Sales Leadership: Developing the Complete Sales Leader

Have you ever wondered how and why the best salespeople are able to find the biggest clients and earn the most commissions? In this newsletter series, we explore the mindsets of top salespeople, and how they can work for you.

The Seeing Mindset

Leaders in sports, business, technology, and virtually every other field are credited as having a kind of “vision” that other managers or competitors don’t. It is the same with top sales performers, who have a mindset of seeing that other salespeople often lack.

What exactly is it they see that their peers don’t? What the best salespeople typically notice can be summed up in one word: opportunity.

Many men and women in sales only see an opportunity to generate an order – or increase their value to a customer – when it is clearly expressed. The prospect says they are thinking about buying, and so the salesperson sees the chance to open a new relationship. The best salespeople take advantage of these chances, of course, but also many others that aren’t as apparent.

They do this by looking beneath the surface so to speak, or behind the scenes. They follow industry news, study what the customer’s competitors are doing, and look for trends that exist within the companies they currently work with, or would like to. Their ability to SEE even extends to relationships, both inside and outside the organizations they know.  At every step they are searching for new opportunities that haven’t been expressed yet – that, in fact, the customer may not have even noticed themselves yet.

This of course is the art of “connecting the unconnected,” or as we like to refer to it, “working in the white space.” It involves looking at developments and relationships within an organization, sensing which individuals and departments work together on common goals and initiatives, and seeing where those efforts are likely to take them in the future.

In the real world, this kind of creative thinking takes practice, but it can be learned. For example, you might think of the way that new taxes are going to affect the markets one of your prospects is targeting, how changing legislation could affect their need for certain equipment or insurance protection, or where changes in technology are going to have the biggest impact on their everyday business practices. Other salespeople may not see the writing on the wall, and it might not have even occurred to your customer yet, but that doesn’t mean the opportunities aren’t there – it’s up to the hunter in you to find them.

Are you adopting a mindset of “seeing,” and looking for sales even in the places where they aren’t obvious? Learn to think about your business through an entirely different lens, and you might discover a potential for new business that you didn’t even know existed.  Think about it.

If you want to become a top salesperson, you need to study their mental habits, as well as their sales techniques. This newsletter series from Sales Effectiveness helps to shed some light on the mindset of top-performing sales producers.

The Time Consciousness Mindset

Do you think about your time, and the way you spend your day, just like the top sales performers do? In our experience, most salespeople have good but not great time habits. The difference is important, however, as the best salespeople have a firm mindset of time consciousness.

What do we mean by a time consciousness mindset? In the simplest terms, they aren’t just efficient in the way they work, but also very intentional – that is, they are focused and disciplined in their approach to scheduling.

As any personal-finance expert could tell you, the wealthiest and most successful people don’t necessarily make more money than the rest of us, but are incredibly intentional about the way they spend. They set clear priorities for daily expenses, long-term investments, and so on, and then stick to those guidelines except in the case of emergencies.

Salespeople need to do the same, and treat their time as their most important asset. The good thing about this approach is that you have the same 24 hours a day that every other salesperson does; the harder part is that establishing a time consciousness mindset typically requires you to break some bad habits.

For instance, the best sales performers are “time stingy.” If the two hours from 8 in the morning until 10 are for prospecting, as an example, they won’t do anything else during that time. That means they won’t accept incoming phone calls, refuse to look at their e-mail, refrain from chatting with coworkers, etc. They know where the real value in their day is – and which activities are guaranteed to drive results – and approach their calendar accordingly. That takes an incredible level of discipline, but also yields incredible results.

Another way they implement a mindset of time consciousness is by focusing solely on one task at a time. Research has shown time and again that “multitasking” or distracted working makes tasks take longer, and decreases our efficiency in doing them. For that reason, the best salespeople won’t let themselves be pulled away from the job at hand unless the building is (almost literally) burning down around them.

Developing this kind of tunnel vision takes an adjustment for yourself, but also for your customers and coworkers. Make yourself unavailable during your most important parts of the day when you need to concentrate. Condition them to expect responses from you within 24 hours, and not 24 minutes. Over time, they’ll learn that you are a busy professional, and respect your mindset of time consciousness for the results it produces.

Are you making the most of every hour, and every day, of your sales career? Think about it.

