#72 – Developing a sales mindset within your team

You’re listening to the podcast Deals on Heels by business mentor Lotje Euser

Hello everyone! My name is Lotje Euser, I’m a business coach for entrepreneurs and businesses that want to fall in love with sales. I’m a big sales passionate, I have developed my own concept of feminine sales that is all about helping customers make empowered decisions and it’s my goal to help more women get to the top. 

So I’m wondering: How are you doing? Are you enjoying the summer?

I’ve spent 2 long weekends in Barcelona and London, and it was so nice to really explore those cities and just get detached from all business things. I went together with my boyfriend and we had such a great time!

This year I’ve been traveling quite a lot, but for business mostly, so these casual trips were so welcome! Sometimes I forget how nice a holiday is – because I just love to work. But winding down and going off the radar is so important. 

And before we jump into todays’ episode I want to share what I’m currently working on because I’m super excited: my first live sales event in The Netherlands! 

OMG I’m soooo excited about this. It was one of my goals to create a live experience about sales and it is finally happening! My Elevate your Sales event is happening on the 29th of September, and I’ve already gathered this amazing group of women. And there are still tickets available, so if you’re an entrepreneur listening right now and you know there’s room for you to improve the way you sell and serve your clients then go to lotjeeuser.com/elevate and grab your ticket! I really can’t stop talking about this event, because it’s going to be super amazing but let’s dive into today’s topic.

I was inspired to make this episode through multiple calls I had this week with different businesses about sales. And I thought like: omg I HAVE to talk about this in my podcast.

Today I want to discuss how to develop a sales mindset – not only for yourself but also for the teams you’re working with or you are in charge of as a manager.

So if you’re feeling your current team is lacking a sales mindset, that they’re not pro-active enough or you lose opportunities because your team is not picking them up: this episode is especially for you!

And everything that I share in this episode, you can apply for yourself as an entrepreneur as well. But for the sake of being clear, I will focus on sales or business dev teams in this episode. But if you listen closely, you will realize even as an entrepreneur, you can benefit from what I’m about to tell you.

So what is a sales mindset? 

When you ask chat gpt you get the following answer:

A sales mindset refers to a particular set of attitudes, beliefs, and perspectives that are conducive to success in the field of sales. It’s a mental framework that shapes how sales professionals approach their work, interact with customers, handle challenges, and pursue their goals. A sales mindset encompasses various qualities and principles that contribute to effective selling and building lasting customer relationships. Here are some key aspects of a sales mindset:

1. **Positive Attitude:** Salespeople with a positive mindset are optimistic, resilient, and focused on opportunities rather than obstacles. They believe in their ability to overcome challenges and see rejection as a stepping stone to success.

2. **Customer-Centric Focus:** A sales mindset emphasizes the importance of understanding and addressing customer needs. Successful salespeople genuinely care about helping customers solve their problems or meet their goals, rather than just pushing products or services.

3. **Empathy and Active Listening:** Effective salespeople are empathetic and skilled at active listening. They seek to understand the customer’s perspective, concerns, and preferences, allowing them to tailor their pitch to align with the customer’s needs.

4. **Continuous Learning:** Sales professionals with a growth mindset are committed to continuous learning and improvement. They stay updated on industry trends, sales techniques, and product knowledge to provide valuable insights to customers.

5. **Resilience:** Rejection and setbacks are common in sales. A sales mindset encourages resilience, helping salespeople bounce back from disappointments and remain motivated to pursue their goals.

6. **Adaptability:** The sales landscape is constantly evolving. An adaptable mindset enables salespeople to adjust their strategies, tactics, and communication styles to suit the changing preferences of customers and market conditions.

7. **Goal Orientation:** Having clear goals and targets is crucial in sales. A sales mindset drives individuals to set ambitious yet achievable goals and work diligently to meet or exceed them.

8. **Confidence:** Sales professionals need to exude confidence in their products or services. A sales mindset helps individuals build self-assurance and effectively communicate the value they offer.

9. **Problem-Solving:** Salespeople encounter objections and challenges regularly. With a sales mindset, they view these obstacles as opportunities to creatively find solutions and provide customers with what they need.

10. **Building Relationships:** Long-term success in sales often relies on building strong customer relationships. A sales mindset emphasizes the importance of cultivating trust and rapport with customers to foster repeat business and referrals.

11. **Ownership and Accountability:** Sales professionals with a sales mindset take ownership of their performance and results. They hold themselves accountable for their actions and strive for continuous improvement.

Overall, a sales mindset is a holistic approach to sales that combines personal qualities, communication skills, and a customer-centered perspective. It’s about adopting the right attitudes and beliefs that drive success in sales, leading to better interactions, increased customer satisfaction, and higher sales performance.

