A win/win sales mindset will guarantee your sales success. You can make a lot of money if you are a successful salesperson. Unfortunately, most adopt a losing mindset when it comes to selling. This means that most won’t pursue a sales career. Those who choose a sales career with a losing mindset will find themselves unemployed when their sales results reflect their losing ways.
In this blog post, I will help you understand how anyone can sell if they commit to creating a win/win mindset.
Create a Win/Win Sales Mindset
I often thought that people were either salespeople or they were not. Ironically, I felt that I was “not”. Before entering sales, I was convinced that salespeople were liars, cheaters, and thieves. I believed that to sell, you needed to convince some poor, unsuspecting prospects they needed to buy your product for an inflated price. I was wrong. However, this mindset prevented me from entering the field of selling for some time.
I believe anyone can become a successful salesperson by hard work and creating the right sales mindset.
The Five Sales Mindsets
Before I explain how you can create a winning sales mindset for yourself, I want to describe five levels of mindset that may be familiar to you.
The Victim (I Lose)
The lowest level of sales mindset is called the Victim mindset. As a victim, you believe that something outside of you is in control. There is nothing you can do to convince someone to buy your stuff, so why even try? Believe it or not, this is the most common mindset associated with selling. At this level, if you see a help-wanted ad for a sales job, you will quickly pass it by.
If you are unlucky enough to land a job as a victim, you will experience a few rejections and be convinced that you cannot sell your product or service.
The Cheater (I Win, You Lose)
Cheaters are the salespeople who give sales a bad name. They believe that, to succeed, they must manipulate their customers into buying their stuff. Deep down, they think their product is inferior or overpriced. To overcome these product deficiencies, they must convince the customer the product is better than it is and their competitor’s product is worse than it is. They want to win a sale at any cost and will do whatever it takes to make that sale.
The Survivor (I Win…)
The survivor is a relatively successful salesperson. These salespeople will learn what they can about their product. They pay close attention to everything they’re taught and then mimic their teacher. These folks tend to find success with customers who know what they want, and the survivor salesperson just happens to be in the right place at the right time. The product is so good that it sells itself, or the customer knows enough to pick your product despite your lack of passion as a salesperson.
The People Pleaser (You Win)
People pleasers tend to be great salespeople. These folks desperately want others to like them. A people pleaser cares about the people he or she is selling to and sells on an emotional and empathetic level. Empathy means the salesperson asks open-ended questions and genuinely cares about the answers. If the product or service is not right for their prospective customer, the people pleaser will either make it right or avoid selling. While a people pleaser is often great at identifying customer needs, they may stumble when connecting the value of their product or service to those needs.
The Opportunist (Win-Win)
The opportunist is trying to create a win-win deal for the customer and the business. These are the salespeople that are, by far, the most successful. They uncover needs like the people pleaser but quickly connect the benefits of their products or services to those needs. They also recreate new products and services that their company can provide promptly to solve their customer’s problems. Opportunists are excellent solution-based sales professionals. They understand every facet of a business deal, so they can negotiate independently without checking with their boss for permission.
Mindset Matters More than Personality
Now that you know the sales mindset options, you have probably deduced that the most successful salesperson is “The Opportunist.”
I promised to answer, “How can you create a winning sales mindset?”
Understand that each one of these people I just described is a “mindset.” I never talked about the product or service you’re selling. I never implied that your product or service is good or bad. Nor did I indicate whether the salesperson is an extrovert, introvert, or any other fixed trait. This means that ANYONE can be a successful salesperson.
Upgrading Your Sales Mindset
Step 1 – Intention
The first step is to be aware and act with intention. You must be mindful that you’re prone to settle at one of the lower mindset levels as a human being. It’s your nature. This means that to be an opportunist, you must check your attitude and deliberately improve it to opportunist. If you accept that you can’t sell because you feel like selling doesn’t come naturally, you will not be a good salesperson.
Step 2 – Superior Product and/or Service
Represent a product or service you believe in. Opportunists see the benefit of what they sell regardless of price. Never represent a poor product or service. The only way to win at selling a bad product is to be a cheater. Cheaters never prosper.
Step 3 – Know How Your Company Makes Money
Understand how the company you work for makes a profit. If you don’t understand how your company earns a profit, you can’t negotiate with customers and make win-win deals.
Most companies tell their salespeople they must sell some product or service at a specific gross margin. You may earn a higher commission if you increase the margin or sales price. Be aware of what the company must earn for good deals, regardless of what you’ve been told.
Step 4 – Follow Your Customer’s Buying Process
Most customers will not understand what your product does or why they need it. Be patient with them and be willing to educate them so they feel comfortable buying.
Most customers are naturally skeptical of salespeople. Why? Because most salespeople are at the lower levels I described. Can you imagine? They’ve been cheated, pitched, and coddled. Win-win negotiators are rare… so be patient.
The best way to be deliberate in this area is to follow a sales process that mimics your customer’s buying process…. and allows for gradual commitment consistent with their ability to make sound decisions. When they see that you care about their level of education to make the best decisions for themselves, they will trust that you care.
Step 5 – Be Empowered
You must feel empowered to be an opportunist. Each time you visit a customer, be curious about them and empathize with their plight. Each time you talk to your sales manager, feel bold in telling him or her about adjustments that must be made to prices, product designs, or whatever else to improve deals. Opportunists never accept a mediocre status quo.
If you can follow these steps, you can become a successful salesperson. If you don’t, please don’t pursue a career in sales… ‘cause we’ve got too many low levels of salespeople in the world. We need more opportunists.
The concepts described in this post come from Core Energy Coaching, which is taught by the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching. By changing your attitude, mindset, and outlook, you can improve your business’s success.
Jeff Schuster is the author of this post and is a Core Energy small business coach with Mechanics & Mindset Business Coaching. Jeff has published several more blog posts, podcasts, and videos on business mechanics, mindset, and coaching. Please set up a complimentary coaching session with Jeff if you’d like to share your business situation and gain insight into what may help you grow your business to the next level.
