Empower your Sales Team with this Approach: Mindset Makeover

Sales performance is enhanced not only by the right strategies and tools but also by the right mentoring, coaching, and guidance by the leader at the top. Here are the three mindsets which a sales leader needs to develop in their team so that it can thrive in these pandemic ridden times. NOW, is the time to digitally up skill your team.

With the onset of the global pandemic crisis, one of the biggest challenges faced by sales teams was that it felt wrong to sell. In times when people and businesses are fighting for survival, asking for sale seemed monstrous. So at this juncture, it was important to relook at how you manage and conduct sales activities in your organization.

Empower your Sales Team with these simple 3 hacks. At the outset, it is about rejigging your sales process, system, and messaging to make it more empathetic and comforting. It also meant shifting a lot of your prospecting and client acquisition to digital mediums and equipping the sales team with the knowledge on digital selling. But at a more fundamental level, it needs re-training of the sales team in a way that it shifts their mindset at the core level because whether Corona stays or not, the change in buying behaviour is going to stay. Empower your Sales Team, so the sales leaders need to facilitate a Mindset Makeover in their teams to lead them through this crisis and beyond. Here are the three mindsets that salespeople need to acquire in today’s age:

Entrepreneurial Mindset

Some of the intrinsic qualities of an entrepreneur are problem-solving, innovative thinking, and taking complete ownership of their idea and their execution. Rarely will you see a successful entrepreneur blaming policies and making excuses about unfavourable economic affairs? Even in the tough times of pandemic and lockdown, many entrepreneurs have been quick to adapt to the new normal, tweak their businesses, and pivot to a new business model. Why is it that they can do this?

It is because they have the mindset of owning their purpose. It is because they have the mindset which looks for new ways and not to be limited by what’s available. If a similar mindset is acquired by the sales leaders, they will be able to guide and lead their teams during these unprecedented times in a better way. Entrepreneurs might own the company, but if the managers start owning their tasks alone in a similar fashion, they can have better outcomes of their efforts and achieve massive results.

Ownership of one’s tasks eliminates the need for constant follow-ups, reviews, or reminders.

How to Develop an Entrepreneurial Mindset in Sales Teams

Allow your sales team to come up with account-related strategies and action
Ease interactions with cross-functional teams so that they can widen their lens on how the business solution is delivered or fulfilled and think of new ways to pitch
Make the design the reporting formats and review mechanisms. Remember they need to own their job. So let them take the responsibility. Empower your Sales Team with an entrepreneurial mindset.
Read More: Empathetic Selling Workshop- Upskill your Sales Team

Growth Mindset

What did you learn today?

What did you learn from the mistakes you made?

What did you try hard today?

Are these the questions we ask our sales managers? Not really.

Sales have always been about chasing numbers, achieving targets, and getting clients. But do we give enough attention to ‘How’ these things are being accomplished? A process that iterates and evolves with new insights and fact findings can build a thriving sales organization. With people skills and relationship building being at the center of enterprise selling and corporate sales, salespeople must have a high willingness to learn.

Constant up-gradation of skills, consistent improvement in techniques, and recurring efforts towards self-development is a must for people in sales. More so for them, because they are the ones facing and interacting with the clients. This opens them up to organic opportunities to learn about new needs, hidden demands, and fresh queries. Secondly, humans are very dynamic with their needs and with changing times, their needs, priorities, and aspirations change. Just like it happened in these untoward times. If the salespeople are not perceptive and quick enough to understand this change and learn about what matters most to their prospect at this moment, they might lose out on the opportunity. Empower your Sales Team with an growth mindset.

How to develop a Growth mindset in Sales Teams

1. Permit to make a mistake. Success inspires us. Failure teaches us. So as a sales leader, allow your team to fail, learn, and grow.Applause the efforts more than the result. Psychological research proves that appreciating efforts build up
2. self-esteem and performance. So do not bash the rep for not closing the sale today, but acknowledge him for achieving the daily calling target and then open up the question what he learned from the 100 rejections.
3. Make sure the salespeople network and interact professionally with people outside their prospecting field so that they can have holistic learning and enriching

Contribution Mindset

It cannot be stressed enough how misinterpreted the act of selling, sale function, or salespeople is because they are mostly thought of as manipulative or pushy. A lot of it is because of the way sales have been conducted in the past. It has all been about selling my product, pitching my solution, and bargaining at my price. While having it your way and meeting of business objectives is foundational, the intention with which you lead the sales process is to be revisited.

The objective is of course to achieve your revenue goals but you also need to answer, how your solution fits into the schema of the buyer. The purpose of your product/service is after all to fulfil a need that the buyer has. You are here simply to serve them with that. You are here to contribute to their growth journey. This might seem like an altruistic or alien concept at first. Laughable perhaps, but if you look at the various sales methodologies ranging from the Sandler system to SPIN selling, they all focus on identifying buyer need before pitching your solution. While as a technique, salespeople might have perfected them but what is required is to inculcate this mindset of service and contribution into their personality.

How To Develop Contribution Mindset In Sales Teams

1. A mindset shift is always initiated by asking thoughtful questions. So avoid asking ‘How many deals got closed this month.’ Ask instead, ‘How many clients we were able to serve this’
2. Change the words that are being used in sales meetings. For example, instead of saying ‘This is our sales pitch’, say ‘This is how we help our clients.’
3. Great businesses/organizations are driven by purposeful vision, mission, and values. Make sure that as a sales leader, you reiterate them often to your sales

While technology and digital engagement have played a pivotal role in disrupting the landscape of sales function, the relevance, and importance of humans in the entire sales process will never go out. Empower your Sales Team with a contribution mindset. More so in these times and those to come, sales leaders need to be coached so that they can empower and enable their teams to achieve great results and generate value both for the organization and its clients. With a mindset that innovates, grows, and serves, leaders can bring out the best in their workforce.