And if you ask me a sales mindset is a way of looking at yourself, at your business, at your customers, at your processes and wondering: what are opportunities lying here, that you can pick up? How can you keep on improving what you’re doing? How can you even better serve your clients? And take action in a way that is beneficial for you, for your customers, for your business, or for the impact you can make.

It’s also some kind of perspective – it’s a way of looking at growth, opportunities and business from an optimistic point of view. 

And what I’ve noticed from my own experience in the sales world, is that some people have that natural gift. To see opportunities for themselves or their business everywhere. 

And I have a great example of someone who has always had that natural gift of a sales mindset. And this might surprise you but…

I was watching the jeen-yuhs documentary on Netflix About Kanye West and he’s the perfect example of someone who has that sales mindset. I know many of you won’t be a fan of Kanye, since he’s gotten all out of control lately. 

But this documentary follows him from the start of his rapping career. He had a friend, Coodie, who followed him day in and day out and recorded everything with his canon video recorder. In this documentary all that material has been put together, which resulted in a really authentic documentary series.

And Kanye’s career didn’t start off instantly when he had just begun. 

I know we tend to think that all the superstars out there just were super stars from the beginning, they were born like superstars but everybody has to start from zero. Kanye included.

His big problem was when he had just started his career, was that nobody saw him as a rapper. They all saw him as this producer, who could make good beats. But Kanye wanted to be seen and acknowledged as a rapper. And it took him some time and effort to accomplish that. And he needed a deal with a record label to really pursue his career. So a few things that stood out for me here is that: he never waited for opportunities to come to him. He took advantage of situations. He went for example to a record label and started playing his music in that office. To let himself be heard. He entered the studio where Jay-Z was recording his album and saying like: hey this is what I’m feeling and he just started rapping in front of Jay-Z. And that is how he managed to rap on one of Jay-Z’s tracks just by putting himself out there. Everywhere where he came he made sure people knew who he was and what he did.

And with good results – Kanye has become a superstar. But it did not go smoothly for him at the start. For a very long time, he had to keep pushing, keep sharing his vision, keep showing up and showing people what he was capable of. And whenever he saw the chance to show his capabilities, he grabbed it with both hands.

You should watch the documentary, even if you’re not a big Kanye fan, it’s really inspiring what your sales mindset and self-belief can help you achieve when it comes to creating those opportunities for yourself.

Kanye did not have a lot of opportunities, he did not have that Bronx, criminal rapper background – which made so many rappers famous in the ’90. He was different. So he made sure he created those opportunities for himself.

So maybe you’re running a sales team or a business development team, where you have at least one of 2 people on your team who also are those opportunity spotters and have that sales mindset fully embraced. Those are your superstars. You love them. You can count on them.

However, you may have 8 other people who don’t own that mindset and are not creating the results you’d hoped them to create. And you want them so badly to perform better. To create better results. To act proactively. To see opportunities and grab them with both hands. But they just don’t seem to do that, no matter how you try to inspire them.

And you feel like you’re losing money through the so-called opportunity costs. And the truth is: you are. But what are you going to do about it?

You might feel that you need to get rid of people on your team who don’t have that sales mindset.

And that’s because most people think about skills as: you either have it or you don’t. But that’s totally a fixed mindset. That is not a growth mindset.

Maybe you feel the same way about the people on your team, and you believe just don’t have what it takes when it comes to sales. So you end up frustrated and you show them how it’s done but you’re getting ZERO results.

But here’s the good news: We’re not all born with the Kanye-skills. But we can learn. 

Everyone can develop a sales mindset. No matter who you are, what your background is, how smart you are, what education you’ve had. A sales mindset is something you can train, grow and develop.

So if you tend to believe you just don’t have that sales mindset – let me reframe that for you: you don’t have that sales mindset yet.

I see this as a muscle you can train.

But where do you start?

First you need to tackle what’s keeping you or your team from having or developing that sales mindset.

Is it awareness? Is it skills? Is it mindset or motivation?

In my own business, I’ve noticed it’s often a combination of all. 

Maybe your team does not know they need to be more proactive, or they have another understanding of what the term “proactiveness” means. Maybe they don’t know how, maybe they are scared, maybe they are too busy, or maybe they feel like sales is not for them.

You need to figure out what’s happening, where you want to go, and what’s lacking to get there and then move to a solution.

And here’s the problem:

When we have a problem, and we express having that problem, people jump into solutions the whole time way too fast. You hear a problem and in an instant, you think: oh this is the solution! 

So if your team tells you like: We want to do X but we lack Y. Then please don’t jump in for an instant fix.

There are a lot of managers whose second hobby is to problem solve. So the moment they hear a problem, they love to provide the solution instantly.

