Getting prospects to buy from your organization is a matter of the beliefs you hold, the judgments you make and actions (or inactions), you take as leader as your team will take their behavioral queues from you.
These beliefs, judgments and actions, which comprise Sandler's Belief Wheel, result from your outlook of limitation or outlook of possibility.
Leaders with outlooks of limitation are like boat captains in a storm who order everyone below decks and hope they don't drown.
Leaders with outlooks of possibility are the boat captains who turn into the storm understanding that they may die but are willing to risk that for the opportunity to control their destiny.
With either outlook, our beliefs (e.g. the economy sucks, no one is buying) cause us to create judgments (e.g. even if I do ask my sales team to prospect, they'll just waste their time), which creates (in)actions (e.g. I'll tell them to work on maintaining existing clients instead of pursuing new business). Those actions create results (shockingly, no new business comes in), which reinforces our outlook, our beliefs, our judgments and our actions. Like exercising a muscle repeatedly, over time every point on our Belief Wheel becomes almost unbreakably strong.
There are plenty of reasons to have an outlook of limitation; however, the lights are still on, the water is still running and businesses still need to buy products and services to operate. During the early months of the pandemic, April through July 2020, our clients reported having their best months of sales ever because they continue to believe that there were buyers who would buy from them and they took action to achieve those results. In January 2023 alone, our clients reported over $3 million in sales, net new and expansion, that they could directly attribute to implementing the tools and concepts they learned from Sandler.
Our clients believe that they would prefer to be the organization their prospects buy from. Their judgement is that they provide valuable products or services that are worth the price they charge and the actions that they take are to go out and continue to prospect when their competitors are hiding below decks waiting for this economic storm to pass.
Because the lead dog sets the pace, you must change your outlook before your team changes. Changing your outlook starts with rewriting your beliefs and judgments then taking new actions and getting different results (e.g. My company will be the company our prospects buy from (belief) therefore even though my salespeople will hear "no" a lot more than they hear "yes," especially in this market, I will support them so they persevere in their behaviors (judgment). Therefore, I will manage what I can control, my behavior, starting with my group and my individual meetings with my salespeople. We will set expectations for behavior and role play expected responses from our prospects (action).
If you prefer to keep your outlook of limitation you can give your organization a cash boost by firing your sales team. You'll slowly kill them anyway with your beliefs, judgments and actions.
The status quo, especially in Alberta, is going down. Choose to be the captain that turns into the storm.
Until next time... go lead.
You might also be interested in:
