience for the customer, and most likely will result in more sales. That’s because people like to buy from people who make them feel good, cared for. People are busy, and not everyone is going to be polite when you approach them to make a sales pitch. But there’s no excuse for a salesperson to be rude, and it certainly won’t help you succeed at sales. When you maintain a great, confident, and friendly attitude, a customer who has already said no might change his or her mind later. But a customer you’ve been rude to is lost forever, and he or she might encourage others to avoid you, your product, or your company.

Smile: Studies have shown what you probably already know instinctively, smiling makes people feel good about you. Have you ever been in a bad mood and tried to keep a scowl on your face while the person you’re talking to is smiling. It’s tough, isn’t it? Smiling is contagious. It puts other people at ease, helps to change their mood, and most importantly, it leaves them with a good impression of you and what you have to say. While learning to smile consistently, and in a way that feels sincere and not forced, take practice, it’s probably the simplest thing you can do to improve your chances of making the sale.

Timing: Even when you do everything else right, the success of your sales pitch can sometimes come down to timing. Starting your pitch when the customer is too far away can force you to shout at them. Waiting until they are right in front of you can create an awkward feeling of intimacy. When approaching customers in person, start speaking to them when they are about seven feet away. Don’t wait until they have already passed you, or else you’ll be speaking to the back of their head, which puts you at a disadvantage.

Unleashing your inner sales beast takes more consistency and discipline than the name might suggest. Becoming a sales beast requires developing great communication techniques and professional habits that make the customer feel that you sincerely care about them and have their best interests at heart. The best sales beasts don’t depend on their killer instincts; instead, they use their B.E.A.S.T factors to convey confidence, sincerity, and helpfulness, which add up to the kind of creature qualities customers can’t resist.

The evening of May 12^th, everyone was smiling at Cipriani’s in Midtown Manhattan—the destination of Operation Smile’s New York Gala. Cydcor joined Operation Smile and their supporters to celebrate amazing medical missions that brought life-changing care to those suffering from cleft palates and other facial malformations.

Cydcor has partnered with Operation Smile for six years already, each year raising funds and awareness to help children facing difficulties from having facial problems. "At Cydcor, we can't imagine a day without a smile—it is that immediate connection with people—and we are humbled to help make smiles possible through the work of Operation Smile," said Cydcor President Vera Quinn.

At the New York Smile event, actress Kate Hudson was presented with the Universal Smile Award for her volunteer efforts to improve the lives of those in need and for providing an inspiring example of outstanding leadership. Other prominent guests at the event included Jaimie Alexander, Oliver Platt, Diego Klattenhofff, Colin Donnell, and Jason Weinberg. “It was an inspiring experience for the Cydcor team to be among these highly recognized celebrities making this event even more special.” Manilynn Disuanco, Cydcor’s red carpet correspondent during the Smile Event shared, “Meeting Kate Hudson was really cool!” But, for her, the real celebrities were some of the award winners being recognized for their outstanding contributions. “I really enjoyed hearing Andrew Dolce, 2016 John Connor Humanitarian Award winner speak. He brought his grandchildren on stage with him. His family joined him on his medical mission trips to Nicaragua. His example has inspired me to get more of our Cydcor family inspired and hopefully get my family involved, too!”

Volunteering to raise funds for Operation Smile gives those involved an opportunity to share a rewarding activity with their families and coworkers. Chris Minger, President of Philiadelphia Elite Group, Inc., said that the Cipriani event reaffirmed his commitment to this volunteer effort. He explained, “What was most enlightening to me was hearing about how other Operation Smile supporters had been able to involve business and family networks to help this cause. Volunteers are doubly blessed. We can raise money and build bonds between our family members, friends, and coworkers. Volunteering for Operation Smile is a win-win situation for everyone involved—the volunteers, the organization, and, most importantly, the families we serve.”

Cydcor’s Chief Information Officer, Dwight Coates, walked the red carpet at the Operation Smile Gala as well. He mentioned he was moved by the passion that fuels Cydcor’s volunteers. “Not only was the Cipriani event beautiful, but the passion and desire to help others was as beautiful as the space itself. People helping others, especially children—there is no better way to help and give back,” he said.

