Can salespeople really reprogram their mindset for sales? A lot of people are skeptical, but if you share this skepticism, ask yourself, “Do salespeople ever set themselves up for failure?” The answer to that is yes.
Time after time salespeople go into calls without confidence, shorting their goals by saying “If I only get part of the deal it will be a win!” and sometimes even filled with self-doubt. Sometimes we project onto our customers what is we think they can or cannot do. If we believe they don’t have the wherewithal to complete a purchase our natural tendency is to cut the time short and move onto the next prospect. When I coach real estate agents in sales, I see this all the time. A mental game of pre-qualification based on speculation rather than fact.
This explains why calls go unreturned and follow-through is shallow. What is important to note here, is that all these behaviors are at a subconscious level. They are self-defeating for all of us as salespeople and nobody wants it to happen – who sets out to have a mediocre month? These actions (or inactions) are manifestations of our beliefs, and beliefs are held in the deepest part of the subconscious outside of our field of awareness.
Take driving a car as an example of how the subconscious mind works. Now that you have been driving for many years you can drive and multi-task (although I do not endorse this). You do not have to think about when or how to brake, how far to turn the wheel to turn or to remember to put on the turn signal (please use your turn signals, folks). After years of experience, these things happen automatically in the subconscious mind.
We can step into abundance by developing new mindsets, and just like a teenager who learns how to commit the tasks of driving to the subconscious mind, you as a salesperson can reprogram limiting beliefs with unlimited potential. Yes, you can reprogram the mindset for sales.
I was trained as a psychotherapist. I view my master’s degree in counseling as a problem-solving degree, which I have applied to my coaching with real estate brokers, financial services executives, and even to industrial and construction salespeople.
One of the biggest problems to overcome is the mental game of sales. It is easy to create a system for prospecting, follow through, and closing. It is easy to script a product “pitch.” What separates a good salesperson from a sales leader is the same thing the separates an amateur karaoke night singer from Justin Bieber or Aretha Franklin – headspace. America’s Got Talent has proven that there are amazing singers all over the country that are completely undiscovered. It is not talent that holds people back; it is mindset.
The dry cleaner in Dayton who sings in his shop does not have the belief that he can make a concert debut and never tries. Sure, he sings at the church on Sunday, but the self-limiting belief that he can’t make it keeps him singing only in the back of his shop and at the annual Easter church service.
What can you do to up your mental game and reprogram your subconscious to take action that improves the closing ratio? The answer is simple, give up the old ideas. To be useful though, you must replace them with new ideas.