Selling is hard. Prospecting, cold calling, handling objections, and facing rejection wear on anyone’s mindset. But what if developing an unstoppable sales mindset could 10X your results, rocket you to the top of the leaderboard, and make hitting quota feel easy? This complete guide explores the psychology of sales mindset, shares tactics used by the industry’s best, and provides actionable strategies to transform yourself into a selling superstar. Read on to learn the secrets of cultivating a mindset for sales excellence from the inside-out.
Understanding the Importance of Sales Mindset
When it comes to sales success, conventional wisdom states that having the right skills, strategies, and techniques is key. While important, these factors take a backseat to something even more critical – your mindset.
Your mindset is your mental perspective and approach to selling. It encompasses your thoughts, beliefs, assumptions, and attitudes. And it is one of the biggest differentiators between top-performing sales professionals and everyone else.
Why Mindset Matters More Than Skills or Techniques
Skills can be taught. Strategies can be implemented. But mindset? That needs to be consciously cultivated.
Legendary basketball coach John Wooden once said: “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”
The same applies in sales. Your skills and strategies are outward-facing. But your mindset – your character – is an inward quality that shapes how you show up to the job every single day.
Top sales performers recognize this truth. They understand that mindset drives emotions, which in turn drive behaviors, which ultimately drive results. It is a cascading effect.
Consider a scenario where a sales rep receives a curt email rejection from a prospect.
Salesperson A brushes it off and moves forward with optimism towards the next opportunity.
Salesperson B, however, takes it personally and spirals downwards, feeling dejected and incompetent.
While both salespeople faced the same external situation, their internal mindsets dictated very different emotional responses. And those emotions clearly impacted subsequent motivation levels and sales activities.
There are countless similar examples. The key takeaway is that mindset sits at the root, setting off a chain reaction. Skills, strategies, and techniques flow from mindset – not the other way around. Work on sharpening the axe before chopping the tree.
The Link Between Mindset, Emotions, and Actions
Your mindset directly influences your emotions, which in turn drive your actions and behaviors. Here’s how it works:
Mindset > Emotions > Actions > Results
If you believe you are incompetent or that selling is unethical (fixed mindset), you will likely feel constant fear, frustration, and resistance. Consequently, you’ll avoid making sales calls, give up easily when faced with rejection, and dread going to work. Ultimately, you will fail to meet your sales targets.
Conversely, if you see yourself as a peer who adds value (growth mindset), you’ll feel confident and purposeful. As a result, you’ll proactively call prospects, bounce back quickly from objections, and work passionately. You will hit (and exceed) your sales goals.
Emotions serve as the pivot point between mindset and actions. Positive emotions empower top performance, while negative emotions sabotage it.
This critical link indicates why self-awareness and mental control are so vital in sales. Monitoring your emotions allows you to catch yourself sliding down the slippery slope towards behaviors that undermine your success. With vigilance, you can course correct before it’s too late.
How Mindset Impacts Sales Results
Study after study proves that sales mindset directly impacts results. Consider these powerful examples:
- 91% of top sales performers attribute their success to mindset [Source: MindTickle]
- Sales reps with a growth mindset sell 88% more than fixed mindset reps [Source: Gong]
- 92% of sales professionals say mindset is as or more important than skills [Source: Richardson]
The data doesn’t lie. How you think truly determines how you sell.
Beyond empirical figures, we all know this to be true based on personal experience. Recall those times when you were brimming with passion, purpose, and positivity. You crushed your quotas without even trying too hard!
But also remember when you felt anxious, inadequate or apathetic. No matter how hard you tried, you just couldn’t get any sales traction.
Your external efforts were exactly the same. Only the internal mindset shifted. And that changed everything.
In conclusion, mindset sits at the foundation of sales excellence. It serves as the rock upon which skills and strategies can fruitfully be built. World-class selling flows from the inside-out, not the outside-in. Keep that at the forefront, and your sales success will skyrocket.
The Characteristics of a Winning Sales Mindset
Developing an unstoppable sales mindset requires cultivating certain key characteristics and mental habits. While skills and techniques certainly play a role, mindset sits in the driver’s seat.
Through extensive research, the following eight traits have been identified as differentiating the mindsets of top-performing sales professionals from the rest:
1. Seeing Yourself as a Peer, Not a Supplicant
Average and low-performing salespeople view themselves as supplicants – they feel deferential, grateful, and even lucky just to get a sales meeting.
This inferior mindset causes prospects to unconsciously lose respect for the salesperson. After all, why should they view someone as an equal if that person doesn’t even view themselves as an equal?
Conversely, top sales professionals see themselves as complete peers and equals to prospects – regardless of titles, wealth, status, or industry stature.
