[E63] Sales Mindset Week: A Positive Sales Mindset, even when things aren’t great

Episode number three of the Sales Mindset week and it’s finally time to talk about something POSITIVE!

Of course, we all know that a positive mindset is important in life, as well as in a sales career.

I am not going to talk about where a positive mindset comes from.

I talk about the types of activities that help foster a positive mindset when things might not seem positive.

At the end I discuss a special (+) mental homework assignment.

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Episode 63 – Transcript

Welcome to episode 63 of the sales experience podcasts.

So glad that you’re here. Last couple of episodes have been about mind set and really hammering in on the fundamentals of mind set, especially relative to salespeople. Yesterday’s episode went long. I’m going to make up for that today and go a little bit short so we can average out.

At least if I can balance out an average out at 10 minutes or less per episode over a whole week, then I’m winning and hopefully this is valuable for you to make sure to subscribe, check it out, send me comments. I love the feedback. I love ideas.

What are you struggling with? What are you challenged with? What do you want to win more at? Make sure to send me a message. You can use the cutter consulting group.com website. Send me a message through there and find all my contact info as well as on LinkedIn.

If you go to LinkedIn search, Jason Cutter Search Cutter Consulting Group, or search the sales experience podcast, you can find all of those and those will lead to me. And then, let’s have a conversation. Give me your ideas of thoughts. Let’s talk about sales because you know, if you can tell, if you haven’t listened to this before, if you have for a while, then you know, I love talking about sales and let’s have some fun doing that.

All right, this episode we’ve talked about kind of opening thoughts on mind set, negativity. We talked about expectation gap. If he didn’t do it, make sure to do your homework from episode 62 which is about looking at the expectations you set within your sales career sales day for your income that you want to make, the closing percentage, your closing effectiveness, what you expect from prospects and then an honest reflection of do you actually verbalize those expectations?

Are those expectations set appropriately? And then whatever is, are you putting in the effort, the action, the steps, the process to get the experience to match that expectation so that you avoid disappointment if you find yourself constantly disappointed in your sales day, this is the time to step back, look at it and think about what is causing that disappointment.

Why does that keep happening and what, what am I doing to trigger that? And then what can I do to fix that in the future so that you can hit your goals, hit your, your reason why you’re doing it and be happy in general, whether that’s at work or in life. So that’s the whole reason behind this.

That’s what we’re focused on. That’s why I’m talking about this expectation gap and the mind-set. This episode we’re going to shift to positive. I want to talk about the positive side, and again I’m going to say this third episode in a row.

It’s not good or bad, it’s not right or wrong. Negative mind set is not a bad thing. Positive isn’t a good thing. Now obviously positive generally leads to better results or different results in your life on the path of where you want to go.

But our minds play tricks on us and want to keep us in the negative, want to scare us about everything outside in the world, want to keep us safe in our little comfort zone bubble. And so the positive is not necessarily the normal reaction of our mind. And our ego, which is why it can be challenging for some people.

If you touch the stove a lot growing up or in life, even as an adult, you’ll learn don’t go near stoves. Same thing happens in other categories, so today I want to talk about positive mind set. What leads to a positive mind set?

What are the events that happen or the ways in your mind that you can have a positive out outlook, positive mind set, and again, you know there’s a ton of stuff out there? You want to have positive mind set. Watch the secret watch, you know, all kinds of other gurus out.

There’s lots of people who talk about a positive mind set, power of positive thinking. You know, there’s great stuff to think about in this case here, I’m going to talk about sales related, but it can apply to everything. None of this is new information, but I think it’s important, especially if you’ve heard it before to hear it again.

The first thing I found, if you want to have a positive mind set is you’ve got to watch out for that ego. The Ego is going to kick in and it’s going to keep you safe. It’s why I keep mentioning, because that little bastard is always trying to get in the way of you doing more or different or better with your life.

It’s trying to keep you safe. So watch out for the ego. Now, there’s some good ego, which is, I know I’m good at this thing. Whatever it is, I’m good at sales. I know I can talk to anybody. I know I can have conversations.

I know I can solve problems, and so just put me in front of somebody, anybody, and I’ll do what I do best, right? There’s that ego. Then there’s the ego that’s like, I’m too good for this. I’m too good for your script. I’m too good for your process. I’m too good for your leads. Or you know, I don’t want to call people because they might hang up on me.

So you’ve got to go into it with the good ego, the positive ego about what your strengths are and avoiding the ego that gets in the way of feedback. Openness, being able to take criticism, constructive criticism, and feedback about your calls, your meetings, your appointments, and your approach to things like that.

Ego is a killer. That’s the one that’s keeping you safe. So you got to drop that. I talked about it in, early on in the podcast episodes about being open and willing and then also talked about taking feedback. So that’s where this is, you want to have a positive mind set.

You’ve got to let go of that ego that just kicks in and wants to, you know, put a hand up and Heisman everybody who’s trying to help you out. You’ve got to drop that part. Second part is for a positive mind set. It’s always important to look at life with the right perspective. And again, this is all fractured.

