Sales Mindset: Your Best Investment and Biggest Payoff

Sellers experience more objections, rejections and pressure than most other professions. How do the best sellers maintain their drive and sense of optimism? One skill helps them stand apart– a growth mindset.

A growth mindset sets the stage for every activity we undertake on the path to sales success. If you’re not already familiar with this concept, watch this short TED talk by Carol Dweck, a leading researcher on growth mindset and its antithesis, fixed mindset.

The great news is that growth mindset can be built, using tools and techniques like the ones below. You’ll cultivate resilience and to be ready take on your next opportunity.

Routines

1. Invest the first part of the workday on a top priority that moves you forward, and protect your time. This tip comes from productivity expert Kevin Kruse, who interviewed over 200 ultra-productive business leaders, entrepreneurs, athletes, and students.  On the days I do this, I’m exponentially more productive and in a positive frame of mind for the rest of my day.

Lifelong Learning

2. Identify and work from strengths. We each have things that we are naturally good at. When we do more of those things, our energy is elevated and sustains a positive frame of mind. Pay attention to activities that uplift you, and the ones that drag you down.

1. Invest in outside perspective. A professional coach can hold you accountable to your goals and help you keep perspective when things aren’t going according to plan. They also can help identify emotional triggers in challenging situations.

4. Develop learning agility.Someone who picks things up quickly no matter how complex the content or situation is “learning agile,” and their brain can organize, chunk, and prioritize information in ways that help them rapidly master a subject. I recommend Agile Selling from Jill Konrath on this topic.

The Sales Habit of Well-Being

5. Incorporate meditation into your life. Spending 5-10 minutes with a guided meditation can help you remain positive and grounded, better handle emotional triggers, and get back to a growth mindset faster.
6. Get to sleep. When the brain is even moderately sleep deprived, our mental and emotional energies are negatively impacted. Those who are well-rested can pull themselves back to a neutral or positive state more quickly and easily.
7. Get moving. Exercise changes the brain’s chemistry and wiring over time.When we move, our bodies better handle the stressors of daily life, and we have the physical and mental strength needed to overcome challenges.
8. Practice self-compassion.The voices inside our heads can do more to derail us than anything else. The kinder you are to yourself, the more you can embrace learning in every opportunity, and ultimately create more success.

These strategies will expand your mindset and your results. It will be your best investment and your biggest payoff. Mindset is part of being a holistic modern seller. To learn more about this dimension of the modern seller, watch this short video.