Mentality of Successful Sellers

CHAPTER 2

Introduction

This chapter introduces the mental characteristics of great salespeople. You will learn about the difficulties of being a professional seller and how to overcome these difficulties by having the mentality of a successful seller.

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A mentality is an individual’s established pattern of thinking and set of attitudes.

• Recognize the main obstacles that salespeople face
• Identify strategies for developing the mentality of successful sellers, including having a growth mindset, developing a WHY, and creating a belief system for sales
• Understand why salespeople have a moral obligation to help customers find solutions

Learning Objectives and Agenda

SECTION 1

The Challenges of Professional Selling

What about being a professional seller would be difficult?

• What aspects of a salesperson’s job seems most difficult to you?
• What are some reasons you would be reluctant to be a professional seller?

Cliff Young

Beginner’s luck

Cliff Young is an example of the principle of “beginner’s luck,” which is the surprising success that new sellers often have.

• How was Cliff an example of beginner’s luck?
• How did his lack of preconceived notions and limitations enable him to succeed?
• How can you apply this to your career in selling?

Small group discussion

• Why do salespeople often lose their beginner’s luck?

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• What would cause a seller to become jaded or complacent?

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• How do you personally overcome these challenges or similar challenges in your own life?

Challenges for professional salespeople

Most challenges that professional sellers face can be grouped into three categories:

1. Repetitiveness
2. Complacency
3. Negative thinking

Challenge of Repetitiveness

• Much of what salespeople do on a day-to-day basis is repetitive. Sometimes this may cause them to lose their excitement and motivation.

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• For example, perhaps only 1 out of 20 customers that you talk to will buy. That means in order to make 10 sales, you will need to talk to 200 people. That is a lot of conversations that may feel like the same thing over and over again.

Challenge of Complacency

• Complacency is the state of being satisfied with the current of achievement coupled with a lack of desire to achieve more.

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• Sellers often become satisfied with the current of achievement coupled with a lack of desire to achieve more.

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• Great salespeople understand that not every effort is immediately rewarded, but that each new skill they learn is an investment for the long-term.

Challenge of Negative Thinking

• Professional sellers encounter a lot of failure, which can result in negative thinking.

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• According to the TLEX Institute, the average person has up to 60,000 thoughts per day, and roughly 80% of these thoughts are negative.

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• Some of these thoughts are conscious, but the majority are unconscious.

How to overcome these challenges

• Salespeople overcome the hurdles of repetitiveness, complacency, and negative thinking by generating the mentality of a success seller.
• A successful seller’s mentality has three components:

1. Developing a growth mindset

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1. Developing your “WHY”

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1. Developing a belief system for sales

SECTION 2

Developing a Growth Mindset

How to overcome these challenges

• In her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, renowned psychologist Carol Dweck discusses two different general mindsets:

1. A fixed mindset is the belief that intelligence, skills, behavior, and situations are static and that qualities and skills are unchangeable.
2. A growth mindset, or belief that intelligence, skills, behavior, and situations can improve and that skills and capabilities can grow.

Fixed mindset vs. growth mindset

Having a growth mindset

• Having a growth mindset means believing that there are many opportunities for success available to you, and that you can find them.
• It means believing that you can improve and get better everyday.
• Professional sellers with a growth mindset work tirelessly to learn and improve.

Learn → Implement → Feedback Method

1. Learn: Learn by reading books, listening to podcasts, practicing new methods, investing in personal coaching, etc.

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1. Implement: Practice what you learn. Knowledge is useless unless it is implemented.

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1. Feedback: Gather feedback from others. When implementing new methods, role-play and ask for ways to improve.

When do you feel motivated to improve?

• When have you felt excited to come to class or get feedback at work?

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• When have you felt unmotivated to learn and improve?

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• How did your mindset differ in the two situations?

How to develop a growth mindset

• Recognize that you have room for improvement - Salespeople who can admit that they're not perfect are more willing to learn and develop.
• Become mindful of what you think and say - You must make a concerted effort to manage your thoughts. Make a conscious effort to eliminate negative words and thinking from your day-to-day life.
• Focus on the love of learning - Develop a learning goal orientation - the desire to improve oneself through gaining new knowledge and skills.

How to develop a growth mindset (cont.)

• Set goals and stretch - If you are doing something the same way everyday you are likely to become bored and unmotivated. Look for ways to get outside of your comfort zone and challenge yourself.
• Seek Feedback - Many people do not welcome feedback, which often feels critical and judgmental. To gain an appreciation for feedback you should seek it out. The more you seek it out the more you will see its usefulness.

SECTION 3

Developing Your WHY

Your personal WHY

• A Seller’s WHY is a statement of higher purpose for doing something.

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• It acts as an important source of motivation.

What motivates you?

• Clayton Christensen said, “Motivation is much less about external prodding or stimulation, and much more about what’s inside of you and inside of your work.”

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• True and lasting motivation doesn’t come from others or from external sources (e.g., promotion or raises).

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• Your WHY is an internal power that drives and motivates you.

Small group discussions

• Break into small groups and discuss:
• Who are some of the most motivated and productive people you know?
• What motivates those people?
• What do you think is their WHY?

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• Be prepared to share with the class some insights you learned from one another.

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Developing your WHY

• Think about what inspires you. Is there something that motivates or compels you to do more or be better?

• A WHY is more than just wanting lots of money. Instead, it could focus on the good you can do with the money. For example:
• Provide a sense of belonging, safety, and security for yourself or your family.
• The ability to travel - perhaps you are passionate about seeing new places and connecting with new cultures.

Developing your WHY (cont.)

• Your WHY should not only focus on what you can do with the money, but on the good you can do with your job.
• For example, many salespeople find personal meaning in helping customers find solutions to their problems.

Activity

• Consider what motivates you to be your best.
• Take 5-7 minutes to consider your WHY and write it down.

SECTION 4

A Belief System for Sales

Developing a belief system

• Potential customers can sense when a sellers lack confidence in themselves or their product.

• Salespeople need to have a belief system that focuses on:
• A belief in yourself
• A belief in your product or service

Develop a belief in yourself

• When you are nervous or unconfident, one of the easiest ways to develop a belief in yourself is to refer back to past experiences where you've had success.
• The Pacific Institute calls this concept flick-back/flick-up, which is the technique of borrowing the feelings from a past positive experience and applying them to the present situation or circumstance.
• Sometimes new salespeople ask, “How can I be confident if I feel like I don’t know what I am doing?”
• Your confidence comes not from the knowledge you currently have, but from your ability to learn what you need to know.

Develop a belief in your product or service

• Join a company that you believe in

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• What problem does your product solve and how?

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• If you’re finding it difficult to believe in your product after many rejections, you can use the flick-back/flick-up method to restore your belief

Moral obligation in sales

• If you truly believe that your product can help others, it is your moral obligation to let your clients know about it.

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• Moral obligation is something that must be done simply because it is the right thing to do.

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• Salespeople want to share products with potential clients not only to make money, but because they truly want to help others.

Moral obligation in sales (cont.)

• Your clients will never know that a solution is available if you don’t share the problem-solving product with them

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• Your job is not to sell your product to everyone
• Your job is to find those who need your product
• Once you have offered it to them, you have fulfilled a moral obligation