How is it that self-belief and confidence sky rockets sales skills…even when sales skills are limited?
It’s because believing you can…results in achievement.
So let’s dive a bit deeper into Principle 4 of my 7 Principles that underpin a successful high performing sales team!
In my experience people with a winning sales mindset and limited sales skills outperform people with exceptional sales skills and a poor mindset. You’ve probably noticed this in your own team.
A very common phenomena is a new sales person smashing their targets from day 1. You think you have a new high flier on your team then at month 4 they crash and burn. That’s because they start to realise what they don’t know and start believing some of beliefs from other members of the team like…it’s so hard out there, there’s a spending freeze in the sector, the targets are too high…the list of CAN’Ts goes on and on!
What goes on in the head and heart of your sales person, has the biggest impact on the results they generate.
So what can you do about it?
Focus less on the numbers and more on your sales person’s state of mind. Look and listen for triggers and clues in their physiology, what they say and their voice tone. This means calibrating each of your team for good and poor state because one person’s good state can be very different to another person’s.
You need to make time to observe and interact.
Yes I know you’re really busy and you may not have put time aside to do this in the past but this will increase your sales so much more than a quick conversation with them about how they are going to reach their sales target this period. Or maybe just telling them what you think they should do?
Go into coaching mode and explore how they are thinking and feeling on the inside. Only when you get these aligned will their behaviour change on the outside.
Find out how you can align thoughts and feelings here.
When someone has negative thoughts and beliefs about themselves they will remember all the situations where they have not been their best and negate any successes that are counter to their belief. That’s how the mind works…it’s not going to disagree with itself!
A good thing to do is remind a sales person who’s in a negative space about their past successes and how they can take what they did in those situation into today.
Simply acknowledging a negative thought and focusing them on past successes can often be enough to get that person back on track.
This is a continuous process…all of your team will require this support from time to time and some more often than others.
The only way you can nip these negtive thoughts in the bud before they take a strong hold is to notice them early and coach them to a happier place.
It’s so worth it…and so are your team!
Until next time,
