As sales professionals and business owners, who frequently wear the “sales hat”, we know that growth and success come from constantly pushing ourselves to be better. Better for ourselves, better for our clients, better for our team, better for our family and friends and better for our business. We're looking for ways to serve using our gifts and talents and create experiences that are wanted and needed by our clients, team and everyone we meet. This oftentimes means embracing new ways of thinking, being and doing. Sometimes, this also means leaving behind habits and behaviors that are holding us back.
Scarcity Mindset We’re leaving behind scarcity, the mindset that says there's not enough. That says there’s only a limited number of opportunities and resources, which means that we have to compete with others to get them. We’re flipping the script to an abundance mindset and that there’s more than enough for everyone, including us.
Talking More Than We Listen Another habit we're ditching is talking more than we listen. Yes, we’re smart and we know things. Which means we know that the best way to build trust and rapport with our clients, aka people, is to ask open-ended questions and listen actively and intentionally. We’re skipping listening to respond and focusing on listening to understand.
Over Explaining to Our Clients We're also leaving behind the habit of over-explaining, especially to our clients. Instead, we're simplifying information and providing answers to the specific questions we’ve been asked. We’re also curating information, so it is easy for our clients to find and review all sides of our recommendation so they can make an informed decision.
Fear of Rejection This is a big one for a lot of us AND we're leaving behind our fear of rejection. As sales professionals and business owners, rejection is just part of the reality of our role. We know that not every person or business is our ideal client. That is perfectly okay! We’re focused on finding our “yes”, which is our ideal client. And we learn from rejection by asking for feedback and how we can improve.
Holding on to Dead Deals We are absolutely leaving behind holding on to dead deals. We know it's important to qualify our prospects early on and to recognize when a deal isn't going to happen. Holding onto dead deals wastes the time and energy of everyone involved, your client’s, your team’s and yours. Instead, we again shift our focus to finding our yes.
Staying in Our Comfort Zone Finally, we're leaving behind the habit of staying in our comfort zone. It's easy to stick to what we know and what we're good at, but that can prevent us from taking risks and trying new things. We're pushing ourselves to bring our whole authentic selves into all we do. We are sharing our story to connect with new people and build relationships. We try new sales techniques and take on new challenges. By stepping outside of our comfort zones, we can continue to grow and evolve as sales professionals, as business owners and as humans.
Now for the fun part! Here’s what we are embracing to excel at serving our clients and achieving our professional and personal goals.
Abundance Mindset Abundance mindset is where it’s at! Simply put, it’s the belief that there is more than enough. By adopting this mindset, we can approach our work, relationships, really everything we do, with positivity and confidence, and create high-value solutions and experiences with our clients, teams, and partners.
Creating Trust Another thing we're embracing is the importance of creating trust with people. We know that trust is essential to building long-lasting relationships. So, we are focused on how our (thoughts, words, actions) can create trust with another person. Genuine empathy, active/intentional listening, transparency and being a generous giver are all effective tools to create trust.
Finding Our Unique WHY We're also embracing the importance of uncovering our unique WHY. This means understanding our purpose, core values, and motivations, and aligning them with our business and how we serve our clients. By doing so, we can stay focused and motivated, and attract clients, partners, and teammates, who share our values and vision. As the Universal Law goes, like attracts like.
Sharing Our Story We're also embracing the power of storytelling. By sharing our story and how it connects with our work and our organization's mission, we can connect with our clients on a deeper level. Our WHY is our only true differentiator. We're focusing on telling stories that allow us to be our authentic selves, to let people know us and demonstrate our expertise, highlight our unique value proposition, and demonstrate how we've helped our clients achieve their goals.
Leveling Up Our Skills Finally, we're embracing the importance of continually leveling up our skills, sales, leadership, business and especially those skills that enable us to put people first and bring the human back to business and sales. We're investing in training, coaching, and mentorship to improve our abilities in areas like business and financial acumen, storytelling/presenting, building long-term reciprocal relationships, embracing new tools and technology that give us all back time, and closing deals. By investing in ourselves we can better serve all those around us. And we get to be comfortable owning our confidence, credibility, and expertise.
I hope this newsletter has inspired you to examine the things you need to leave behind and new things you need to embrace to be your best self for YOU first, and your clients, teammates, family and friends.
Remember, there is more than enough!
Rebecca
Upcoming Opportunities to level up your business development and sales skills with us and ambitious and growth-minded professionals:
Virtual Sales Training Cohort
When: Tuesdays 12 pm to 1:15 pm EST via ZOOM, June 13th – August 29th
*Week of July 4th Cohort will meet Wed July 5th noon to 1:15 EST
Time commitment approximately 90 minutes per week
Did you know that training and professional development that maintains or enhances skills
you currently use in your role are often tax deductible? Check with your tax consultant.
Connect & Grow Professional Development Workshop Series:
Indianapolis professionals, you asked for options to focus on some key business development
and sales topics. Message received. Grab your seat, to learn from some of the BEST Sales
Leaders, Executives and Professionals we know. Of course, there will be plenty of opportunity
to network and implement your takeaways during the workshops too!
Business Development and Sales Consulting Services:
We partner with CEOs, CROs, VPs of Sales and Marketing and Business Owners to help develop and
implement proven sales and outreach strategies aligned with your organizational goals to best reach and serve your ideal clients.
(Project-based and Fractional Chief Sales/Revenue Officer models available)
How we serve our clients:
If you find it valuable to connect to discuss your organization’s sales strategy needs, schedule a 30
minute discovery call with us. We’re always happy to connect and evaluate together if partnering is a
good fit.
