Reprogramming Your Sales Mindset: The Key to Driving Sales Growth

Mindset is everything in becoming a top-performing salesperson. Your beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions shape your actions, determine your Success, and ultimately impact your sales results. Whether you’re a seasoned sales professional or just starting out, understanding the power of mindset and learning to reprogram limiting thoughts is essential for achieving sustained sales growth. Teams often assess sales skills and prescribe training, but by training sales managers to coach and coach the team to correct mindsets, teams will see the revenue and profit growth they desire.

1. The Power of Mindset in Sales:

Your mindset influences every aspect of the sales process, from prospecting to closing deals. A positive and growth-oriented mindset can help you overcome challenges, handle rejection, and stay motivated despite setbacks. Conversely, a negative or limiting mindset can help your performance, leading to missed opportunities and growth in sales.

As we assess sales teams, we discover sales skills gaps, often what we refer to as “head trash.” Head trash is a belief that limits the salesperson’s future Success. Sales skills can usually be corrected with training application exercises and improved systems, processes, and selling tools. When we discover limiting beliefs, it requires a focused coaching program that can often take twelve to eighteen months( from my experience) to improve.

2. Identifying Limiting Beliefs:

Limiting beliefs are deeply ingrained thoughts or assumptions that prevent you from reaching your full potential. They often stem from past experiences, fear of failure, or negative self-talk. Common limiting beliefs in sales include “I’m not good enough,” “No one wants to buy from me,” or “I’ll never hit my targets.” Recognizing and acknowledging these beliefs is the first step towards reprogramming them.

Common limiting beliefs we discover working with sales teams today include….

• The need to be liked more than the need to be respected.
• Difficulty discussing money. ( Particularly as the size of the order increases)
• Call reluctance due to fear of rejection.
• Sending a quote is a closing technique.
• Sales is manipulation.
• Customers do not value what we sell.
• Our prices are too high.
• I cannot sell a price increase.
• Our competitor’s product or service is superior.
• Cold calling is bothering people.
• My sales manager does not understand sales today.
• Building multiple relationships in key accounts will hurt my relationship with the buyer.
• I don’t believe in our sales plan strategy.
• If I ask discovery and qualifying questions, it will hurt my relationship.
• My sales goal is unrealistic

strong>3. Reprogramming Your Mindset:

Reprogramming your mindset involves replacing limiting beliefs with empowering ones that align with your goals and aspirations. This process requires self-awareness, intentionality, and consistent effort. Remember, you may have built your limiting beliefs over your lifetime, and it will take time and commitment to have the right mindset.

Here are some strategies to help you reprogram your mindset for sales success:

Challenge Negative Thoughts: Whenever you catch yourself thinking about a limiting belief, challenge it with evidence to the contrary. For example, if you believe that no one wants to buy from you, remind yourself of past successful sales interactions or positive customer feedback.

Practice Affirmations: Affirmations are positive statements that reinforce desired beliefs or behaviors. Incorporate affirmations into your daily routine to counteract negative self-talk and cultivate a mindset of confidence and abundance. For instance, repeat statements like “I am a top-performing salesperson” or “Every rejection brings me closer to a yes.” If they haven’t bought yet, I must explain value better.”

Visualize Success: Visualization is a powerful tool for reprogramming the subconscious mind. Take time daily to visualize yourself achieving your sales goals, closing deals, and surpassing targets. Engage all your senses and imagine the feeling of Success in vivid detail. When I was the sales training manager for Timken, a multibillion-dollar bearing manufacturer, our trainees designed vision boards of what sales success would mean in their lives.

Seek Growth Opportunities:

1. Embrace challenges and setbacks as opportunities for growth rather than failures.
2. View each rejection or obstacle as a chance to learn, adapt, and improve your skills.
3. Adopt a growth mindset that focuses on continuous improvement and resilience.

Surround Yourself with Positivity: Surround yourself with positive influences, whether supportive colleagues, mentors, or inspirational content. Avoid toxic environments or negative individuals who reinforce limiting beliefs and drain your energy.

>strong>3. Measuring Success:

As you work on reprogramming your mindset, track your progress and celebrate small victories along the way. Measure Success not just in terms of sales numbers but also in terms of personal growth, resilience, and mindset shifts. Keep a journal to record positive experiences, breakthroughs, and insights gained through the process.

Next Steps

Your mindset can be your greatest asset or your biggest obstacle in sales. By reprogramming limiting thoughts and cultivating a positive, growth-oriented mindset, you can unlock your full potential, drive sustained sales growth, and give your customers a better buying experience. Remember, Success in sales is not just about what you do but also about how you think.

First, we must identify the limiting beliefs your sales team has along with any sales skills gaps they have.

Then, we must prescribe training and coaching over several months, and in some cases, a year, to establish the right sales growth mindsets.

Last we must train and coach your sales managers and leaders to coach salespeople through limiting beliefs.

What limiting beliefs could your salespeople have?

How could these beliefs be hurting their goal attainment?

How would it impact your bottom line to identify and correct the “head trash” your salespeople are carrying around?

What have your salespeople shared in meetings that demonstrate sales mindset challenges?

Let’s schedule a call if you’d like to talk about the sales mindset.