Coaching Conversations in 2024

Mastering Sales: Mindset Shifts and Strategies for Success

• Tim Hagen

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Unlock the secrets to transforming your sales approach and watch your success soar as we explore the vital practices and mindset shifts necessary for conquering the sales world. Drawing from my own journey as a seasoned sales trainer, we dive into critical insights shared by industry leaders, including lessons from the esteemed Ryan Serhant's "Sell It" course. Our discussion challenges the conventional reliance on numbers alone, advocating for the power of continuous practice, self-awareness, and the pivotal role of role-playing and skill development. In a landscape increasingly influenced by AI tools, adaptability and a strong mindset become non-negotiable for thriving in sales.

As we journey through the evolving sales terrain, I recount a personal story featuring Jim Beatty, vice president of sales at the Milwaukee Brewers, which illustrates that learning is a lifelong endeavor—even at 61. By focusing on honesty and a structured sales process, we outline strategies to tackle the persistent challenges of mastering negotiation skills and handling objections. Discover why leaders must not only set ambitious team goals but also commit to nurturing the growth and success of individual salespeople. Our aim? To see 70 to 80 percent of salespeople hitting their quotas while holding leaders accountable for these achievements. Join us and harness these strategies to elevate your sales performance and mindset.

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Speaker 1:

Sales is tough, so get tough. You know, years and years ago I started out as a sales trainer and I really do think there's some great firms out there, there's some great programs out there and I've said this in the primary part of my business teaching leaders how to coach. You know, training's not the problem, it's the application of the training, and I'm going to share this with you and I'm going to apologize for kind of my mentality because it just gets frustrating. And if there is one industry that I think is really tough, that has a lot of situations outside of people's control, that is selling. You know, budgets get cut. They went with someone at the last minute. You know budgets get cut. They went with someone at the last minute. Relationships change. It's an ever flow of change, and curve balls and having to navigate and adapt to situations and sales is not for the faint of heart.

Speaker 1:

Now, with that being said, one of the primary things that I've said for years and I will battle anybody on this is we need salespeople with ego, but the ego gets in the way of the learning process. Let me give you an example. You know, in the last 10 conversations I've had with sales leaders, I've done this kind of as a pseudo study. I mean, it's not scientific. But I asked, I said so how often do you practice? Well, what we try to do, and I'm like, oh my God, you're not practicing. Just don't give me your damn narrative. You're not practicing, you're not doing what you should be doing and you're hiring good people and I've got good staff, and we're really inconsistent and as leaders, we even pull back. We don't want to make our people role play. People do not arbitrarily get better. God, when are we going to quit letting this thing called ego, which stands for eroding growth opportunity, get in the way of our sales team's performance? Why do I say that? When I look at sales today and I look at all the AI tools coming out, oh boy, people better be ready, because salespeople are going to fight it. Some are going to embrace it, but we're going to have a huge part of the industry fight it.

Speaker 1:

Because I don't want to be replaced and we tend to have one fallacy in sales we tend to tell ourself a story. You know, I am a fanatic when it comes to self-awareness and we all have blind spots present, company included. Salespeople have some of the biggest blind spots. You know how I know that when sales are at 100% or more, ask somebody why'd you hit your goal, they will talk all about themselves. When they don't hit their goal, they'll say things like well, you know, the marketing department didn't give us very good leads. Well, the economy was kind of down this year. Now let me flip that. Wouldn't it be hilarious if a rep said yeah, I had 110% of goal. It had nothing to do with me. The marketing department gave me great leads. Anybody could have closed those people and the economy was up. So I was actually selling terribly and still had success.

Speaker 1:

I know I'm coming off obnoxious, but I hope I have your attention. God, I'm so sick of the sales bullshit and what we have to do is be honest with ourselves and I'm going to give you a couple suggestions. Number one if you're a sales leader, don't get evaluated. Don't evaluate yourself. Did the team hit the goal? Evaluate yourself by the number of people who hit goal and the number of people that have increased hitting goal the following years or the following programs. Here's why It'll elevate your attentiveness to development and training and talent. See, when somebody cannot role play a situation on the spot, they're not ready. I don't give a crap what anybody says. And again, this is not a podcast where I'm worried about professionalism. I feel that strongly about it because when I ask salespeople, how often do you practice? Well, you know I've been doing this for 16 years. Okay, here comes the bullshit, no-transcript. So here's the worst part, and I'll never forget this.

Speaker 1:

And I won't mention the name of the company, but a friend of mine, gary, vice president of sales longtime buddy, was hitting his numbers. Let me say this he was blowing the numbers out of the water. The pandemic hit, so he's sitting there going. Yeah, I've got a really good team, tim. It's going on and on and he's a great guy, very objective, very highly self-aware, and all of a sudden he goes. You know, it's interesting. When the pandemic hit, he said I started to tap into some of the calls, meaning observing them or having them record, and I would observe. He goes, he calls me up, he goes. I don't even think we know what we're selling. And they were hitting their numbers.

Speaker 1:

Numbers can be a fallacy. Everybody. We have to watch our people sell or practice with them to know what they're really representing the company and how they're representing the company. And do they know the products and can they fluently, confidently, without hesitation or inhibition, handle objections and negotiate calmly with both parties' benefits in mind? If they can't do that, that's not my point of criticism. It is the opportunity for sales teams to raise their game.