The best salespeople aren’t just different in the way they work, but also in the way they think. In this series of newsletter articles, we highlight the mindsets of top sales performers, with some tips on making them your own.

The Persistence Mindset

The persistence mindset of top salespeople is one of the easiest mindsets to spot. Top performers tend to approach selling tirelessly, with a “never give up” attitude that drives them forward every hour of the work day.

For the most part, their motivation is intrinsic, deep-down, from the inside; they don’t need a contest or sales quota to push them forward. Because of their competitive nature, they simply want to win, and that desire pushes them to succeed. They have a strong determination to control their own destiny, which often leads them to higher risk, higher payoff sales positions in the first place.

To sustain this output, the top salespeople tend to be high-energy individuals. They aren’t the ones you’ll find dozing at their desks in the afternoon, but the men and women who are compelled to get into the office earlier, make the extra phone call, and constantly give a little more effort than any of their peers.

All of these are essential traits of the persistence mindset, but you don’t necessarily have to be born with persistence. What matters is that you have to find the dream, vision, or goal that moves you forward; in other words, don’t wait for your sales manager to do it for you. In an earlier article, we talked about the way that top salespeople use optimism and a strong vision for the future to help their customers make great decisions. You can do the same for yourself by imagining the contribution and impact you can make with your customers. Once you have that idea firmly implanted, then you just have to go out there and make it happen. The motivation and persistence will follow.

Another thing to point out about the persistence mindset is that it’s one of working tirelessly and tenaciously, but not a license to become obnoxious or overbearing. Top salespeople don’t bully or badger customers into buying; they simply don’t give up when they encounter setbacks. If they find a customer concern they believe they can overcome, they use all their resources to move the decision forward. If it doesn’t work, they move on to the next account or opportunity. While they refuse to be beaten and always remain enthusiastic, they don’t try to generate sales from impossible situations.

You too can enjoy the persistence that top salespeople experience by simply finding your own passion and drive.

Have you been working as hard as you can be to reach your goals, and feel energized by a determination to reach them? Think about it and work on developing a more persistent mindset.

Do you have the mindset of a top sales achiever? In this series of newsletter articles, we’ll help you to see the world – and yourself – in the same way that the best sales performers do.

The Likability Mindset

Most salespeople understand that being likable is important to their career – after all, most customers prefer to work with those salespeople they know, like and trust, all things being equal.

Being positive and enthusiastic, as we talked about in the last newsletter, will go a long way toward making you more likable to your customers. But, there are also other things you can do to lift how a customer sees you, and they are all well worth your time.

Manners and Etiquette – Following simple manners and etiquette is a good starting point. We live in a world where the “rules” associated with behavior, even in business settings, seem to be easing up all the time. That doesn’t mean you should drop simple courtesies, however. Doing simple things like opening doors, saying “please” and “thank you,” or having a firm handshake still go a very long way toward establishing rapport. Go the extra mile with handwritten thank-you notes and other gestures, and you’ll stand out from your competitors that much more.

Authenticity – Another thing top performers understand about likability is that it is not about always being agreeable, but in being honest and authentic. In other words, customers need to trust you before they can like you – and that only comes from being straightforward. You won’t score any points by trying to pretend to be someone you aren’t, or being less than transparent because you think it will make a buyer more comfortable. That doesn’t mean you have to be blunt, either, but sincerity is always an attractive quality, so don’t be afraid to tell buyers what you really think in a polite way.

Modesty and Humility can also make you more likable to customers. You’ll notice that the top salespeople, even though they may be the top earners and gather awards regularly, rarely make their customers and colleagues feel unimportant. If anything, they tend to downplay their own achievements and put the focus on others. By following their example, you make yourself more approachable, easier to talk to, and more likable in the process. No one likes to be around a person – whether they are in sales or otherwise – who constantly brags or belittles others, so make sure to exercise humility.

Your customers probably already like you, but are you being as sincere and polite as you could be?

Are you showing them that you care through the use of good manners?

Top sales performers are likable for lots of reasons, and you can make it easy for buyers to get attached to your personality, too. Think about it.

Background

The New Year has begun and it is appropriate that we focus this newsletter on one of the most important mindsets of top sales producers: The Optimism Mindset!

The Optimism Mindset

It’s probably not surprising to any veteran salesperson or sales manager that optimism is one of the vital mindsets of top sales performers. We have all seen that the men and women with upbeat personalities tend to come out ahead, and that very few top salespeople hold on to negative positions for long.

