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13
Oct, 2024

By admin

Conquering Self-Limiting Beliefs in Sales: A Playbook for CEOs

Conquering Self-Limiting Beliefs in Sales

As a CEO, you know that business isn’t just about strategy, numbers, and processes—it’s about people. And much like in daily life, the thoughts inside our heads can be the difference between showing up as our best selves or holding back when it matters most. In sales, this shows up in the form of self-limiting beliefs. It’s like telling yourself, “I can’t finish this marathon,” before you’ve even laced up your running shoes. These thoughts weigh on your team and sabotage performance without you even realizing it. 

Just like everyday life, overcoming mental blocks takes awareness, effort, and the right support. So, let’s dive into where these self-limiting beliefs come from and, more importantly, how you can lead your team to break through them.

Understanding Self-Limiting Beliefs

Think of your salespeople like drivers on a road trip. Some have a GPS telling them the fastest route, while others have that little voice saying, “You’ll never make it; might as well pull over.” Those negative thoughts—I’ll never close this deal or They’ll never buy from me—can grind motivation to a halt and impact not just performance, but job satisfaction too. If your team doesn’t feel good about what they’re doing, it shows in their results.

Your job? Help them spot these moments of doubt. Just like recognizing the warning signs on your car’s dashboard, identifying these self-limiting beliefs early gives you a chance to intervene before they stall progress.

Where Do These Beliefs Come From?

Ever tried to ride a bike uphill with a backpack full of bricks? That’s what your sales team is doing if they’re dragging around the weight of past failures, rejection, or unrealistic comparisons. Self-limiting beliefs often come from past experiences—those deals that fell through, negative feedback, or trying to measure up to the top performer on the team.

If they’re afraid of hearing “no” or comparing themselves to the competition, they’ll avoid taking risks. And as a leader, you’ve got to teach them that failure is just part of the process, like learning to fall when you first learned to walk. If you can create an environment where rejection isn’t the end of the road, but a bump along the way, you’ll free them to take risks and chase bigger wins.

How to Help Your Team Overcome Limiting Beliefs

Breaking free from these mental blocks is like rewiring bad habits—one thought at a time. As a leader, teach your team how to challenge those beliefs. When someone says, “This client won’t be interested,” encourage them to dig deeper: What’s the evidence for that? Sometimes, they’ll realize it’s all assumption.

At the same time, boost their confidence by helping them set realistic, measurable goals. It’s no different than trying to lose weight or train for a race—you can’t go from 0 to 100 overnight. But breaking bigger challenges into smaller steps keeps momentum going and reduces self-doubt.

Cultivating a Growth Mindset

Think of your business like a sports team—there’s always room to improve, and the best athletes never stop learning. Your sales team needs to embrace the same mindset. Encourage continuous learning by staying on top of market trends, and make feedback a regular part of the routine—not as criticism, but as coaching.

Also, remind your team to celebrate the small wins. Just like in everyday life, those small victories (even after setbacks) help build resilience. Recognizing progress along the way makes the bigger goals feel more achievable.

Create a Support System That Feels Like a Team

You know how it feels when the people around you have your back—it makes all the difference. The same goes for your salespeople. If they feel isolated, they’ll struggle. But with a culture of peer support and collaboration, they’ll know they aren’t alone. Create an environment where team members can lean on each other, learn from each other, and celebrate together. That’s the kind of environment where self-doubt doesn’t stand a chance. 

And don’t forget: Recognition matters. Just like a “thank you” goes a long way at home, celebrating your team’s achievements—big or small—can keep motivation high. When people feel valued, they bring their best game to the table. 

Lead the Way: Unlocking Your Team’s Full Potential 

As a CEO, your influence sets the tone. Your team looks to you for permission—permission to fail, learn, grow, and succeed. If you show them that self-limiting beliefs are just temporary obstacles, they’ll start believing it too. Sales isn’t just about closing deals—it’s about mindset. And when your people believe in themselves, the numbers will follow.

Ready to dive deeper into breaking these mental barriers? Let’s make it happen. DM me, and we’ll set your team up for success.

 

 

Nada is the Founder & CEO of WIN Sales & Marketing Programs. With 25 years of experience in sales, marketing, and management in different sectors, she acquired a rich experience that she is sharing with companies that strive to be innovative and successful in business. She has been highly successful in developing their human resources structure and in optimizing their operations and their sales force performance. She likes to focus on one main objective: how to help organizations achieve a better profitability and growth.

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08
Feb, 2023

By admin

How to Predict New Sales Hire Success?

What is the most accurate pre-hiring sales assessment that select closers and How Does it Help Predict New Sales Hire Success?