At the end of the day, we’re all just people. Remember, even the CEO puts his pants on one leg at a time. Approach sales meetings with this peer-to-peer mentality.
Viewing yourself as an equal human being fosters the confidence and strength needed to sell effectively. The prospect picks up on that vibe and engages you in a more balanced, authentic way.
Try this quick mindset shift: Picture your most coveted prospect. Now imagine you both grew up as childhood friends in the same neighborhood. How would you act around your old pal? Channel that casual rapport – it works!
2. Understanding You Don’t Need Every Sale
Another pitfall average salespeople face is feeling they desperately need each and every sale. This mindset seeps through and prospects can sense the thirstiness.
But top sales professionals realize they don’t actually need every single sale. Even the most successful reps close only ~25% of qualified prospects.
Internalizing this truth reduces the pressure substantially. Ironically, closing rates often improve dramatically when you stop needing the sale so badly.
Trust that you’ll get the next one. Go into every sales meeting projecting the confidence and poise of having a strong sales pipeline. Your prospects will be unable to resist you.
3. Recognizing the Value You Provide
All top salespeople firmly believe they bring tremendous value to their prospects’ lives, both personally and professionally. They are solution-providers, not slimy manipulators.
Conversely, average sales reps often feel uncomfortable about “peddling” stuff to people. They view sales as somehow unethical.
Understand that you are helping people solve real problems and achieve goals. Even if a prospect says no, they appreciated the education from your conversation. You improved their life today – and that’s honorable work.
Adopting this mindset of delivering extreme value oozes through in your sales interactions. Prospects cannot help but reciprocate with trust, respect, and ultimately, business.
4. Believing Your Prospects Need You
While value-focused, top salespeople also realize they cannot help everyone equally. The key is targeting only qualified prospects who truly need what you’re selling.
These sales pros have deep knowledge about their Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). They focus their time on prospects who align with their offerings and expertise.
Conversely, average salespeople think they can help anyone. But without precise ICP insights, they waste effort on unqualified prospects.
Do your homework to deeply understand your niche ICP. Then pursue those prospects boldly, knowing the value you can bring to help them achieve goals and solve pressing problems. Exude that confidence through strong value propositions tailored exactly to their needs.
They will admire your credibility and be eager to engage. Remember – they need you!
5. Wanting to Help Your Buyers Succeed
Beyond just making the sale, top sales professionals feel a genuine desire to help their buyers succeed in the long-term. They take pride in customers’ positive outcomes.
This mentality ensures they take the time to understand customers’ businesses intimately. They offer thoughtful guidance not just about their product, but about broader goals, challenges, and opportunities.
Essentially, they act as partners and advisors, not vendors. Customers notice and appreciate this.
Before sales calls, take a moment to get excited about the prospect’s success, not just your commission. Let this passion shine through in your communication and positioning.
6. Knowing You Deserve Success
Even talented salespeople can sabotage their success with inner self-limiting beliefs. Feelings of unworthiness or inadequacy become self-fulfilling prophecies.
But sales stars foster a mindset of deserving abundance. They know sales is simply an exchange of value, not something to feel guilty about. Their self-esteem and confidence allows them to boldly pursue success.
Consider your life vision and goals. Why do you want to earn more? What impact will higher income enable? Visualize yourself already achieving those dreams. You absolutely deserve it – now go make it happen!
7. Accepting Rejection as Part of the Process
Hearing “no” hurts. Sales stars understand rejection is part of the game, while average reps take it personally.
In reality, prospects say no for reasons that have nothing to do with you. Budget constraints, bad timing, or prior relationships are common factors totally outside your control.
Let rejection roll off your back by expecting it and not tying your self-worth to the outcome. Be relentlessly persistent. Top performers hear 10x more no’s…and inevitably 100x more yes’s too!
8. Being Okay With “No” as an Outcome
Finally, along with accepting rejection, sales pros must be totally okay with a “no” outcome from prospects.
Average salespeople feel crushing pressure to get each prospect to somehow say yes. That tense vibe hurts sales.
But when you’re cool with no, paradoxically, you’ll get way more yeses. Removing the pressure lifts a huge burden off prospects. Now they can freely evaluate you.
Plus, feeling desperate makes you act different in subtle ways that turn prospects off. Exuding relaxed confidence instead draws people to you.
Remember, over 50% will still say no. Smile, thank them, and move forward feeling good about offering value. Let go of the outcome – your mindset and results will thank you.
Cultivating a Positive Sales Mindset
Having explored the hallmarks of a winning mindset, let’s discuss practical ways to cultivate positivity and purpose day-to-day.
Installing a software patch overnight won’t cut it. You must commit to gradual, intentional reprogramming at the deepest levels.
