Mindset Needed to Succeed in Sales – Interview by Andreea Zoia

In this Selling in Asia Podcast episode, Tom Abbott sits with TV Presenter Andreea Zoia for a Q&A session. Join them as they discuss some of the most significant challenges that sales teams face right now, and how having the right sales mentality will benefit a salesperson and your perception of life. 

Additionally, listen to the end to get tips on qualifying, sustaining learning from training and what Tom would be doing if he wasn’t speaking and running a sales training business!

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How is your sales mentality different?

I think people feel like selling is trying to convince someone to do something that they believe that person doesn’t want to do, which isn’t right at all.

Above all, it’s all about your perception of sales.

Walking into a room, I always feel like I have something tremendous to give you. I have a gift for you. I can help your sales team hit their numbers. I can help your sales professionals reach their goals. I can help your salespeople to help their customers achieve what they want. 

So, it’s two things—first, your perception and belief in what you convey. Therefore, I believe in what I do. I believe that what I do makes a difference and helps people, and it matters. So, I project that sales mentality.

Also read:

• Why Everyone Should Work in Sales at Least Once in Their Life
• Sales Performance Improvement Plan Worksheet
• What Assets are Needed to Succeed in Sales?

When it comes to sales teams, what is one thing that makes them perform better when you tweak them? 

It’s usually around being clear about the sales process, the sales mentality, and the true signs of success. 

Many salespeople are vague, like, “I think the meeting went really well.” But they don’t actually know how to gauge that the meeting went well.

I’ll always ask my sales team to tell me what happened at that meeting so I can help you believe it went well. If their answer is “Oh, I don’t know. We just had an excellent chat.” Okay, so the chat is one thing, but did they give you particular buying signals? When you ask this question, what did they say? If they reply, “Oh, I never asked that question.” Then I know they’re not qualifying properly. They’re not making sure they’re actually speaking to decision-makers or maybe the gatekeepers. They’re never clear about budget, authority, need, timeline, or the basics of qualifying. And most sales professionals have no clue.

Examples of qualifying questions:

• When will this deal close?
• Who else should I be speaking to about this?
• Who else are you talking to?
• Have you talked to some of our competitors?
• What did they say?
• What do you like about them?
• What do you not like about it?

Often they don’t use a CRM, they don’t track anything. So, they don’t know how to move this opportunity from one stage to the next.

What makes it super frustrating is you can have five people on a sales team, and they all have their own way of selling and sales mentality. Therefore, there’s no process, so a sales leader can never go to that stage. What stage is that opportunity? Oh, I’m in stage three. Oh, I’m in stage four. But your stage three is different from that person’s stage four.

What sustains training?

Beyond sales training, the team must return to an environment that reinforces what they learned. 

Subsequently, that’s where sales leadership comes in. So, does leadership know what we covered? Do they follow up with weekly sales team meetings to reinforce what was covered in the session? Therefore, checking in to see how they’re doing with the new skills.

We also follow up all of our training with videos, blog posts, articles, and slide decks every single week that reinforce what we covered in the training. This is what helps to reinforce the training and sales mentality.

How does a strong sales mentality help you in life?

You can ask for what you want if you’re really good at sales. You are more confident, and you take ownership of your life.

Sales is one of the only jobs where people consistently say no to you. So you learn to have a thick skin, have a great sales mentality, and handle rejection.

What else would you do if you weren’t doing what you are doing now?

I would be a tennis instructor, traveling worldwide and coaching up-and-coming tennis players.

I’m passionate about the sport, so I’m in Dubai this week. 

What else would you do if you were not teaching tennis or selling? 

I would just be a full-time dad. I love hanging out with my boys, and that’s my passion. I would take the kids to watch tennis tournaments, which we do anyway. So really, if I weren’t doing what I’m doing now, I would do exactly what I’m doing now, but more of the things I love about it and less of the things I don’t. 

More About SOCO/

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Have SOCO train your team in the top sales skills needed to take on 2021 through either Virtual Instructor-Led Training through video conferencing software or letting your team learn new skills in their spare time using our popular e-learning platform – SOCO Academy.

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