The right mindset can help you meet sales quota. Three tips to improve your mindset for sales success: 1) Intention – start the day with positivity, 2) Willpower – plan the day accordingly, 3) Priorities – identify what is important. Get in the right mindset for the day, you’ll see greater success in your sales.
Only 24.3 percent of salespeople exceeded their quota in 2017. What’s the secret sauce for these top performers, and what’s not clicking for underperformers? It may come down to a matter of mindset. Do you and your team have a mindset for success?
Salespeople hear the word “no” quite often. A steady stream of “no” has the potential to put even the most promising sales talent into a negative headspace. If that’s something you’re dealing with, you need to listen to episode 6 of the INSIDE Inside Sales podcast.
On episode 6, my guest, David Dulany, Founder and CEO at Tenbound, shared his advice for developing a mindset for success. David, a sales development specialist, says that he sees a lack of control as the biggest indicator that you’re not in the right mindset.
3 Tips to Center Your Mind on Success
Are you easily distracted by alerts on your phone? Are you overloading your browser with tabs? If so, you may not be focused. David says when your attention is scattered “your mindset is going to be the same way.”
Salespeople with the right mindset have to be intentional with their scheduling, avoid distractions, and understand when to say no – or at least ask for some wiggle room. Here are his three recommendations for managing attitude and other things within an individual’s control.
Intention – Start the Day with Positivity.
Not to get all woo-woo on you here, but establishing morning habits that quell negativity can help with being more intentional about success.
Encourage your sales team to adopt a morning routine that includes Hal Elrod’s SAVERS acronym or something else that works for them. David says it’s important to set aside some time (maybe wake up an hour earlier) to set the stage for the day.
Willpower – Plan the Day Accordingly.
It’s human nature to be more productive at certain hours of the day. Our biological rhythms often dictate our behaviors and performance, but salespeople can get the most out of their days by organizing it based on their prime hours.
Sales reps who are morning people will want to schedule the tasks that are most difficult for them in the early part of the day. Where those who feel more awake in the afternoon, may want to plan their simpler tasks, such as administrative work, in the morning and save cold calling for after lunch. Give your salespeople the control to plan their day based on the ebb and flow of their willpower.
Priorities – Identify What Is Important.
Assist your team in pinning down their top three priorities, so they can ruthlessly prioritize their days around them. This is a hard one for me because I’m a major proponent for reaching Inbox Zero by the end of each day. Responding to emails as they’re received distracts me from the task at hand.
Those trying to please everyone will have distraction issues that throw off their priorities, too. David says these distractions divert them from progress and kick off the negativity spiral. For me, I try to be responsive on Slack however that distraction can often completely throw off my ability to complete the task I’m working on in a timely manner.
The problem is that things are going to come up that you have to handle, but maybe they aren’t always as urgent as you assume. Salespeople, new or tenured, must be ruthless with their calendar because it’s the only way they’ll be able to meet goals. Speak up and ask to reschedule if someone adds a meeting or task to your calendar, even if it’s your boss or the CEO. Have conversations with those that infringe upon your prioritized activities, especially if it benefits the company, and explain why these are your top three priorities; ask if you can move their request to another time.
Reiterating what David said in my podcast, “Learn from the masters, implement, see what works for you, and then throw away everything else that’s weighing you down.” Mastering mindset doesn’t come naturally to most people. It’s a skill that may require some coaching, just like delivering a pitch or social selling. You have to use everything together for sales success.