The rewards will be immense. Here are six key areas to focus on in order to grow a vibrant, resilient, and highly effective sales mindset.
1. Maintaining an Openness to Possibilities
Average salespeople view reality rigidly. They follow scripts, stick to routines, and generally resist trying new things. Their perspective leaves no room for possibilities beyond the status quo.
Top sales professionals live in a world brimming with possibilities. They remain flexible and open-minded no matter how experienced they become. This allows them to continuously experiment with better ways to sell.
Remember, there are no universal truths or blanket rules in sales. What worked yesterday might not work today. The person saying “no” right now may say “yes” in the future.
Train yourself to frequently challenge your own assumptions. Question how you’ve always approached aspects of selling – from prospecting to closings. There are still countless discoveries to be made.
That optimistic, curious mindset is powerful. Possibilities remain infinite if you let them.
2. Viewing Setbacks as Learning Experiences
When sales don’t go as hoped, the natural response is frustration or disappointment. Sales stars counter this by viewing setbacks as valuable data points.
Specifically, they adopt a growth mindset that says:
- This outcome provides learnings to help me improve.
- My abilities are not fixed, but rather expand through experience.
- With commitment, I can achieve greater success over time.
This mentality transforms tough situations into progress. Setbacks become teachers rather than personal indictments. You accrue wisdom from every challenging scenario.
The next time you lose a deal, get rejected, or fall short of quota, avoid lamenting. Instead, objectively reflect on lessons gained that will lead to future wins. Progress starts by writing them down.
3. Focusing on Serving Customers, Not Just Making Sales
The most successful salespeople view their role as fundamentally helping others, not themselves. This gives them meaning, passion, and satisfaction that goes far beyond monetary gain.
They deeply understand how their product or service improves customers’ lives. They care about their buyers’ success beyond just making the sale. They take pride in serving others through their work.
This mentality comes through authentically and customers notice. Purpose and meaning are attractive traits that build trust and likeability – key ingredients for sales success.
Whenever you feel externally motivated by bonuses or commissions, try remembering how you change lives for the better. That mindset fosters positivity.
4. Building Authentic Connections and Trust
Great salespeople sell themselves first by building authentic interpersonal connections. They realize prospects want to buy from someone they like and trust.
That means showing genuine interest in prospects as human beings – not just as transactions. Ask engaging questions, listen intently, and find common ground through shared interests.
Avoid treating prospects as faceless targets. Make real human connections. When you brighten someone’s day through enjoyable conversation, you win their business.
This mentality helps you come across as relatable, competent, and sincere. Those qualities breed trust and loyalty – converting prospects into delighted customers.
5. Exuding Confidence in Your Abilities
Even talented sales professionals can undermine their success with inner self-doubt. Not believing in yourself becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
But the top performers exude confidence rooted in preparation and experience. They put in the work so they know their abilities will drive results.
Before sales interactions, review your skills and track record of high performance. Hype yourself up! You have so much to offer prospects. Feel that self-assurance emanate through your words and body language.
The mind is a powerful magnet. What you put out attracts reciprocal energy. By embodying confidence, you’ll elicit similarly positive reactions from prospects. Feed that upward spiral!
6. Staying Motivated Despite Challenges
Sales involves constant ups and downs. Rejection, competitiveness, uncertainty – these realities wear mental stamina down over time. Sales stars counteract this with commitment to daily motivation habits.
Specifically, they tap sources of inspiration to stay fired up day after day. This includes reading inspirational content, listening to motivational speeches, surrounding themselves with positive people, and more.
They also get clarity on their “why” for being in sales – whether supporting their family, achieving dreams, or helping others. Connecting to this purpose provides renewable motivation when times get tough.
Commit time each morning to inspire yourself and tap into your sales passion. Do whatever gets you in a peak state. By outworking others mentally, you gain a huge mindset edge.
Adopting Key Mindsets for Sales Success
Selling involves distinct phases, each requiring the right mindset to excel. Let’s explore four sales stages and associated mentalities that drive top performance.
Prospecting Mindset: Committed, Focused, Optimistic
Prospecting works when you have laser commitment, focus, and optimism. Without this trio, it’s easy to get derailed.
Commitment means relentlessly pursuing prospects with consistency and grit. Sales stars prospect daily, rain or shine. They don’t just work when “in the mood.” Consistency trumps intensity.
Focus means eliminating distractions and interruptions while prospecting. Set boundaries around your time. For those hours, singularly concentrate on your outreach efforts. Don’t check emails, answer calls, or chitchat with coworkers.
Optimism means embracing rejection and plowing through no’s with enthusiasm. Believe in the law of large numbers – the more asks, the more yeses you’ll inevitably get. Expect tons of no’s but know prospects are waiting to say yes too!
