Issue 4
Allowing Self-Limiting Beliefs to Constrain Salespeople’s Performance, which Limits Sales Results
Whatever you believe you can do, you will; and whatever you believe you can’t do, you won’t.
Like everyone, salespeople hold stubbornly to private beliefs about themselves, clients, market, competition, economy—beliefs that can have an enormous impact, either positive or negative, on their
sales performance.
If salespeople don’t see themselves as providing value for their prospects and clients, they’ll tend to approach customers in ways that appeal to reasons for buying other than the customer’s genuine
business need.
This is what sometimes leads salespeople to act pushy (for example, pressing a customer to "act now" in order to get a low price) or to be too accommodating (appealing to a customer’s interest in
getting his or her way). It also can lead salespeople to unethical behaviours because they may try to sell a customer something that the customer might not need.
If they don’t take care of their clients’ best interests, salespeople will fail to build long-term client relationships and lose customers.
TRANSFERENCE
Giles Watkins, Global Competence and Development Manager, Shell Lubricants, recognizes that the salesperson’s state of mind is instantly transferred to their prospect/customer, which means that the
challenge for organizations is "to constantly create a highly resourceful state in their salespeople."
This is extremely important because when salespeople lack belief in themselves, their product, or their service, they unconsciously transmit their attitude to prospects in a variety of subtle and
sometimes overt ways.
LIMITING BELIEFS LIMIT PERFORMANCE
Napoleon Hill, in his timeless 1937 book Think and Grow Rich, wrote about the importance of how what we think will affect what we do. Objective Management Group Inc., a provider of sales force
evaluations, finds that the typical salesperson possesses no fewer than 10 of the nearly 60 self-limiting sales beliefs that they have identified. Their research shows that when these beliefs are eliminated, sales will increase by approximately 25%.
A DOWNWARD SPIRAL
Typically, salespeople who believe that if they had cheaper prices, they would win more deals, tend to attract more price objections. This in turn leaves them feeling scared or reluctant to talk to
prospects about what they have to offer. Their downward spiral then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Salespeople’s desire to succeed may be so dominated by a need to be liked that they’ll avoid asking prospects for information that is needed to identify the
prospects’ compelling reasons to buy. When this happens, closing becomes a real issue because salespeople, fearing rejection, perceive that asking for the sale might cause a breakdown in the relationship with their prospect.
CALL RELUCTANCE
According to a study by Behavioral Sciences Research Press, the frightening fact is that "call reluctance" in sales can contribute to a significant proportion of lost sales revenues. The study found
that 40% of established salespeople experienced periods of call reluctance severe enough to threaten their livelihood in sales.
The same study showed that the average call-reluctant salesperson loses more than 15 new accounts each month to competitors. Stemming the ever-increasing costs of call reluctance cannot be addressed by
training alone; it requires working with each salesperson’s particular set of beliefs so that they feel truly empowered to breakthrough their self-created mental barriers.
FEELING POWERLESS
Most Sales Directors grasp the concept of activity management, skills development, and knowledge development. Intuitively, Sales Directors also understand the vital importance of the right mindset.
Yet far too many feel powerless to help their salespeople turn their negative beliefs into positive ones.
Those few Sales Directors who do tackle such negative beliefs and are able to change their salespeople’s self-limiting beliefs into empowering ones have found an unbeatable path to success.
SOLUTIONS
"The organization with the ability to overcome the variety of mental models living in the minds of their workforce will be the organization that wins in the future."
Pavita Walker, Director, Organization and Leadership Development, Barclays Group
BELIEFS DO CHANGE
Throughout a person’s lifetime, beliefs change continually. Beliefs that they once thought to be immutable cease to be true. Take the example of Roger Bannister who, in 1957, became the first athlete
to break the four-minute barrier for running a mile. Prior to Bannister’s achievement, most athletes considered a sub-four-minute mile impossible. But that same year, 16 other athletes also ran a mile in less than four minutes.
Did they become superhuman overnight? Or, more simply, did their beliefs change?
PEER GROUPS CAN EXERT POSITIVE PRESSURE
Like those milers, salespeople have their own unique sets of beliefs, some of which limit their potential in sales. For instance, during a recession, the members of a sales force may all believe that
strong sales are impossible. But if one person increases their sales, what seemed an inevitable fact will suddenly appear more like a thin excuse for poor performance.
Nor does the "breakthrough" person have to be someone other than the individual who holds a self-limiting belief: take the case of a salesperson who believes that all prospects buy on price. If the
sales team leader encourages the person to recall a time when he/she was the customer and purchased something based on criteria other than price, this can really change the attitude.
Within every sales team, there are individuals who hold a number of empowering beliefs. Giving them an opportunity to share those beliefs along with the evidence that supports them can be a very
transformational experience for the entire team.
CHALLENGING LIMITING BELIEFS
Sales team leaders who challenge their salespeople’s self-limiting beliefs with good questions can help create shifts in mindset. Take a look at these examples of limiting beliefs and examples of
questions that challenge them:
While challenging questions may not instantly create a belief change, over time, they can enable sales representatives to shift their perceptions of their belief, recognizing that there are other
possibilities and options available to them.
BUILDING SELF WORTH
Organizations that recognize the importance of helping their salespeople develop a strong sense of self worth are many times more likely to produce high performers. Self worth is vital to everyone but
especially to salespeople who hear "no" more often than they hear, "yes, I’ll buy."
A salesperson’s self-esteem can sometimes take a beating, but organizations that find ways to build their salespeople’s self-esteem reap an invaluable dividend: according to Jay Abraham, marketing
strategist, when salespeople really believe in their product/service and the value that they personally provide, they have a moral obligation to talk with as many prospects as they can about it.
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