So there’s your work life and your money life and your health life and your relationship life and your spiritual life, all of those different buckets. But you got to put everything into perspective when your struggling or you’re feeling negative.

The question is, is it really that bad? Is My life really that bad? Is My work really that bad? Is my sales career really that bad? And again, you can apply this to all the buckets, but when bad stuff happens, you know, and this kind of sounds cliche and sometimes it could be dismissed, has been negative, but could be worse, right? Like it could be worse.

Somebody hangs up on you or doesn’t buy or you’re struggling to meet your quota. This period. Like it could be worse. You could also not have a job, right? You could not be working, you could be struggling in all areas.

So it could always be worse. And the, and that’s a tough one because that gets into a negative mind set, in my opinion. When people say, well, it could be worse. It’s, you know, kind of inviting it to be worse.

In this case here, it’s appreciating what you have and the fact that whatever you have is still better than some of the alternatives because we all know you spend any time online and there’s positive stories than it ever seems like. Everyone’s on vacation and everyone’s lives are great.

But then every once in a while story will come up or you watching the news and you see a story come up and sometimes those stories will hit you. I know for me, I see things where I’m just like, man, if I think my life is rough, look at that family and what they’re going through. Look at what that person is dealing with health wise.

Look at what they’re challenged with, look at, you know, look at, look at what that group is having to deal with. And so it’s not that, hey, it could be worse or I’m glad I’m not them, but it’s just a chance to appreciate what you’ve got and what you are winning at.

Even if it’s in sales, like, hey, at least I’m winning in this area. Even if I’m not hitting my numbers or people are hanging up on me, but at least I’m trying. I’m putting in my effort. I’m making all my calls, I’m open to feedback, I’m trying, it’s not working, but at least I appreciate that.

So a positive mind set will really come from looking at things relative to others and also to yourself. It’s really important, especially depending on how much life you’ve lived, not just about how long, right? So I’m 43 at the time of recording this. I’ve been through a lot of life in 20 some odd years.

You know, because things are pretty smooth for me up until a certain point and then you know, more challenging. And there’s some people who in their twenties have lived more life than other people could imagine like health issues, relationship issues, family issues, you know, career, money, you know, it’s not about your time on earth, it’s about what you’ve been through, what you’ve experienced and how you’ve dealt with that.

And so keep that in mind too, cause everything is relative to what you’ve dealt with in the past right now. In this moment. It feels terrible. You’re not closing deals. However, you probably can think back to another time in your life that was much harder, much more difficult, and much more painful and hey, it’s really not that bad.

So let’s be positive about it. Let’s figure it out. And let’s close deals, right? So have that positive shift instead of a woe is me. Now there are times where I’ve seen people where at this moment in their life, not closing sales plus everything else in their life.

It could be the low point in their life. However, do your best to focus on the positive. The other thing, the last part for having a positive mind set I found really, really helps is taking action. It is hard to be negative and moving forward as fast as possible, right?

It’s hard to think, oh, I’m in such bad shape physically while at the gym working out as hard as you can. Right? So same thing goes with sales. If you’re struggling, you feel like you might have a negative mind set. You did that homework from episode 61 where you’re, you’re thinking about your triggers for a negative mind set.

The best thing to do is to take action and run forward as much as possible, as fast as possible, and do what you need to do or what you can do to put those action steps in place for your sales career. So whether that’s making more calls, so somebody hung up on you.

Your answer, I’m going to make more calls. I’m going to get more at bats. I’m going to try harder. I’m going to have longer conversations. I’m going to get more feedback. I’m going to show up early and stay late.

If that’s an option, I’m going to read more books. I’m going to study more videos after hours. I’m going to do everything I can. So instead of wallowing in the negativity, I’m going to go more in. I’m going to put in more action and go crazier on what I need to do because then that will override it and that will build the positive side.

When in doubt, just do more if you’re feeling upset or unhappy in your life in general, just go more all in? If you’re wallowing and you’re thinking, Hey, this person’s not responding. They’re not replying to me and I’m feeling lonely or sad, like reach out to them.

Go do something else. Go all in with as much action as possible in some healthy way such that like you’re building some positive momentum somewhere. So hopefully that helps for the positive mind set.

Your homework assignment, since I haven’t done a good job of keeping this episode short either, is to think about the positive ways that you have a mind set in your sales career. When you view yourself like what are the things that trigger you to be a positive person and think a positive outlook? Of course.

Obviously closing sales, closing deals, making a bonus, making commission, being on the top of the leader board, being on the TV, you know, monitors throughout the office as the big closer.

All of that helps, but what about the little things? What about everything else in the day to day? What is it that triggers the positive side, makes you feel good, is the action that leads you to feeling like you’re winning, even if you’re not fully winning the game yet, but you’re winning at this moment. All right, hope that helps. Do that homework assignment.

Always, remember that everything in life is sales and people remember the experience you gave them.