Speaker 1:

Now I'm going to share this with you. One of the things that I love to do is I love to build products. Love it Could do it all day long and I realized our company was going through a pivot. So I ended up taking a course by Ryan Serhan called Sell it, and it's good, it's really good. And when I listened to him I'm like okay, technique, strategy-wise, this is pretty fundamental stuff, and I don't know if he would like to hear that, but I love his stuff. But what he talks about more than anything and I don't even know if he realizes it is the strong mindset we need. We need grit, guts, resilience, intensity. When you're at 92%, god damn it, you're at 92%. Nobody else not the team, not your sales assistant you, as a sales professional, are at 92%. So shut up and say I'm at 92%. Don't create a narrative, don't create a story, don't create a set of reasons why you're not at fault. You're at 92%. Yes, and oh, by the way before. People as sales professionals hear this and go God, what an asshole. I'm also in sales and so when I get in front of a group and I'm going to share this with you and I want you, if you're a sales professional or a sales leader, to sit on the sideline and pretend you're not.

Speaker 1:

In our career, I had a guy once in wealth management I tell this story all the time Vice president of sales. The CEO asked me to sit in. It was at a financial services firm and he made some assumptions. We sit down and we're talking and I forget how we got to the point from point A to point B. But he said something well, tim, tell me a little bit about your company. And then he says, well, how you know, what experience do you have in wealth management? And I said, well, none. He started to laugh at me. He laughed at me In front of his CEO. He laughed at me.

Speaker 1:

He goes okay, well, we can go through the sales presentation. I wasn't there for a sales presentation and I looked at him. I go, this isn't a sales presentation. I pointed to the CEO. I go, he asked me to sit in. I don't know what you're expecting, but I wasn't planning on selling you anything, but now that you've brought me into it, I'll engage.

Speaker 1:

And I went to confident mode. Oh, did I go to cocky mode? I was angry and I'm going to say it and I'm going to apologize again. You want to treat me like shit and you want to be an asshole. Get ready, because I can go to it too. I can get there.

Speaker 1:

And I looked at him and I said well, since you brought me into the equation, let me ask you how long have you been in the industry? He goes 21 years. I go. Are your sales up or down? He said well, that's kind of hard. I said it's actually not a hard question to answer. It's either yes or no. By the way, I know the answer. That's why I think he asked me to sit in. You're down 17 points.

Speaker 1:

All of a sudden, his confidence started to leave his face. Now, by the way, everybody, I take no pride in doing this to another human being, but I had to shake him to realize you sound ridiculous. And I said well, what's your number one inhibitor? He goes we have the highest fees in the industry. I said fantastic, what do you want your people to do in the moment? Someone says, wow, your fees are really high. He said well, that's why I think we need a training program. Maybe that's why you were asked to come in here. I said no, I'm asking you right now, what do you have your people saying? He said well, we don't have like a standard answer. That's kind of hard to answer. I said so you basically then have a team of people financial advisors. When they get your fees are very high, they're all shooting from the hip. He said that's not what I said. I said my mistake. So what are they saying?

Speaker 1:

The CEO jumps in and goes yeah, I'd like to know. Do we have this well thought out, because this is our number one inhibitor to people joining our firm. He couldn't answer to everybody. I said where there's not any knowledge, you can. You're treating me like crap in the meeting, which I was here just to help and I'm enjoying this, by the way what's the confidence of your people when they get that objection? He goes not much and I said what are you willing to do to reverse that 17 percentage point number? He said I guess I would be open to anything. I said fantastic, you need to schedule three practice sessions every single week with all your people, get them off the phone for 15 minutes, 45 minutes a week. I guarantee if I sat in your office you're wasting 45 minutes a week anyways.

Speaker 1:

And then what we have to do is come up with a craft. And he goes what do you mean? We have to craft a response to that. I said let me demonstrate for you. This is something called pushing the objection. Mr and Mrs Customer, I hear it all the time. Our fees are the highest in the industry. Let's push that aside. What are the top two or three things that go into your decision-making when you're working with a wealth management firm? And when they mention those, then the next question is have we met those expectations? If the answer is yes, you say that's why we have the highest fees. What do you think we should do? If they say, well, no, I don't know if you've met those expectations, then the objection is truly not your management fees. It might be a value concern. Then you have to revisit value. Then the management fees come in and say what would you suggest we do to move forward together? If somebody says would you lower your fees by 10 points? I joined you today. Now you got a cool decision you get to make.

Speaker 1:

The CEO turns to me and goes wow, that was really good. I said. He said you're a really good salesperson. I said no, I don't know if I'm a great salesperson. I'm probably pretty good because it's my stuff. But I said I'm just well-practiced.

Speaker 1:

So sales is tough and I think this year, at the age of 61, I got one of the nicest notes from Jim Beatty, the vice president of sales at the Milwaukee Brewers. He said best year we've had with you in 17, 18 years. And I brought it and I looked at these young people some young, some not so young and I said sales is tough, get tough. If you have objections, you can't overcome them, practice them. If you're going to whine, get in the car, drive, go home, I don't care, bring it. If you don't bring it, you're just going to sit there and it's tough. Sales is tough.

Speaker 1:

Tools are coming out that are going to affect our business, the way we sell. Everything we do is going to change here in the next three, four years and what we have to start with is number one you have to be honest. Number two as a leader, you have to get your people to be honest with themselves. Number three look at your sales process and identify the tiers of learning, knowledge, skill and behavior. How do you want them to handle a gatekeeper Knowledge skill? Have them practice it. Behavioral practice comes or confidence comes from practice and repetition. Needs-based selling, objection handling, negotiation skills. Dissect every single part of your sales process and craft a coaching application that includes practice. You will dramatically increase the numbers that have been stagnant for 40 years. 48 to 52 percent, according to the Sales Management Association, hit their quotas. That means really one out of every two people hit it or don't hit it. The goal should be about 70 to 80 percent and leaders should be held accountable for that. Sales is tough. Get tough. I hope this has helped.