5 of the Most Poisonous Mindsets Killing Your Sales Performance
As a sales coach, consultant and trainer, much of what clients pay me for or expect of me is to teach their sales teams sales techniques: how to ask discovery questions, how to close buyers, how to create urgency, etc. The problem is that most of the time the technique is just a small part of the issue.
Your technique will only ever be as strong as you mindset. Mindset always guides technique. If you have a flawed mindset, then you technique will also be flawed.
Here are 5 of the most poisonous mindset that I see affecting sales performance:
1. Nobody buys on the first visit.
If you believe that nobody buys on the first visit, then you will prove yourself right by never asking a question that would allow them to buy on visit one. Here’s what we need to remember, just because you would never buy on visit one, doesn’t not mean that your buyers can’t or won’t buy on visit one.
Don’t assume that your buyers behave the same way you behave.
2. People don’t want me to ask them any personal questions.
I’ve taught mission based discovery questions for a long time, and one of the things that I know without a doubt is that people want to share their stories with people who care and want to hear them. Interestingly, the discomfort when asking personal questions during discovery does not typically come from the buyer but from the sales person.
When sales people don’t ask the right emotional or personal questions, not only do they never fully understand the person they are trying to help, but it also comes across like they simply don’t care.
3. Buyers don’t want us to follow-up with them.
Ah, the dreaded follow-up. I think that we have done a really good job at convincing ourselves that buyers hate follow-up because we hate follow-up, would rather not do it and it’s easier to just put it back on the buyer instead of facing our avoidance for what it really is – yielding.
Buyers like follow up when it is a service we are providing that helps them make the best decision for them by answering their questions and giving helpful advice. Buyers don’t like follow-up when it is all about getting the sale, but when it’s about them and for them, buyers LOVE follow-up.
4. Closing is pushy and aggressive.
Let me be clear; people are not afraid of being closed. People are afraid of making bad decisions. Closing is only pushy and aggressive when you are using manipulation to make someone buy something that you know they should not buy.
When you genuinely care about helping a buyer to improve their life with your goods or service and you allow them to make small decisions that lead up to the big decision, then closing is one of the most helpful things you can ever do for your buyers.
5. Nobody likes sales people.
It’s true that in movies and TV shows we are not portrayed in the best light, but that does not mean that we are those characters. Be proud of your professional. Don’t apologize for being in sales.
Selling is helping. As long as you are influencing and persuading people to do what is in their best interest and avoiding manipulation tactics, you are a valuable resource for people when they are making some of the biggest or most important decisions of their lives.
These negative mindsets plague even the most tenured and successful sales people. It’s not that the top sales professionals aren’t battling some negative mindsets, it’s that they recognize their negative mindsets for what they are and they don’t let them get in the way of using appropriate behaviors and selling techniques.
My advice is always that if you are struggling with any one (or more) areas in your selling process, check your mindset. A negative mindset will always sabotage your behaviors.
Get your mindset right and the correct technique for winning more sales will follow.
If you want to get your mindset right AND learn correct sales techniques, join me in Dallas, TX June 5-7 for the Closing 2.0 Academy.
The Closing 2.0 Academy is an intensive, 12-week learning cycle where sales professionals MASTER the modern art of closing the sale in today’s market with today’s buyer. Learn more about the Closing 2.0 Academy here:
