To be successful at sales, you need to have the right sales mindset. Just like any other job, if you go into it with the wrong frame of mind, you won’t achieve the results you want. Most people don’t have sales on their minds from the get-go. But it’s something that you can develop over time with practice and learning. So whether you’ve decided to become an entrepreneur, or you’re working for someone else, and you need to get into a better sales rep mode, here’s what you need to know:
Find Your Motivation
The first thing you need for a proper sales mindset is the right motivation. If you are not motivated enough, you’ll quickly become bored and your productivity and sales numbers will go down. So, why are you working as a sales representative? Do you want to make more money? Grow your company? Compete with others on your sales team?
Everyone has different motivators—time to find out what yours is.
When you define what motivates you, set a couple of goals. Maybe it’s one big sale each month, or maybe it’s moving up the company’s sales success leaderboard. Whatever they are, goals are important so you can focus on your motivation. But be specific when you are setting them. A goal like “make more sales” isn’t going to work. Pick a number that you’ll strive towards so you can track, monitor, and measure your success.
It’s a repetitive process. Once you reach one goal, set another so you always have something to keep you on the right track and you don’t lose your motivation for doing an awesome job as a sales representative at your company. Do this on a quarterly basis, or more frequently, because what motivates you today, might not be motivating in a couple of months.
Work on Your Attitude
Next, attitude. Setting and having goals is one thing, but if you don’t have an attitude that you are actually working towards achieving them, they are just words on the paper.
Have a positive attitude. It will make your work more enjoyable and you’ll put more effort into it. But also, your positive attitude will rub off on your prospective clients. No one wants to talk or have a meeting with someone who is grumpy or negative.
Develop a positive attitude and outlook and you’ll quickly notice how you’ll do your job with more gratitude and positivity. As a result, your sales numbers will start to climb. But, when numbers become stagnant, it’s not enough to simply have a positive attitude. You also need to be resilient.
Things aren’t always going to go well at your job. Some months you won’t hit your sales quota, or you’ll have a ton of issues with your customers. During times like these, it’s important to remember to stay positive and resilient. You need to be able to bounce back from whatever life throws at you and keep going forward with a positive attitude. Without this, the sales mindset you’ve worked so hard to build will quickly fall by the wayside once you hit a few bumps on the road.
Come Prepared
Okay, so you’ve set your goals and adjusted your attitude, it’s time to do some actual work. Keep in mind to always come prepared. A major part of sales isn’t just the time you spend sitting in a meeting – it’s all the time that comes when you prepare for that meeting.
You should know everything you can about the person you’re meeting with, and the company they work for before you sit down with them. If you want to take it a step further, you can even analyze their competition and offer some free advice on how they can be better. There’s no room for just “winging it” in the sales mindset. The best salespeople, the ones that perform the best month after month, are the ones who come prepared.
Always Look for Ways to Improve
The last component of the sales mindset is a hunger to always do better. If you’re content with where you are, you’ve already lost the successful sales rep mindset. To improve, there are a few things you can do.
First, look for changes you can make and things you can learn to improve your processes. Attend seminars about sales, read books, and study from other successful salespeople. Test out your new techniques on friends and family before you bring them into the office to see what works and what doesn’t. There are always new approaches you can learn, and being up-to-date is what will make you successful.
Next, look for new tools that can help you out. New software is constantly being developed which can help you to improve your relationships with customers, find new customers, or learn about your target niche.
Finally, learn from your mistakes. No one starts off as a great salesperson. The ones that go far are the ones who are able to learn from their mistakes and make changes going forward. Every once in a while, go back and examine your past sales attempts, and study why you think they didn’t work. What could you have done better? How can you adjust for the next sales meeting?
Learn from your past mistakes and develop a habit of continuous learning and you’ll be on the right track to becoming a great salesperson.
Your Sales Mindset Will Feed You Results
The results you get in your sales can be traced back directly to your mindset. If you lack motivation, don’t set goals, have a negative attitude, and don’t come prepared, you won’t have the success you’re after. On the other hand, if these things are a part of your daily work life, then it’s only a matter of time before your sales numbers are heading in the right direction.
Take some time to analyze your current mindset, and look for areas where you can improve. The key to a long-lasting, successful mindset is to always check in on yourself, find the areas that you can improve, and then make adjustments to improve. If you can do this, success in sales isn’t far off.
