Sales targets, in my experience, have consistently increased year on year, while headcount has flatlined or declined.

This leaves sales leaders with a perennial problem – how do I get more from my people? Which in turn leaves sales executives asking: how can I get more from myself?

How not to accelerate sales performance

The well-intentioned but misplaced advice I received as a sales leader was to get my team to do more “stuff” – the activity trap. As if making more calls for the sake of it was the answer.

Another intervention was traditional sales methodology training such as TAS, SPIN, The Challenger Sale and value-based selling. While a well-executed activity can deliver results, this is only half the answer.

If you recognise these challenges and default to traditional sales training, you are likely to be left frustrated, as it often has little impact on sales performance, team culture or KPIs.

Not all sales training is effective

Research highlights a harsh reality: there is only a weak statistical link between standalone sales methodology training and improvements in sales results, KPIs, team culture or retention.

Think about the last training you attended – how much of it are you actively using today?

Research supports this experience:

  • 80% of content is forgotten within 30 days (Broad & Newstrom)
  • Up to 87% of knowledge can dissipate within three months (Huthwaite International)

Studies show this is because traditional training:

  • Uses a one-size-fits-all approach
  • Lacks follow-up and reinforcement
  • Ignores individual relevance and learning styles

Why traditional sales training doesn’t work

Research commissioned across 100 salespeople identified what prevents them from hitting targets. Common responses included:

  • Being distracted by operational busyness
  • Inability to switch off and feeling burnt out
  • Feeling overwhelmed and deflated by setbacks
  • Getting stuck in negative thinking loops
  • Doubting ability compared to colleagues
  • Lack of consistent motivation
  • Feeling underutilised both at work and at home

It’s all about the mindset

The real challenge is mindset:

  • Self-awareness and emotional intelligence
  • Focus
  • Resilience
  • Motivation
  • Confidence
  • Empathy
  • Personal effectiveness
  • Mental wellbeing

Best-practice sales processes and product knowledge are necessary but not sufficient. A ‘knowing versus doing’ gap remains – we know what to do but do not always execute effectively. This gap is driven by mindset and is not addressed by
traditional sales training.

Combining sales training with mindset development:

  • Improves adaptability and learning
  • Overcomes limiting beliefs and biases
  • Builds resilience and motivation
  • Encourages continuous self-development

An effective mindset produces results

Studies show that the right mindset significantly improves results when combined with traditional training:

  • +11% improvement (Journal of Applied Psychology)
  • +19.4% improvement (International Journal of Human Resource Management)
  • +37% improvement (Salesforce Corporate Board Study)
  • +40% improvement (Salesforce & John Barrows)

As a result, mindset development is now part of standard sales curricula in organisations such as IBM and Dell.

Research highlights critical competencies linked to mindset, including:

  • Emotional intelligence
  • Self-motivation
  • Goal orientation
  • Adaptability
  • Relationship building
  • Active listening
  • Product knowledge
  • Solution-based selling
  • Empathy
  • Proactivity
  • Self-regulation
  • Resilience
  • Communication skills
  • Persistence

Twelve of these critical competencies are directly linked to mindset, yet most organisations do not invest in this type of training.

Mindset training is a recognised business power tool

Mindset training must be grounded in evidence and not drift into pseudo-science.

Strong foundations exist across disciplines including:

  • Sports psychology
  • Positive psychology
  • Business psychology
  • Behavioural economics
  • Neuroscience
  • Stoic philosophy

These disciplines informed the creation of the evidence-based The Thriving Sales Professional™ framework.

Applied by over 7,000 delegates, organisations using this framework have reported significant improvements in sales performance – including a 71% increase per sales representative within eight months in telecoms, and a 52% uplift in new business acquisition within payments.