Installing this mindset will 10X your prospecting results overnight.
Presentation Mindset: Calm, Conversational, Attentive
Bringing a calm, conversational, and attentive mindset to sales meetings fosters engagement and trust.
Calm means avoiding desperation or nervous energy. Breathe deep and speak slowly. Be present. You know your stuff cold – just have a friendly discussion.
Conversational means avoiding rigid scripts and canned pitches. Be an engaged, interested human rather than a sales bot. Ask questions, share stories, and discuss business challenges.
Attentive means intently listening to prospects’ words, tone, and body language. Sales is not about you – it’s about them. Tune into their needs. Ask follow-up questions. Understand their pain points at a deep level.
This mindset helps prospects open up and makes your solutions feel like perfect fits.
Customer Service Mindset: Helpful, Patient, Understanding
Providing stellar customer service requires embodying helpfulness, patience, and understanding.
Helpful means proactively looking for ways to help customers beyond just addressing support tickets reactively. Take initiative anticipating challenges they may face.
Patient means calmly tolerating issues that inevitably arise post-purchase. Buyers can be demanding but avoid getting flustered. Kill them with kindness.
Understanding means empathizing with frustrated customers. They want solutions, not excuses. Apologize for problems and reframe issues from their perspective.
This mindset pull customers in closer and earns their loyalty for life. They’ll refer you more business too!
Self-Evaluation Mindset: Self-Aware, Responsibility, Reflective
Finally, nurturing self-awareness, responsibility, and reflection will maximize your sales performance.
Self-awareness means objectively examining your abilities without ego or blindspots. Know your sales strengths and weaknesses – then seek to improve every day.
Responsibility means owning outcomes rather than blaming external factors. Take charge of your success. When results fall short, avoid making excuses.
Reflective means reviewing your performance for lessons. Consider what succeeded or failed and make concrete plans to get better. Purposeful reflection breeds progress.
This inward-focused mindset compounds over time. Small adjustments snowball into sales greatness.
The common thread across these mindsets is a commitment to growth and service. Adopt them all holistically to become a world-class seller. Condition them through repetition to transform yourself within.
Overcoming a Fixed Mindset in Sales
While growth mindset drives sales excellence, most people default to a fixed mindset instead. This perspective can sabotage your success if left unaddressed.
Fixed mindset assumes talents and abilities cannot be developed – you either have natural sales skills or you don’t. It also causes people to avoid challenges that may reveal “inadequacies.”
Though incredibly limiting, fixed mindset is the norm. Here are tips to recognize fixed thinking patterns and reprogram yourself for sales greatness:
Identifying Limiting Beliefs Holding You Back
We all harbor unconscious limiting beliefs that hinder our potential. These may have formed in childhood or due to past failures. Common examples include:
- I’m not meant to be in sales.
- I don’t have natural charisma and likeability.
- I’m too old to learn new sales approaches.
- My product is too expensive to sell right now.
- Cold calling is scary and doesn’t work well for me.
Look inside yourself. What self-limiting beliefs crop up to constrain your advancement? Dig deep to identify and define them. Simply naming them diffuses their power.
Challenging Negative Self-Talk Patterns
Along with conscious limiting beliefs, salespeople frequently engage in detrimental internal self-talk. This self-criticism sounds reasonable but erodes confidence. For example:
- “I bombed that sales call…I’m just no good at this.”
- “They’ll never agree to that price…I’m wasting my time.”
- “That was so awkward when I stumbled over my words. I’m incompetent.”
When such thoughts arise, treat them as hypotheses up for debate, not facts. Ask yourself:
- Is this absolutely true or an over-generalization?
- Am I basing this on emotion versus facts?
- How might I view this through a growth mindset lens?
This practice of consciously refuting negative self-talk reorients you towards positivity.
Replacing Fixed Mindset Thoughts with Growth Mindset Thoughts
Now take active steps to reshape limiting beliefs and self-talk by substituting them with empowering growth mindset alternatives:
Instead of: I’m not a natural sales superstar.
Try: Sales skills can be developed with practice. I’m committed to constant improvement.
Instead of: I feel terrified making cold calls. I must not be cut out for this.
Try: It’s normal to feel scared. I can become comfortable through experience.
Instead of: I’ll never be as smooth as Taylor in sales meetings.
Try: I admire Taylor’s skills. I will learn from observing her examples.
Instead of: I missed my sales goal for the month. I’m just not good at this job.
Try: I missed my goal in one area but exceeded other metrics. My skills are expanding.
Affirming statements grounded in growth mindset philosophy reprogram your mental processes over time.
