Companies today are changing, re-organising, rationalising. There are takeovers, the centralisation of purchasing, and direct poaching to buy market share that can all result in the loss of hitherto satisfied customers. Customers have unprecedented choice in terms of when, where and from whom to purchase, and by what means. Buyers are taking advantage of their strengthened negotiating position. 

 

In the light of all this, the people at the sharp end if any business – the salespeople – have to develop a great deal of resilience or ‘mental toughness’ to ensure their product/service shines in the way they would like. Those same salespeople need to develop mental toughness, whilst remaining totally customer focussed. Yet they must also remain vigilant to misreading situations in a negative way.

 

Why would someone do that? Because habitually we tend to see the negative first in a situation, like it or not.  For a salesperson, that could spell trouble! And that may be often down to something called a ‘schema’...

 

 

What on earth is a ‘schema’ and how may it affect my sales success I hear you ask? Well, it’s not someone who is trying to be devious!  A ‘schema’ put simply is when we can have a ‘blind-spot’ or we just can’t see something. For salespeople, this can be things like the way we can stereotype things thereby leading to false assumptions. For those of you that want a more definite definition, according to psychologist Kendra Cherry : 

 

“A cognitive framework or concept that helps organize and interpret information. However, these mental frameworks also cause us to exclude pertinent information in favour of information that confirms our pre-existing beliefs and ideas. Schemas can contribute to stereotypes and make it difficult to retain new information that does not conform to our established schemas”

 

Simply put, it means we can form opinion, have fixed mindsets and make assumptions – and for sales people that can mean the kiss of death. So let me share with you some assumptions sales people nearly always make that can seriously damage your wealth!

 

 

Opportunitiesarenowhere

 

Many people see it as saying ‘opportunities are nowhere’, which of course it could.  However, if you look at it again, could it say anything else? How about ‘opportunities are now here’. It could of course also say that. It depends how you read it. What ever way you read it - it is true for you. As a sales person if you cannot see opportunities you are right there are none. If you cannot believe why a prospect should buy from you - they probably won't...

 

If you want to know more about developing an effective mind set contact me here