But why is this, and how can you make that knowledge work for you?

The first thing to know is that optimism and enthusiasm are contagious. Not only do customers respond strongly to optimistic personalities, but you can actually catch a case of positive outlook from yourself!

Years ago, we had the chance to study the work of a psychologist who spent some time with athletic superstars – individuals like Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky and others who had become icons in their respective sports. What he found was that the very best didn’t just have strength, speed, or other physical skills that allow them to dominate other competitors. They also displayed an exceptional commitment to concentration and focus that generated the level of confidence that others lack.

What’s more, they weren’t necessarily born with these traits, but worked on them every day. In other words, they knew the posture and mindsets that champions had to have, and worked to instill them within themselves.

It’s very likely that you have also known a top salesperson who did something similar. That’s because the best are intense learners, relentlessly sharpening their mental skills as well as their physical skills. They listen to audio programs on selling and concentration regularly, and remind themselves of their goals and dreams every day. They know that there will be hurdles along the way, but actually program themselves to expect success… and because of that habit, they aren’t surprised when it comes.

Part of the optimism mindset is simply willing yourself to think the best, stay positive, and be in a great mood. Another component is constantly reinforcing those parts of your mind, like you can do by tapping on the talents and skills of others. Do everything you can to think like a winner, and it will only be a matter of time before you become one.

Another key part of being optimistic is sharing that excitement with buyers. Sales has been called “a transfer of enthusiasm” at its heart, and there’s certainly a degree of truth to that. The more positive and excited you are about what you do, the more others will respond to that, as well. Optimism and excitement truly are contagious!

Are you enjoying an optimistic mindset, and spreading that enthusiasm your customers and peers? The very best are, and it’s a habit that you can easily make your own, as well.  Think about it.

Background

In our last newsletters, we highlighted a few of the ‘mindsets’ that top producers exhibit.  If this is the first time you receive this newsletter, a definition might be helpful.  The dictionary defines mindset as a “state of beliefs, feelings, values and dispositions to act in a certain way.”

So, mindsets reflect the way we think; the way we ‘see’ the world; the context that drives our behaviors.

The Value Mindset

Value – Seems like an overused work in sales. Value is in the eye of the beholder, people say, and for most salespeople, articulating value can be challenging.  Value is something that most salespeople spend a lot of time talking about, but that few emphasize as strongly as they could. Our experience shows that this is where top sales performers excel. They aggressively study what value means to their clients, how to establish it, and why it can be different in every situation.

The common way to think of value in sales is by considering solutions from a “dollars and cents” point of view. Most sales producers are taught to “show them the money,” whether that lies in decreased production costs, a bigger potential for earnings, more reliability, or some other area. The underlying reasoning is obvious: Show customers that they can come out ahead financially by buying from you, and it should be an easy decision… shouldn’t it?

That’s certainly not a bad place to start.  Top salespeople go further. For one thing, they know that two solutions can be similar – your product or service might save a customer money, but so does your competitor’s. More than that, however, they understand that there are other qualities in your solution that generate value.

Your buyers might not be swayed by bottom-line facts, but perhaps they are impressed by service, product performance and reliability, or even the image that comes with a top name brand. Better, cheaper, and faster can be great measures of value, but it’s important to remember that the real worth of any product or service is in the how the product or service impacts the customer professionally and personally.

One good way to cultivate a value mindset is by continually asking yourself, “So what?” As you articulate the features or benefits of your product or service, why should the customer care?  Remember that we don’t just mean any buyer, but the customer that’s right in front of you.

To help customers think of value in a new way, get used to answering the “So what” question. Additionally, consider the time component to a purchase. Part of understanding value is knowing what it represents right now. That is, have some strong reasons to help the customer to take action at this moment, rather than at some unspecified point in the future.  The more reasons you can give customers to move forward and create change in the present, the more value you are providing them with.

Is your selling mindset as focused on value for your customers as it could be?

Start looking for opportunities to show them more of what you do and provide today. Think about it.

How do top performers think?  What are their mindsets?  What mental “habits” do they practice that allow them to achieve more than their peers?  Each of the upcoming newsletters will feature one of these mindsets and the things you can do to make them your own.

