Your beliefs are huge! Your personal beliefs about who you are, what you are good at, what you are bad at, business, life and money are all vital to your success. Your personal beliefs will ultimately determine the actions you take, the results you create and the potential that you tap in to on a consistent basis. Your beliefs for better or worse are ultimately determining the quality of your life. What is really profound about this is in working with and studying the best of the best in professional sales for close to 2 decades, I have found that across industry, cultural and geographic lines, seniority levels, background socioeconomic status, education, whatever the particulars may be, that when you look at the top 3% of sales pros, there are three core beliefs that will serve us consistently.
There are three common beliefs that tend to distinguish top producing sales pros worldwide and I would like to share those with you today.
The 3 Common Beliefs of Top Salespeople
Belief #1: There are No Failures, There are Only Outcomes
The number one belief has to do with someone’s definition of success vs. failure. The belief is that there are no failures, there are only outcomes. As far as a top producer is concerned, if they do not get the results that they wanted, if they lose the deal, if they don’t close the deal, if they can’t get someone on the phone, if things don’t go the way they want it to, it is not a failure it is simply an outcome and they immediately ask themselves a question:
“What can I learn from this? How can I be better in this regard? There must be some element on this that I can tweak.”
They look at the things immediately that are within their control. A great example of this is two folks side by side. One person consistently hears the word no, they get shot down, they hear consistent rejection all day, all week long. This is their expectation.
Then we have the individual who continues to persist. It doesn’t phase them, it does not take them off mission and they continue to persist until they generate results and they use that as a springboard to take more action. It creates an upwords cycle that I spoke about in the last article.
On the other side of the coin, we have the individual who also hears the word “no” a few times. They hear the word “no” and then either they will stop taking action or even worse, begin procrastination or avoidance. They die a slow death by simply not following up and doing the things that they need to do. Hearing the word “no” will affect one individual completely differently than the other.
When you think about that, what really differentiates the individual who will continue to persist versus the person who will be put off or eventually quit? Simply put, it is a difference in their belief. The first person will say, “Look, I get the result but that is not a failure it is an outcome. What can I learn from that? What can I do better? How can I improve my game?”. The second person says ”I have failed. I am a failure” it defines them in some regard, and then they quit.
That is the number one belief, there are no failures there are only outcomes.
Belief #2: The Breakthrough Can Happen in an Instant
The second belief is that the breakthrough can happen in an instant. Whatever they may be working on, even if things are not happening according to their timeline, even if they happen to be struggling at certain skills or getting to the other side of some results. They realize that they may have hours, days, weeks, months that have gone into a certain result, and it may have been delayed, but if they stay on point the breakthrough can literally happen in a moment.
You turn that corner and you create a success experience for yourself. It may not be on your timeline, but the breakthrough can happen. This industry has setbacks. There are ups and downs, and sometimes it feels like things just fall out of your basket and people don’t talk to you. There are times that you can’t get people on the phone or people are not listening to you. It is easy to get discouraged.
What will distinguish the top producers is not that they never get discouraged or they don’t have those low points, they realize that if they continue to persist a breakthrough can happen in an instant.
A great example of this is learning how to ride a bike. There is something kind of profound and simple about it, right? You are trying to ride a bike, you know that it is possible, you have seen others do it but you just keep falling over and you literally fall on your back side and get knocked off. But you continue to practice and then you have this moment, almost like magic, where you discover this thing called balance and from that moment forward you can ride a bike. That breakthrough and that level of confidence literally happened in an instant.
Top producers realize that applies in the world of sales as well.
Belief #3: There is Always a Way if I’m Committed
The third top belief of the most successful sales pros involves one of the most abused and overused words on the planet. That belief is: “There is always a way if I am committed”.
Commitments, think about that word. How key, how critical is it? Consider the people that you have known and come across throughout your life and in the world of business. Do you think that most people really are committed to the things that they say? If we are going to be candid, I would say the answer is no. Most people are not committed. They say they are, they give the word attention, they will talk about it, but when you look at how they show up and how they follow through?
The fact of the matter is that the majority of people in this world are not truly committed to what they say, especially in the world of sales. Most people are what I call “interested”. They are interested in the results, it would be nice if it would happen, it would be great to make them a reality, but their actions don’t reflect that commitment.
Something that really reflects the mindset of someone who is committed is that they will operate from the standpoint that the outcome is an absolute must. It must happen. They will do whatever it takes to make that outcome a reality. They have a “must mentality” versus a “should mentality”.
When something is a “must” we know we get it done. When something is a “should” it tends to get put off. How often have you said this to yourself? I should make those calls, I should learn that skill, I should be at the office by nine, I should work until five, six, seven, whatever your commitment is. I should have worked more aggressively, I should have asked for more referrals. The word “should” can be a poison.
These are the top three beliefs consistently across the board amongst millions of people, amongst many different borders, divisions and definitions. These are the three key beliefs that can generally distinguish top producing sales pros on the planet.