Developing Resilience to Setbacks and Rejection
Sales inevitably involves setbacks, rejections, objections, and falling short of goals. Most get derailed by this adversity. But you can build resilience through small exposure therapy.
Setbacks: When facing a loss, avoid blowing it out of proportion. Remind yourself it’s one minor setback on the winding sales journey. Stay calm and strategize ways to bounce back quick.
Rejection: Expect tons of rejection and normalize occasional harsh responses. Let them glance off you without taking them to heart. Be politely persistent through no’s.
Objections: Welcome objections as a sign of progress. It means the prospect is engaged and offering you an opportunity to clarify or improve your pitch.
Goals: If you miss a sales target, focus on progress made in other areas, and set process-oriented next steps to get back on track. Don’t lose hope.
With time, small defeats impact you less and less. Confidence in your ability to overcome anything grows. That resilience itself helps attract sales success.
Taking Small Steps Outside Your Comfort Zone
Fixed mindset causes people to protect self-esteem by avoiding risks. If you never try something new, you never have to fail!
But real growth happens beyond comfort zones. Top sales performers push boundaries daily. Here are three starter steps to gain momentum:
1. Have small talk with one stranger per day. Overcome social fears hindering your ability to connect with prospects. Chat up people in line or during your commute.
2. Volunteer for tasks slightly beyond your current skill level. Instead of waiting until you feel 100% ready, raise your hand to stretch your abilities. Give the big presentation or take the tough client. Master the art of faking it till you make it!
3. Audit a class, training program, or conference in new sales approaches. Don’t just read about new tactics – immerse yourself in them. The unfamiliar will start feeling natural fast.
By getting comfortable being uncomfortable, your self-limiting beliefs start fading. You realize your potential to conquer challenges is unlimited, as long as you keep pushing forward. Sales greatness awaits!
Measuring and Tracking Your Mindset Progress
Growth requires focus. To accelerate your sales mindset development, implement systems to measure progress. This provides structure, feedback loops, and accountability on your journey to excellence.
Here are six proven tactics:
Taking Pre- and Post-Training Mindset Assessments
Specialized sales mindset assessments help pinpoint your exact areas of strength and weakness. The two most popular options are:
- Hogan Sales Potential Assessment: Predicts performance across different sales roles based on personality, ambition, sociability, interpersonal sensitivity, and interest styles.
- Richardson Sales Mindset Assessment: Measures 27 traits across four categories – outlook, activity, relationships, and results. Provides tailored tips to improve.
Take one of these in-depth assessments before engaging in any sales mindset training. Retake it after completing the program to quantify your measurable improvements.
Celebrate growth in certain dimensions. Double-down on developing still-weak areas. This data gives you a blueprint to expand your mindset systematically.
Using Sales Coaching Software to Monitor Behaviors
Sales coaching software platforms provide terrific built-in tools to strengthen mindset over time. Options like Gong, Chorus, and Lessonly allow you to:
- Record sales calls to review and self-critique objectively. Listen for subtleties like tone, pacing, technique.
- Transcribe sales conversations into text to analyze. Look for patterns positive and negative.
- Measure metrics tied to mindset like call duration, response times, follow-up rates.
- Get feedback via notes from managers hearing your recorded calls.
The quantified behavioral insights gleaned from sales coaching software offer a treasure trove to understand and refine your real-world application of mindset principles.
Creating Checklists Tied to Mindset Competencies
To stay accountable, create tangible reminders of the core mindset tenets you’re working on. For example:
- Start each day by reviewing a growth mindset checklist with beliefs to frame the day positively.
- Keep a resilience checklist top of mind when conversations get challenging. Redirect yourself emotionally in real-time.
- Review a customer-focused checklist before calls to get in the right service mindset.
- Post a prospecting checklist reaffirming commitment, optimism and focus at your desk.
These simple tools act like mental benchmarks along the path to making mindsets instinctive. With repetition, you pretrain yourself to excel even in the heat of the moment.
Setting Specific Mindset Goals and Tracking Them
To motivate continuous improvement, set S.M.A.R.T. goals around targeted mindset competencies you want to build. For example:
- Specific: Improve active listening skills.
- Measurable: No interruptions during prospect calls.
- Attainable: Practice focused listening with peers.
- Relevant: Critical for sales success.
- Time-bound: 30 days.
Log your progress and achievements along the 30-day timeline via journaling or an online tracking system.
The process of consciously articulating mindset goals, plotting milestones, and recording successes builds commitment and self-efficacy.
Journaling After Sales Calls to Capture Learnings
The human brain forgets 80% of details within a week. To crystallize sales call experiences, reflections, and takeaways, try 5-minute journaling sessions.
After each call, take a few moments to write key details, how you felt, what worked or didn’t, and lessons to help you improve next time.