The Catalyst Mindset

One characteristic that distinguishes a top-performing salesperson is their mindset toward change. That is, the very best don’t just adapt to change, as important as that may be, but they help create change in positive ways.

They continually ask themselves:

How do I influence change with my customers?

How can I craft a vision of what the future can be?

How can I help them improve their world?”

By doing so, they aren’t simply being opportunistic, but transformative – they want to help inspire a shift in the way things are done.

We refer to this mindset of top salespeople as one of a “catalyst.” Catalysts are always looking for ways to make something happen. Often, this begins by helping the customer to see their situation, or a potential development, in a completely different light.

For instance, you may ask a potential buyer what will happen if they fail to address a key issue, what the implications of their current decisions will be, or how their future could be different from the reality they deal with at the present moment. All salespeople do this to a certain degree, of course, but the best ones take it further; they don’t just ask questions, but actually challenge buyers in a thought-provoking way. This is something that the best, forward-looking customers actually love, since it shows a level of awareness and thinking that most salespeople never demonstrate.

To achieve that requires deep knowledge about your industry and your customer’s situation. It also takes a good sense of timing, and more than a little mental agility. Because the world that our buyers are facing is changing on a minute-by-minute basis, it’s important that you be able to follow trends and transitions, seeing things from your customer’s point of view and envisioning new futures and opportunities.

Most of all, however, it requires you to be focused on creating positive change. That is, holding a deep desire to make a lasting impact for those you serve. That’s not the same as simply generating orders and transactions, but the two are intertwined. The best salespeople are action-oriented – they are happiest when they are moving projects and ideas forward, and aren’t afraid to embrace new situations and viewpoints.

Ask yourself:

Are you truly working to create change?

Are you imagining futures for your customers that are better than the ones they enjoy today?

Are  you helping the customer “see” what the change will be?

To be a top salesperson you have to be a difference-maker first, and seeing yourself as a catalyst is an important first step.

Think about it.

The Miami Heat had a challenging and successful run for the NBA championship.  And in their success, all of us who observed the series could certainly sense and feel the practices of a champion.  Relentless effort, unstoppable drive, and an unyielding competitive will to win can certainly describe their recipe for success.

Essential to their journey was the “change in mindset” which the team exhibited since last year’s run for the championship.

There are some strong analogies here for sales pros.  If you genuinely want to be a top producer, you will also need to cultivate a change in mindset.  In sales, mindsets are important, as they reflect how top producers THINK – how they approach their work with customers….how they “see” things.  Our upcoming book, The 12 Mindsets of a Rainmaker, explores these different mindsets and as we have done with previous newsletters, we will highlight brief overviews of some of these mindsets.

We covered the Listening mindset in the most recent newsletter, today we will highlight what our research affirms is one of the most important mindsets in selling – the Achievement mindset – which certainly aligns with the pursuit strategies of this year’s NBA champions.

The Achievement Mindset

Your beliefs, how you think and then how you act drive performance. It is obvious that one trait will not make you successful.  Yet in sales, having an ACHIEVEMENT orientation and bias is essential.

Let’s take a look at two of the most important elements of the Achievement mindset

Intensely Goal Driven – Over and over again, top producers are fanatical about having goals that are clear and inspiring. They don’t establish hundreds of goals, but instead focus on the 1-3 goals that will propel their behaviors.  Goals establish a worthy target.  Jim Collins in his book, Good to Great, introduced the acronym “BHAG” or a Big Hairy Audacious Goal.  Goals need to be audacious in that they encourage you to strive.  They also induce personal accountability, and when you are accountable to yourself, the journey has more meaning and impact

Desire and Will to Win – The foundation of the Achievement mindset is desire and a will to win.  The Miami Heat’s burning desire to win was evident all season.  And when they faced the fiercest competition in the stretch, it was their level of desire that made the difference.  Desire is the engine that propels success.

We see this mindset all the time in top producers.  I remember one rep who was having his best year, and in fact was 3rd in the country out of a sales force of over 100 sellers. Three weeks before year end closing, he happened to announce to one of his good friends and a perennial top producer, that there was a good chance the he would overtake him.  His good friend, a true Rainmaker, simply said – “it isn’t over until it is over.”  We all know the end of the story – the top producer’s insatiable will to win propelled him over the top.