Wait a minute, not so fast!

Do you really know what’s going on? Or do you need to dive a bit deeper? 

Why is your team member not proactively reaching out to customers about a deal that has been waiting this entire time?

Why do they feel they lack time? Why do they not identify opportunities? Why are they waiting instead of acting?

A coach can help you with that, to identify what’s lacking, because we all have our own blind spots.

One of my clients thought he didn’t have enough opportunities but when we dived into his situation we found out he was afraid to hear no. He was afraid to put himself out there because he didn’t want to be perceived as an idiot.

Once you’ve identified what is the REAL problem that results in a lacking sales mindset, you can move toward the solution.

But I think it’s super important to first identify what an opportunity is. Define the term opportunity within your team.

What is an opportunity? Write it down, and do this together with your team. Let them contribute to this process. Because it might be clear to you what an opportunity is, but is it really for your team? It might be surprising to you what comes out of it.

And if you’re an entrepreneur and you’re wondering right now: I have NO idea what my opportunities are. Then go have a look at former deals you’ve closed. What were the opportunities that led to closing those deals? What does somebody need to say to you, which will give you the feeling of OMG I can help you with this!

By writing those opportunities down and defining them with your team, you will immensely increase the chances of success in this process. It will also create a lot of clarity within your team and make sure that all noses point in the same direction.

And this will not only increase the sales opportunity awareness for your team but also for yourself. I think you will be mind blown what comes out of this session with your team.

Once the awareness is there – and everybody knows what an opportunity is, it’s a good idea to take it to the next step: what holds your team back to grab those opportunities?

Those can be divided into 3 areas: mindset, skills, or motivation.

People may not feel the motivation to take that extra step for their customers. Because they’re super busy and there are 1000s of other things on their to-do lists.

Find the thing that drives the team from within, that makes people passionate to move. 

Find that inner motivation. That drives people forward. That enables them to keep on improving themselves. Instead of needing external factors that need to drive them. Like providing them with bonuses. 

Often people are willing to make that extra step and feel motivated but are afraid to make mistakes. In that case, you have a mindset issue. Even though there is a culture in the organization that motivates people to fail. It’s still easier said than done. People don’t like failing, they don’t like to talk about failing. Most people avoid the possibility of failure which results in passive behaviour.

They’re afraid they will get punished any way. Especially when it comes to end-of-year conversations, salary and stuff.

So you might want to create this culture of sharing your fails and discussing your lessons by starting with yourself, so failing becomes embedded in the culture and gets celebrated. This is something that takes time to develop. 

Often I hear people say like: I don’t want to come across as your boss. We’re all equal. But yeah you know, you still pay my salary. So we’re not equal.

So if you as their manager don’t talk about your failures, how can you expect your team members to do so?

Even entrepreneurs don’t like to talk about their mess-ups. I feel that in America this is more accepted. But especially in The Netherlands, most people don’t talk about their failures. Not often enough. So think for yourself: how can you contribute to a safe environment within your organization, so that your team will truly feel safe to mess up? 

If you want people to motivate to mess up, share their lessons and feel motivated from within then ask them what they need in order to do so. 

So they don’t depend on you or your energy to do so.

That’s why pushing methods upon people does not work. That’s why all my coaching is personal. Because all the changes need to come from within. From within your team. Not from a manager.

That’s also why I don’t want my clients to depend on me. And I share this a lot on social media. I want to help them become self-aware, self-driven. To make sure they don’t rely on me to keep moving. That is something you as a manager want to make sure of as well. That you can rely on your team to keep moving, instead of you needing them to push to take action.

Then let’s take a look at the skills within your team. What’s lacking for them to adapt that sales mindset? How? Just ask them.

When you’ve figured out your team lacks the right skills to take action upon those opportunities, let them follow sales training or workshops. Help them to actively practice their skills in a safe environment. Knowledge is nice, but bringing knowledge into action is worth gold.

How often do we read books or follow pieces of training then to notice that we have never ever applied our learned skills in real life?

I emphasize the word “safe environment” here again, because that’s an absolute MUST for people to open up and actively contribute to these workshops. If they feel they cannot make mistakes, the magic and development is over.

And then motivate them to bring those skills into real-life practice! 

And you will see. Practice makes perfect. You will make mistakes as well – but it’s all part of the process. Allow yourself to fail, share your failures. And to learn – and that’s how you can develop a sales mindset yourself as well.

I hope you learned something from today’s episode – if you want to chat with me about developing your own sales mindset or the sales mindset in your team, don’t hesitate to reach out. You can either link with me on LinkedIn or send me a DM on IG, or go to my website www.lotjeeuser.com and send me a message there.

I wish you an amazing week and hopefully untill next time!