This engages you in active introspection immediately while everything remains fresh. The takeaways also become reference guides to internalize over time.
Asking Managers/Teammates for Mindset Feedback
Your own self-assessments only reveal part of the picture. Get 360-degree feedback on mindset areas needing work.
Periodically ask managers and teammates direct questions like:
- Do I display confidence consistently or seem unsure at times?
- How well do I recover from setbacks and rejection?
- Would you describe me as intrinsically motivated?
- Do I take ownership for outcomes or externalize blame?
- How well do I connect emotionally with prospects?
With support and honesty from others, you gain more objective insights to continue mindset refinement.
Installing habits to measure mindset progress equates to guaranteed growth. By directing focused energy and effort, you expedite your sales excellence journey. Stay hungry!
Maintaining a Healthy Sales Mindset Long-Term
Cultivating an empowering sales mindset takes conscious effort over an extended time horizon. To make excellence stick, commit to these proven long-term strategies:
Committing to Daily Mindset Practices
Daily repetition of positive mindset habits hardwires your brain for success. Make time each morning to engage in practices like:
- Affirmations: State 3-5 positive self-beliefs aloud to program your subconscious mind. For example, “I am a naturally confident and masterful seller who easily connects with prospects.”
- Visualization: Imagine yourself flawlessly executing sales calls, exuding charm and closing deals with ease. Envision the positive outcome vividly.
- Meditation: Clear your mind through deep breathing and mindfulness. Meditation reduces stress, boosts focus, and centers your emotions.
- Journaling: Free-write stream-of-consciousness entries about your sales goals, challenges, lessons learned, and action plans.
- Exercise: Physical activity releases endorphins that uplift mood and motivation. It also builds energy to power through sales days.
- Reading: Ingest inspiring and instructional content to prime your mindset. Solid book choices include To Sell is Human, The Psychology of Selling, The Challenger Sale.
Manuals can spark ideas for daily mindset habits that resonate most with your personal style. Over time, these conscious rituals become unconscious thinking patterns.
Ongoing Learning Through Books, Podcasts, Events
Complacency kills progress. Satisfaction with the status quo is the enemy. Successful sales professionals constantly expand their knowledge across disciplines including psychology, communication, emotional intelligence, coaching, and leadership.
Carving out 30-60 minutes daily for self-education accelerates your mindset advancement. Highly recommended formats include:
- Books: Reading sales books builds both mindset and tactical skills. Mix up classic works like Influence alongside newer bestsellers.
- Podcasts: Sales podcasts deliver bite-sized daily inspiration and instruction from top performers in the field. Check out The Daily Sales Tips Podcast, The Sales Evangelist, Selling Boldly.
- Online courses: Self-paced online sales courses offer affordable on-demand learning at your own pace. Frontline Selling (Skillshare), Business Development & Sales (Udemy), and Sales Training (LinkedIn Learning) are all solid.
- Conferences/events: Immersive sales conferences reignite passion while networking with peers. Top annual events include SaaStr, Salesforce Connections, and Gongtower.
Staying on top of the latest sales wisdom, case studies, and emerging best practices keeps your mindset fresh, curious, and inspired.
Being Part of a Sales Mastermind Group
Joining a peer mastermind group turbocharges mindset development through shared learning, accountability, and motivation.
Mastermind formats can include:
- Peer mentorship: Pair up with a sales peer for biweekly check-ins on goals, challenges, and best practices.
- Small group cohorts: Join a local meetup or form a tight-knit group of 3-4 sales colleagues pushing each other higher.
- Online communities: Join virtual communities like Gain Grow Retain for discussions and webinars with fellow sellers worldwide.
Surrounding yourself with passionate, growth-oriented sales professionals pulls you forward. Their energy and ideas ignite your own continuous improvement.
Surrounding Yourself with Positive, Successful People
Your network determines your net worth. Beyond formal masterminds, curate an inner circle of pros who inspire your outlook and self-belief.
Seek out sales mentors, executives, and coaches who embody the mindsets and success you aspire towards. Follow their podcasts, read their books, and reach out to nurture those relationships.
You become most like the 5 people you surround yourself with. Make sure your inner orbit reflects the right trajectory.
Celebrating Small Wins and Progress
The compound effect of small wins adds up to giant results over time. But sales can feel like a constant uphill grind, so celebrating progress is essential for motivation and enjoyment.
Create rituals for acknowledging growth and milestones, both big and small. For example:
- Treat yourself to a nice dinner after closing a big deal.
- Do a weekly “win review” recording top accomplishments and learnings.
- Share your latest milestone on social media and revel in peers’ recognition.
- Visualize progress through data charts and graphs to make it concrete.