So….what type of Achievement mindset have you cultivated?  If yours or your team’s needs polish, then a good way to start is by establishing your big hairy audacious goal.  Keep that goal in front of you EVERY DAY.  Stare at it, look at it, visualize it – and in time, it WILL help you build that intense desire and personal accountability – the hallmarks of a champion.

Think about it.

Background

In our last newsletter, we discussed how becoming a “Rainmaker” requires a “change in mindset.”  That top producers approach things differently than the average sales professional.

But what do we mean by a mindset?   The dictionary defines mindset as a “state of beliefs, feelings, values and dispositions to act in a certain way.”

THE LEARNING MINDSET

In sales, mindsets are important, as they reflect how top producers THINK – how they approach their work with customers….how they “see” things.  Our next book, The 12 Mindsets of a Rainmaker, explores the different mindsets of top producers.  In this and upcoming newsletters, we will highlight brief overviews of some of these mindsets.

One of the mindsets that clearly differentiate top producers is the “LEARNING” mindset.  While everyone in sales accepts the importance of learning, top producers take it to a superior level.  They have a relentless thirst to learn.  They genuinely see themselves as difference makers. They display an unbridled curiosity around everything that impacts the world of the customer and how their products and services fit in helping the customer achieve their objectives.

Top producers are inquisitive.  They help their customers “discover” what can be.  They are knowledge specialists.  They seek ideas in unconventional places.  They are avid readers of trends that are occurring in their industry and how those trends impact their customers’ businesses.  They are persistent in tapping the genius and perspective of others, as those views provide them with insights that help identify new possibilities or the nuggets that can solve problems.

As a result, top learners advance their curiosity. They are students of questioning.  They know that the more customers talk, the more they learn.  And as a result, more customers will buy because they want to buy.  One performer we met made it a quest to develop an extensive, industry-specific database of questions. For every business problem that her company’s products and services solved, she had prepared 5-7 thought provoking questions to get the dialog started.  Coupled with pre-call research, these questions challenged the customer to think, and to consider things they had not thought of before.  The result was that the customer’s impression of the salesperson was significantly higher than others and sales cycles were reduced significantly.

So, do you and your team have a learning mindset?  Do you have the passion to learn?  Are you making it an everyday habit?  Are you a “teacher” with your customers?  Do you have knowledge specialists on your team? Are you becoming a thought-leader?   If you want to be a top producer, or develop a top producing sales team, cultivate a habit of curiosity every day.  The payoff will be significant.

Think about it.

Regardless of where you are in your sales career, you’re probably familiar with the feeling of wishing you were accomplishing just a little bit more. From those who are new to the business to the professionals at the top of their organizations, the desire to increase sales, take control of  your career path, and enjoy a higher standard of living is almost universal.

And yet, it’s something that millions of salespeople struggle to make much progress on.

Part of the reason has to do with the way so many of us think of the path to becoming a Rainmaker – one of those sales professionals who operates in the top few percentages of income and revenue in their industry, accounting for the lion’s share of the biggest accounts and commissions.

A lot of salespeople – even very experienced ones – think that the first step to becoming a top performer is setting goals, improving your closing ratio, or maybe even just making more new contacts each week. While all of those are important, none matters as much as the one simple thing that needs to come before anything else: changing your mindset.

If you want to get different results, you have to think differently than you ever have in the past. That’s important, because a lot of salespeople never pick up on this point, and so they become “stuck” in one phase of their career and do not progress. As a result, they never pick up on an underlying truth: that truly successful salespeople aren’t just offering products and services to their customers… they’re becoming catalysts for change.

Stop and think about that for a moment. Rather than thinking about making money, Rainmakers look for ways to improve their customers businesses and lives; instead of trying to force an order, they simply do their best to let business relationships start and grow where they make sense; they don’t worry so much about selling products as they do finding the right solutions. As a result, they become the kinds of salespeople that others wish they were.

So….., if you truly want to become a Rainmaker, stop worrying about what you haven’t done and start thinking about what you could be – to yourself, your customers, and your company. It’s not always easy to make this transition, but it’s totally worth the effort. That’s because once this shift has been made, the financial rewards, and not to mention the prestige and career flexibility that come with high sales performance, start to happen naturally.

If you want to make it to the highest level in the sales profession, and enjoy all the benefits that come with it, learn to start thinking the way Rainmakers do

Happy Selling!