We’ve all experienced it. We’ve been on sales training courses which have seemed really good at the time. But a few short weeks later, we’ve forgotten all the learning points and reverted to what we’ve always done. It’s a frequently quoted statistic that we forget 87% of what we learn on a traditional sales training course within just one month of completing it.
However, this is hardly surprising. As soon as we get back to our day job, all the great ideas we’ve learned get lost in the operational noise and busyness of life. When we try to do anything new, it’s probably not going to work straight away – you could need to do something three or four times before you get it right, and most of us will get discouraged and give up long before then. That’s why it’s all too easy to revert to our old comfort zones and displacement activities and remain in a fixed mindset.
Why do we do that?
The thing that gets in the way of us implementing new learning is the ‘knowing vs doing’ gap. We know what to do and how to do it, but in the initial stages, we don’t do it consistently or to the level we’d ideally like, and that’s where we tend to give up. It’s the result of an unaligned mindset. This is why mindset training is so important to sales effectiveness. With the right mindset, we can build up the focus, motivation, resilience, confidence and empathy we need to help us build up the mental toughness required for us to succeed at sales.
Mindset blocks
The main roadblocks to developing the right mindset are:
- Distraction – where we do tasks that are more comfortable but less productive.
- Motivation – we may think we’re motivated by money, but that’s often not the case. It’s much more likely that productive and successful sales people are motivated by purpose, autonomy and mastery. If you’re ever going to get into the right sales mindset, you need to understand what really motivates you.
- Conversation – our ability to engage in effective communications is often hampered by hierarchy, low self-confidence and lack of empathy.
- Setbacks – our ability to bounce back from setbacks is crucial to our sales success.
- Confidence – more people than you realise suffer from imposter syndrome, which limits our ability to maximise our sales potential.
Closing the knowing vs doing gap
Modern neuroscience has fundamentally changed our way of thinking. Until recently, we thought that our mindset attributes – focus, resilience, motivation, confidence and empathy – were fixed by our genes. However, this is simply not true – we really do have the ability to train our mindset in a way that will help us close the knowing vs doing gap.
Traditional sales training is good but can only truly succeed if you have the right sales mindset to make it happen. With a strong mental resilience foundation, i.e. a growth mindset, any sales person can bridge the knowing vs doing gap in order to thrive.
Mindset Development Group sales training
At the Mindset Development Group, we have developed sales training courses which focus on creating a positive growth mindset – these are available as in-person sales training workshops and online sales training courses. We have developed sales training courses that focus on creating a positive growth mindset and use evidence-based concepts rooted in psychology, behavioural economics and neuroscience. This training is available through in-person workshops or online courses, and the feedback we have received from previous participants has been positive on a personal as well as business level. Individuals tell us they have experienced greater confidence and job satisfaction. Managers and directors have reported positive differences in the work of their sales teams, with greater numbers in pipeline development, more accurate sales forecasts, better customer qualification, more repeat business, and an increase in close rates, as well as better staff retention levels.
Testimonial:
“I wanted to say thank you and that I sincerely appreciate the effort, energy and motivation you’ve put in to allow me to reflect and build up the mindset I so very desperately needed, and to do so with a grand set of apparatus and techniques for almost all the challenges I currently face. I was not taught these practical skillsets at university, and you’ve provided me with a strong foundation that I will continue to build on throughout my career. This development and mindset goes beyond the professional, and well into my personal development just as much – and I honestly believe that’s a fantastic touch to have.” Omar Abousena, WMware
