Is It Mindset Or Skillset That’s The ‘Difference Maker’ Today?
I had a long, tedious discussion with a family member this week end about the difference between COMPETENCIES and SKILLS. As someone who is ‘in the business,’ I suppose I should have been able to rip off a definition of each, but I couldn’t.
What did occur to me as we were having the conversation is how little either of them really matter in sales success.
For over 12 years, we at Caskey have been preaching that it’s your “inner game” that makes all the difference in your success. And that if you want to significantly change your outcomes, change your thinking.
Afterall, situations change rapidly and scenarios change from one customer to the next. So, how can you possible have a skillset for each and every nuance of customer situation?
You can’t.
It’s why we’ve been trumpeting the message of “it’s about mindset, not skillset” for years.
Mindset Has Four Components
As we see it, if you can master the mindset of selling (and of yourself), you are unstoppable. Here the four that we teach.
1. Abundance.
This is the perspective that suggests there is more than enough to go around. There is an abundance of sales opportunities, prospects and pain to solve. Any shortcoming you feel right now is a function of how you think. Period. Look at your sales funnel to gauge how you were thinking ‘yesterday.’ Because that’s all a sales funnel is – an indication of old thinking.
2. Intent.
This is the perspective you take to the interaction with your buyer. Is your intent to sell stuff? If so, then you will leave trucks full of money on the table. Isn’t it interesting that the very thing we are taught to do – put pressure on people to buy (I know your sales trainer would never put it that way, but that’s EXACTLY what it is) is the thing that takes money out of your pocket? Try High Intent instead where you are slightly more interested in your buyer’s pains than in your sales results. See more here: One Fatal Mistake Sales People Make.
3. Detachment.
This is the perspective of letting go when the deal is not right. Sales people have been taught by old-thinking trainers to latch on to every deal. Or, “If they’re breathing, they’re a prospect.” The tighter you make your prospect filter, the stronger you are in the sales process, and the more like you are to attract good clients. It’s the ultimate paradox. See more on detachment here: When Your Neediness Permeates All You Do.
4. Buyer / Seller Interaction.
This is the counter-intuitive notion that buyers should sell sellers rather than sellers sell to buyers. This is very simple at it’s root. Buyers have the pain – the problems – the objectives that you, the seller, should be able to help them with. So why are you (seller) spending any time at all convincing them they should buy from you? It’s their pain! Sounds simple…and it is, with the right mindset. But without the right mindset, you’ll default back to the position of ‘sales person’ where you’ll be used and abused for information – free information. Why would you want to do that?
5. Expert Strategy.
This is the perspective that selling has changed. No longer can you merely show up, ask a bunch of leading questions, have the prospect reveal to you their inner most problems, and then close the sale. You must bring more than questions. You must bring advice, expertise, knowledge, wisdom – whatever you want to call it. Consequently, your training should mirror those skills. Of course, you must still know what questions to ask and how to ask them in a way that creates dialog, but it’s bigger than that today. See The Evolution of The Sales Person.
So the next time you’re in a discussion about sales skills and competencies, don’t get sucked into a corner where you get hung up on definitions. Back yourself out of it by addressing the real issue – Mindset.