- Tell your inner circle about improvements to validate your effort.
- Upgrade your LinkedIn profile as you gain new skills.
By relishing progress, you seed satisfaction and meaning that uplifts your daily mindset. Advancement suddenly feels more continuous.
Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
Feeling like a phony unworthy of your role or level of success is incredibly common. This imposter syndrome mindset sabotages potential, so conquer it fast.
Firstly, dismiss false notions you somehow lucked into sales achievements. Your track record proves your merit.
Remember everyone feels self-doubt sometimes. Focus confidently on executing the activities driving results rather than questioning external validation.
Talk transparently with trusted peers and mentors about imposter feelings. Their stories of fighting it will normalize and empower you.
Lastly, reframe success as a result of deliberate effort rather than innate natural ability. Keep working hard and achievements will follow.
Getting Comfortable Hearing “No”
Fear of rejection plagues many salespeople. But allowing “no” to discourage you hands power to prospects. Accept it completely.
Remember “no” applies to a given offer, not you as a person. It’s rarely personal.
Moreover, view “no” as a gift filtering time-wasters so you can focus on qualified prospects. Each one brings you closer to the next “yes.”
Gain confidence through exposure. Intentionally seek small rejections – like asking for upgrades – and treat yourself afterwards to disassociate negativity.
Soon, “no” rolls off your back, no longer activated flight-or-fight response. Now you can smoothly segue to asking why, overcoming objections, or planting seeds for future sale. Master the art of the “no” with poise.
Letting Go of Sales Call Anxiety
Call reluctance causes salespeople to procrastinate outreach. But allowing anxiety to fester makes it worse, creating a vicious cycle.
Tackle it head-on by reframing calls as meetings with a helpful peer. Take deep breaths while the phone rings to reduce tensions.
Remember you are in control of the call – if it goes awry, simply end it politely. Of 100 calls, one odd exchange is quickly forgotten.
After you hang up, congratulate yourself for taking action despite fear. Anxiety diminishes when you consistently prove calls are no big deal.
For extreme reluctance, schedule batch calls on Sundays when energy is calm. Once the hardest part – dialing – becomes routine, confidence builds.
Building Resilience After Setbacks
Regrouping after lost deals, missed quotas, client complaints requires psychological resilience to bounce back.
Process the initial disappointment quickly rather than dwelling or beating yourself up. Ask what lessons the experience holds.
Remind yourself that setbacks are inevitable in sales. Resolve to become stronger and wiser.
Lean on your mentor or mastermind group to provide empathy and perspective. Their input reframes things constructively.
Look at data objectively – one setback likely hardly impacts stellar long-term metrics and goals. Keep the big picture in mind.
Let go of regret and get excited planning next steps. Your mentality shapes recovery speed.
Mindfulness Exercises for Sales Professionals
Practicing mindfulness builds the moment-to-moment awareness and emotional control essential for sales mastery.
Do quick 60-second mindfulness practices before calls to become fully present. Close your eyes, take 10 deep breaths, release tension through body scans.
For longer guided exercises, leverage apps like Calm, Headspace, and Insight Timer. Their programs cultivate focus and calm.
Practice mindfulness while listening to prospects. Concentrate completely on their words, tone, and body language without multitasking.
Curb mind-wandering during sales meetings through tactical breathing breaks and mental notes to redirect attention inward.
Mindfulness requires dedication but pays exponential dividends. As little as 5 minutes daily tangibly sharpens sales presence and communication.
Reviewing Sales Call Recordings to Improve
Top performers use call recording software to audit their conversations and technique. Treat recordings like game film.
Note areas for improvement – e.g. rambling, awkward pauses, filler words, distracting nervous tics. Become aware of poor habits.
Study what objections arose and how you responded. Could it have been handled better? Make notes.
Observe subtle dynamics like tone, pacing, silence/interruption patterns. Do these align to best practices?
Isolate stellar passages exhibiting confidence, rapport, conversational flow. Model these consistently.
Leverage software features like search transcripts, share clips, speed control, and annotation.
Repeated objective analysis builds stellar communication, confidence, and conversational skills rapidly.
Seeking Constructive Feedback from Managers
Your own self-critique lacks objectivity. Routinely ask managers to review call recordings and provide candid constructive feedback.
Invite them to grade you on specific competencies like active listening, composure, rapport building, etc.
Solicit examples of excellent and poor technique observed. Dig into why things worked or fell flat.
Embrace tough feedback positively. The goal is helping you improve, not criticism. Thank managers for investing such time.
Demonstrating openness to feedback shows commitment to continuous growth. That self-awareness itself exemplifies top mindset.
Setting Motivating Affirmations Before Calls
Affirmations build self-confidence through simple repetition of empowering statements. Fire your brain up beforehand.
For example, repeat aloud:
“I am naturally charismatic, likable, and knowledgeable. Prospects enjoy speaking with me and easily open up.”
I always stay calm and centered on sales calls. I speak slowly, confidently, and communicate compelling solutions.”
I am a helpful expert guiding prospects to make optimal decisions for their business.
Affirmations work best when specific, positive, personal, and present-tense. Make them feel natural to adopt the right energy.
Visualizing Ideal Sales Presentations
Mental rehearsal through visualization primes you for sales call greatness. Envision precisely how you want the meeting to unfold.
See yourself energetically introducing your personal brand and value proposition. Visualize asking thoughtful questions and intently listening to build rapport.
Watch prospects light up as you explain how your product alleviates their pain points. See them eagerly sign contracts, thanking you for the tremendous value provided.
Inject vivid sensory details – hear the enthusiasm in their voice, see their smiles, feel the good energy flowing. This mental priming technique works!
With dedication over time, maintaining a winning sales mindset forever becomes second nature. Embrace the lifelong journey.
Summary on Developing an Unstoppable Sales Mindset
- Mindset drives emotions and behaviors which ultimately determine sales results. Skills and techniques flow from mindset.
- Top sales professionals cultivate key mindset traits like seeing themselves as peers, focusing on value provision, and embracing rejection.
- Positive mindsets remain open to possibilities, learn from failures, serve customers, build authentic connections, and stay motivated.
- Tailor mindsets to different sales stages – prospecting requires commitment, presentations need calm, and customer service demands empathy.
- Limiting beliefs and negative self-talk patterns hold people back. Actively challenge fixed mindset thoughts with empowering alternatives.
- Quantify mindset growth by taking pre- and post-assessments, tracking behaviors via software, setting S.M.A.R.T. goals, and journaling.
- Ongoing learning, surrounding yourself with the right people, celebrating small wins, and daily practices sustain mindset gains lifelong.
- Overcome common pitfalls like imposter syndrome, call reluctance, “no” aversion, and resilience gaps through exposure and reframing.
- Mindfulness, mental rehearsal, feedback solicitation and other techniques multiply your mindset efforts.
- Mastering sales mindset takes dedication but pays back exponentially in terms of performance and career trajectory. Sow the seeds now.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is mindset really more important than sales skills and techniques?
Yes, mindset sits at the foundation, driving emotions and behaviors that determine results. Skills flow from mindset. Top performers recognize cultivating the right mental perspective is crucial.
Q: What daily habits can help me develop a stronger sales mindset?
Helpful daily habits include affirmations, visualization, meditation, journaling, exercise, reading inspirational material, listening to podcasts, and taking online courses. Committing to mindset practices daily hardwires your brain for sales excellence.
Q: How do I stay motivated when faced with rejection, no’s, and other sales challenges?
Remember rejection is normal and take it less personally. Tap your “why” for extra motivation. Read inspirational stories. Join a mastermind group. Celebrate small wins. Stay motivated with daily habits.
Q: How can I overcome the fixed mindset belief that I don’t have natural sales talents?
Fixed mindset focuses on innate, static abilities. But sales skills can be developed through practice over time. Everyone struggles initially. Replace thoughts like “I’m not a natural” with empowering alternatives highlighting growth.
Q: What types of goals should I set to improve my sales mindset?
Set S.M.A.R.T. goals around specific mindset traits you want to improve. For example, “Improve resilience by visualizing myself calmly handling objections until it feels natural.” Tracking progress builds confidence.
Q: How can I get objective feedback to strengthen areas where my sales mindset needs work?
Ask managers and teammates direct questions to rate your skills around metrics like emotional intelligence, handling rejection, motivation levels, resilience, confidence, etc. Compare their perceptions to your self-assessments.
Q: If I’m an experienced salesperson, why should I still focus on improving my mindset?
Complacency kills sales success. Keep growing by consuming books, podcasts, trainings and surrounding yourself with positive people. Fight fixed mindsets creeping in like imposter syndrome. Stay hungry.
Q: What mindset tips do you have specifically for making more cold calls and overcoming fear of rejection?
Reframe calls as meetings with helpful peers. Breathe deeply to reduce anxiety. Expect tons of no’s and persist anyway. Congratulate yourself afterwards. Batch calls to acclimate. Celebrate small wins.
Q: How do I maintain a mindset of service rather than just chasing sales numbers?
Before calls, reflect on how you’ll improve customers’ businesses and lives. Ask questions, listen intently, and educate rather than pitching hard. Focus on delivering extreme value whether they buy or not. The sales will follow.
Q: What sales mindset books or courses do you recommend?