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Your Beliefs: The Greatest Driver of Your Personal Sales Results

Anthony Iannarino
Post by Anthony Iannarino
September 15, 2010

There is one thing more than any other that has the ability to dramatically improve your sales results. That one thing is your beliefs.

Your Beliefs

What you believe is the foundation for how you behave. Your beliefs dictate what actions you take, and what actions you fail to take.

If you believe strongly enough that winning deals requires that you diagnose before you present, and that failing to do so will result in you losing, then you will do everything in your power to do the discovery and needs-analysis work that positions you to win.

If you believe that your dream client won’t allow you to do the discovery work that you need to win and that later delivers the result they need, or if you are fearful of asking for what you need because you are afraid you will somehow inconvenience or put your dream client off, you will fail to act. You belief system will ruin your chances of winning.

Your beliefs about sales underlie all of the actions that you take. If you are not producing the result that you want in sales, you first have to look into what you believe about sales.

Can I Change My Mind?

In order to improve your sales results, you first have to change your own mind. You have to look at what you believe and question whether or not your belief is serving you, your company, and your dream clients.

If a belief continually and consistently produces a positive outcome, then it is a healthy belief that is serving you well. But if a belief doesn’t’ produce the result you need, then you have to abandon that belief and replace it with a healthier belief. You have to replace poor beliefs with beliefs that empower you to act in ways that are more likely to produce results.

Every action you take is driven by some belief, for good or for ill.

You can change your mind. In some cases you must change your mind. Changing your mind and adopting better beliefs is called growth. If your beliefs are not changing, if they aren’t being revised and modified based on the observations you are making, you are not growing. And neither will your sales results.

Beliefs Drive Your Actions, Your Actions Drive Your Results

It isn’t enough to want better results. In most cases, it isn’t enough to work harder or to try harder to produce better results. Using my example from above, presenting to more prospective clients while still doing no discovery work isn’t a recipe for improved sales results: it is a recipe for more of the same results.

To get better results, you first have to change your beliefs. Then you have to change your actions. Then you get changed results.

Questions

1. What are your strongly held beliefs about sales that you believe are serving you by producing excellent results? What actions do those beliefs require you to take to bring them to life?

2. What are your strongly held beliefs that are not be serving you well? What actions do those beliefs cause you to take—or not take?

3. Is there an area of your sales where you would like to produce a better result and someone you know is already producing a better result? Call that person and schedule coffee or lunch to discover what it is that they believe that allows them to get that result. Then ask them what actions those beliefs obligate them to take and the results that it produces?

4. Improvement means changing your mind, otherwise, you won’t change your actions. What does it mean that someone clings to old beliefs that no longer serve them? How could you be more open to changing your long and deeply held beliefs?

For more on increasing your sales effectiveness, subscribe to the RSS Feed for The Sales Blog and my Email Newsletter. Follow me on Twitter, connect to me on LinkedIn, or friend me on Facebook. If I can help you or your sales organization, check out my coaching and consulting firm, B2B Sales Coach & Consultancy, email me, or call me at (614) 212-4279.

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Tags:
Sales 2010
Post by Anthony Iannarino on September 15, 2010

Written and edited by human brains and human hands.

Anthony Iannarino
Anthony Iannarino is a writer, an international speaker, and an entrepreneur. He is the author of four books on the modern sales approach, one book on sales leadership, and his latest book called The Negativity Fast releases on 10.31.23. Anthony posts daily content here at TheSalesBlog.com.
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