The Objective Management Group (OMG) is a leading provider of sales hiring assessments. It helps companies predict the success of new sales hires by assessing their skills and qualities. The Pre-hiring Sales Assessment uses a variety of techniques to evaluate potential candidates, such as interviews, personality tests, and aptitude tests. The assessment measures how well a candidate is likely to perform in the role they are being hired for, allowing employers to make better decisions when it comes to hiring sales personnel. Additionally, the OMG Sales Assessment provides valuable feedback on the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses so that employers can better understand their skillset and develop them further if needed. By using the OMG Sales Assessment, companies can ensure they are making the right decision when it comes to hiring new sales personnel and increase their chances of success in this field.

How the Sales Assessment Helps Identify Four Key Characteristics in a Successful Closer

The Sales Assessment is an effective tool for identifying the four key characteristics that make a successful closer. This assessment process helps employers identify candidates who have the right competencies and skills to succeed in sales roles. It evaluates potential hires based on criteria such as self-motivation, hunting skills, problem-solving abilities, and reacing decision makers abilities. The Sales Assessment also provides valuable insights into how candidates handle challenging situations and how they respond to pressure. By analyzing these four key characteristics, employers can make more informed hiring decisions and ensure they are bringing on the right people for their sales team.

Using predictive Reports to Leverage Data for Smarter Hiring Decisions

This a powerful tool for making data-driven decisions when it comes to hiring. By leveraging data from the Reports, companies can make smarter, more informed hiring decisions that will help them find the right talent for their organization.

The OMG Hiring Insights Report provides an in-depth analysis of the candidate’s skills and experience, as well as their potential fit for the role. The report also offers predictive analytics to identify which candidates are most likely to succeed in a given role. Additionally, it provides detailed insights into how a candidate’s skills and experience align with the company’s hiring goals. With these insights, employers can make better-informed decisions about who they should hire.

The Benefits of Using sales centric and predictive assessment when hiring sales people with Objective Management Group

Objective Management Group (OMG) provides sales centric and predictive assessment tools to help employers find the best candidates for their sales positions. By using these assessments, employers can identify the most qualified applicants, measure their skills and abilities, and predict how successful they will be in the role. This helps to ensure that only the best candidates are hired for sales positions, which can lead to improved performance and higher customer satisfaction. The assessments also provide insight into what makes a successful sales person so that employers can tailor their hiring process accordingly. With OMG’s assessments, employers can make sure they are hiring the right people for their sales roles with confidence.

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27
Aug, 2019

By admin

How to Monitor your Margins for Better Profitability

How to Monitor your Margins for Better Profitability

If you’re not satisfied with your current profit margin then it could be time the company reassesses its current offering to clients. If you’re in the business of producing products, for instance, could you add a service side too?

Certainly, an article by researcher and Professor of Marketing at the University of Cologne, Werner Reinartz, in the Harvard Business Review, pointed to the far higher profit margins that could be achieved by adding on a service provision – to the extent it may turn out that the services side is more profitable than the actual products themselves.

Selling services: a whole new ball game

But it’s not simply a case of adding on a service and getting the sales team to start pushing it. Selling is a service that is different to a product. Not only that, but the people you’re selling it to (i.e. the existing ‘product’ contacts) aren’t necessarily the correct people for sales. And, in order to ensure sales effectiveness by getting that company to invest in a service which is a completely new concept you would usually have to go higher up the management chain for approval.

In his studies of more than 20 industrial companies who started adding services to their product offerings Reinartz found that one group had profit margins for those new services which were eight times higher than its product profit margins. However, another company struggled to even break even considering the investment they had put in. Reinartz concluded this was down to the fact they didn’t take enough time to study their sales offering and tried to introduce the services too quickly.

“Successful firms begin slowly, identifying and charging for simple services they already perform and using those to build enthusiasm for adding more-complex ones,” he explained. “They then standardize their delivery processes to be as efficient as their manufacturing ones. As their services become more complex, they ensure that their sales force capabilities keep pace.”

One final step, he pointed out, was to ensure that management switched its focus from the way the company set up and delivered the services, to what the customers needed i.e. if they were having difficulties with a product or it could be made to work more efficiently, then what services could be added in order to make this happen? And what did the company need to ensure they could provide those services?

Essentially Reinartz recognised four key issues to ensure sales effectiveness when adding services to a product offering. These were:

Understanding there is already a service there

The French arm of international pharmaceuticals company Merck never charged for deliveries or insurance. When they did introduce the cost to 100 existing customers as a trial, a huge 90 per cent of them simply paid it. Only 10 per cent queried their higher bill and insisted on reverting. Once the service charges were added to every customers bill, Merck’s profit margins took quite a jump.

Reviewing and monitoring existing services

Air Liquide had the habit of sending all its customers a gas-consumption report. However, on review learned some of them didn’t even bother reading it. The company then stopped producing that service for those customers and increased its profit margins as a result.

Ensures sales are capable of selling services

Services mean longer sales cycles and decisions are made higher up. Schneider Electric encouraged its sales team to focus on cost-plus value-based pricing rather than cost-plus when introducing services. This meant educating them on how their customers’ managers justified decisions internally. In this way the sales team could help the managers ‘sell in’ the services to the decision-makers, increasing their sales effectiveness.

GE Medical Services refer to those in its sales team who sell products as ‘hunters,’ while services sellers are ‘farmers’ i.e. the latter cultivates relationships with customers in order to grow their offering over time.

Looking at customers holistically

Understanding what the customer needs to function can result in increased service offerings as forklift company Fenwick found out. After installing sensors in fork lifts they ended up selling customers new services such as remote monitoring technology and forklift driver training – to the extent their service side today makes up 50 per cent of their profit margin. As a Fenwick spokesman explained: “Whenever we can’t directly break into a customer account with a product, we’ll offer to provide services on a competitor’s product.”

 

For more information, contact us at WIN Programs. We’ll be happy to help!

1
14
Aug, 2019

By admin

How Sales Directors Succeed in a Tough Economy

How Sales Directors Succeed in a Tough Economy

Let’s face it, in a tough economy every director finds it difficult to succeed. For Sales Directors though, it’s particularly painful. If fewer customers than before are purchasing a company’s products or services after all, the buck lies with Sales. So, how can you ensure that sales effectiveness means business continues to tick along nicely – even when consumer spending power is vastly reduced?

1.Align sales strategy and growth objectives

What we mean by aligning your sales strategy with growth objectives is for you to check that it’s actually possible for your sales strategy to meet the current ambitious goals you’ve set yourself. It may, for instance, be an idea to reduce your growth target at this time (for many a CEO the most difficult challenge in a recession is simply for their company to stay afloat). But you still want to grow, of course, so ensure your strategy focuses on where that potential growth is. Is it, for instance, by potentially penetrating a new segment of the youth market? Or could it be by zoning in on where a competitor is obviously failing? Then again, has new legislation in your sector made it easier to promote particular products, and as a result ensuring sales effectiveness?

2. Get the structure to support sales goals

It’s all very well having these great plans for success, but if you can’t back up your strategy with the right tools, equipment and people then it’s going to show those weaknesses within a matter of weeks. So, in order to succeed, it might mean having the manpower in particular geographic or market locations. If you’re targeting a youth segment, for instance, does your company have the IT know-how to reach them? If your new potential customer base doesn’t have a clue about your product or service, they certainly can’t buy – and benefit – from it. And neither, for that matter, will your company (benefit).

3. Have the right people in place

Are your employees in the right roles – both for them and your company? If you’re targeting a youth segment, for instance, then it’s not a bad idea to get someone of that age on the team. They should have a better understanding of how your customer base thinks, for starters. It’s crucial to ensure that the skill sets of your employees match what you require, not only in order to get your strategy implemented successfully, but also to maintain team morale and ensure sales effectiveness. Just like with getting the sales strategy right, finding the best employees for the job can also prove to be a CEO’s most difficult challenge.

4. Make sure you target the right markets

Once those target market/s have been identified it’s easier to know the type of resources you’ll need in order to reach that group of customers. You’ll also be able to fashion your message more appropriately, as well as learn the best way to promote your goods or services, in addition to pricing them suitably and distributing them in the best way possible for them to literally hit home – and lead to more sales.

5. Utilise technology in the best way possible

Social media is free to use (if you’re not paying for click advertising) so make use of that cost-free resource. Find out which social media channels your target audience is more likely to be found on and use it to reach them. Provide educational posts for your sector, humour and, every now and again, promote your product or service. It’s all about getting your target audience to recognise, appreciate and trust your brand/company. They’ll then like your products or service as an extension of that ‘good will.’

CRM software is another invaluable piece of IT when it comes to sales effectiveness because it allows a company to enhance its relationship with the customer. It does this by keeping a record of all interactions he or she has with the company. That means tracking orders and getting to understand a customer’s preferences and what future products or services may appeal to them based on past purchases etc. It also helps you provide a more efficient and effective service by being able to immediately let the customer know the status of their order. CRM systems can also indicate how particular sales staff or products/services are performing at an early enough stage for you to do something about it.

6. Invest in the correct software

The main point of CRM software is that it provides data (which is the newest form of currency). It is companies which have found ways to “collect, interpret and act upon customer data that are winning,” according to a survey by 3rd-party research firm, SPOTIO, conducted last year. It based the results on responses from 492 American sales professionals in both inside and field sales roles. Despite the importance of keeping up-to-date with both hardware and software, only 52% of outside field sales personnel felt that they were equipped with the right equipment.

At the same time, a “State of Sales” report from Insidesales.com, found that companies on average invested just over £4000 on software per sales rep. It’s a 22% increase over four years, leading the report’s authors to conclude that “organizational heads are recognizing the importance of investing in software as they see the direct correlation between modern tools and sales rep success.”

For expert guidance on ensuring sales effectiveness i.e. that your sales strategy leads to increased revenue, then take a look at sales coaching by Winprograms today.

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