‘Mindset’ is thrown around a lot in sales.
‘Have a great mindset’, ‘it all starts with mindset’, ‘master your mindset to master your life.’
So, salespeople do whatever they can to pump themselves up before call blocks, visualize positive outcomes, and all the ‘tricks’ that exist to improve our mindset.
Unfortunately, no one tells salespeople how to develop a great mindset in the first place. That means anything we do to improve our mindset is like taking an aspirin for a broken bone. It’ll make you feel better for a while but does nothing to actually get you performing at a high level again.
That’s why we sat down with Jim Cathcart again. We wanted to learn what he had picked up after 45 years in the personal development and sales training industry to systemize how we turn mindset into a skillset we can use every day as we sell.
Since we’re trimming hope from our sales strategy, we’ll use the acronym TRIM to guide us through creating a system with a trigger, ensuring it’s repeatable, building in ways to improve it, and of course, ensuring it’s measurable and getting us results.
T – Trigger: To turn your mindset into a skillset, Jim recommends triggering this system daily.
He says salespeople need to set aside a specific time each day to re-center on why they’re doing what they’re doing and to review their values, goals and what they plan on doing that day to make those things a reality.
R- Repeatable: Jim says that making mindset into a skillset is a lot like dieting and exercising – what we put into our bodies has a massive effect on our looks and performance.
Jim says to begin by writing down your goals like they’re already a fact. “I’m in president’s club,” for instance.
Then, write down five traits or qualities that fit yourself when you’re at your best. These could come from mentors, heroes, peers, and even those outside your industry.
Next, identify a small action across each of the following areas that you can do each day that would cause those five qualities/traits to manifest:
Mind
Body
Spirit
Finances
Friends
Family
Career
Emotions
Strangely enough, instead of working towards being in President’s Club, you will instead be focusing on becoming the type of person who is in president’s club.
Another benefit of this system is that your career will become more aligned with who you are as a person instead of being something that you must separate from every other area of your life.
I – Improve: To continue to get better as a person, and in turning your mindset into a skillset, Jim says to apply five qualifiers to improve your mindset:
How much of your life is intentional? The higher degree of intentionality, the higher degree of success. Can you explain why you’re calling on THOSE prospects, in THAT area, with THOSE job titles? If you can, you know you’re being intentional.
Is everything accountable? If your numbers can’t explain why you did or didn’t hit your goals, you’ll never be able to deconstruct success or improve low performance.
Are you disciplined? This means being your own sales manager, even if you have a great manager. You have to get you out of bed on time, in shape, and showing up with a positive mindset.
Are you more knowledgeable every day? Part of your contract with yourself is to be better every week, without an increase in salary. If you’re growing in worth, no one is going to incentivize you to do it with money. If you are owning that mission, then money will catch up with you.
Are you honorable in everything you do? Are you operating with integrity and are someone worth emulating? If you wouldn’t want every junior member of your team doing something the way you do it, then it’s worth examining how to get back in integrity.
M – Measurable: Jim says when measuring how well you’re turning your mindset into a skillset, it’s critical you have data to look back on. That means keeping a daily record of whether you’re participating in the leading indicators of great mindset. In sales, that means tracking your contact attempts, meetings and proposals. In mindset, it means tracking whether you worked out, took time in the beginning of your day to get centered, and reflected on how in alignment you are with your goals.