Over the last year, Cydcor volunteers around the country held fundraising events to raise money for Operation Smile’s medical missions. Top fundraisers from Cydcor were recognized with an invitation to join a medical mission to Bolivia in March 2016. This trip gave operations to 134 people in need, with 180 total procedures performed.

Earlier this year, Cydcor also supported a mission to the Dominican Republic, adding to the list of medical missions Cydcor and Operation Smile have worked on together, including Guatemala (2014), Mexico (2014), and Brazil (2012).

The Cipriani Operation Smile Gala highlights the fundraising efforts and medical missions performed by Cydcor volunteers. Mouad Alami, from Cydcor Canada, had a profound personal moment while attending the gala. “I felt emotional when I saw a video at Cipriani. One of Operation Smile’s missions took place in Morocco—where I was born! I felt grateful to everyone who donates for great causes like this one. Operation Smile knows no boundaries for their humanitarian work,” he said.

Cydcor's fundraising totals for Operation Smile have been primarily achieved through the annual Day of Smiles fundraising event, which includes a variety of fundraising efforts across the US, Canada, and the UK. Cydcor hopes to hit the $1 million fundraising milestone by the end of 2016.

“There is nothing more precious than the life of a child,” said Kimberly Mendoza, one of Cydcor’s top fundraisers who attended the Operation Smile event. “You can make a huge difference in these children’s lives by donating, coming up with different fundraising ideas, or even just getting the word out about Operation Smile and the incredible work they do.”

The Operation Smile event in New York was an eye opening experience for the Cydcor team where they got to see the impact their fundraising efforts make in saving children’s lives. The team is excited to contribute even more during the upcoming Day of Smiles fundraising event. To help support Cydcor's fundraising efforts for Operation Smile, visit https://www.operationsmile.org/. Donations are welcomed.

Learn more about Cydcor on Facebook and Twitter, and on the Cydcor blog.

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About Cydcor

Cydcor is the leading provider of outsourced, face-to-face sales teams to a diverse client base of companies in a wide range of industries, including telecommunications, office products, retail, energy, and financial services. Serving Fortune 500 and emerging market clients in the business-to-business, residential, and retail channels through in-store marketing initiatives, Cydcor works with a network of more than 350 independently owned corporate licensee (ICL) sales offices, providing clients access to more than 4,600 sales professionals. The privately held company is based in Agoura Hills, California. For more information about Cydcor, go to www.cydcor.com.

We are Cydcor, the premiere outsourced sales service provider. Find out more about Cydcor on CareerBuilder.

In 2010, Wayne State University began a research project that examined the baseball cards of players in the Major League from 1952. The study found that the researchers could predict the lifespan of the players based on their smiles. The players who smiled in their cards lived an average of 79.9 years. Those who didn’t smile lived an average of only 72 years.

UC Berkley did a similar study, examining the smiles of students in yearbooks versus their general well-being and success. The thirty-year study found that researchers were able to predict how successful a student would be based on how wide their smiles were in the photos.

The concept of smiling is universal, with studies conducted in Papua New Guinea with tribes completely disconnected from Western culture. These tribes were found to also attribute smiles to happiness, security and confidence.

So how can this knowledge help someone in a real world or workplace setting? Timothy Ketelaar, an associate professor of psychology at New Mexico State University that has run similar studies says, “Smiles can put you in a positive light by signaling that you’re friendly and trustworthy, and that you aren’t a threat to others.”

In fact, even sounding like one is smiling can be beneficial to building trust. Many call center companies train their employees to smile while they speak, as the act of smiling can alter one’s voice to a happier, pleasant tone which can translate over the phone to clients.

The act of smiling is also contagious, as one Harvard University study found. The research showed that when a person is happy or smiling, a person nearby has a 25 percent higher chance of becoming happier themselves.

These studies and results show that if you want to appear confident, calm and competent, smiling is a straightforward and universal way to display it. Tap into the simple superpower of smiling, and you’ll find yourself feeling better, building trust and establishing long-lasting, positive relationships.

Check out the Cydcor Sales YouTube page for more information about the work that Cydcor has done to benefit Operation Smile.