Inner Game of Sales: Mindset and Debunking Myths

The Inner Game of Sales: Mindset of an Elite-Level Closer

• The ability to influence others is directly related to one's internal state.
• Cultivating the right mindset is essential for empowering others to act.
• Showing up with the correct internal state daily is key to being a top performer.

Common Sales Myths Debunked

• It is not necessary to be high-energy, extroverted, or high-pressure to excel in sales.
• Buyer resistance and distrust are currently high.
• Being overly extroverted can trigger a prospect's perception of you as a salesperson, which is detrimental.
• Introverts can be highly successful in sales, as they tend to build narrow and deep relationships.
• Men are not inherently better at sales than women; it is more about balancing masculine and feminine energy.
• Women who balance masculine and feminine energy can be highly effective in sales.
• Sales skills are developed through reps, the right information, and mentorship, not innate talent.
• Opportunity volume and call frequency are what constitutes reps.

Winning Frames for Sales

• A frame is a perspective supported by one's identity, beliefs, and values.
• Influencing others begins with influencing oneself.

Moral Authority Frame

• Holding moral authority means the prospect trusts you have their best interests at heart.
• Prospects lend you their decision-making when they believe you are trustworthy and an expert.
• Gaining moral authority provides significant influence.

Ways to Gain Moral Authority

• Using Socratic dialogue: Asking specific questions to guide someone to the best decision.
• Active listening to fully understand the prospect's situation before responding
• Using skill questions to demonstrate attentiveness.
• Employ trust-based language to alleviate sales pressure: Avoiding questions that box the prospect into feeling pressured to answer.
• Being a leader for the prospect entails guiding them toward what is best for them, even if it's outside their comfort zone.
• Taking a stand for the prospect when their actions contradict their words.
• Finding greatness within every prospect.
• Intentionally seeking the unique qualities that make a person remarkable.

Prize Frame

• Maintaining ruthless independence from the outcome because one believes they are the best and their help is needed.
• Pre-framing one's self with the belief of being the prize and being independent of the outcome is key for success.
• Focus on being attached to the process of discovering the prospect's desired transformation, their problems, and their commitment to change.
• Prioritize committing prospects to their vision rather than pressuring them into a product.
• Avoid letting previous losses affect subsequent calls.

Expert Frame

• One's process to a solution must be stronger than the prospects.
• Context determines authority and expertise.
• One is the expert in a specific context, possessing a proven process for the shortest path to the prospect's desired outcome.
• A prescription will not be given until the solutions process is complete.

Best Practices for Holding the Expert Frame

• Take clear leadership at the start of the call by framing the call and creating an agreement.
• Do not provide coaching before fully understanding the prospect's situation.
• Avoid judging the prospect for any reason.
• Do not let ego interfere with the sales process.
• Maintain a well-paced tonality, using silence effectively.
• Avoid interrupting the prospect.
• Use downward or equal tonality rather than upward tonality.
• Ask short and pointed questions.

Transferring Emotions to Prospects

• Clarity and certainty are the fundamental emotions to transfer and cultivate.
• Clarity gives way to certainty.
• Uncertainty prevents decisive action.

Creating Clarity

• Clarify what the prospects really want, focusing on their current versus desired situations on both surface and emotional levels.
• Establish a "buying pocket" so they know their desired transformation is possible, but only with your help.
• Install emotional beliefs: They have a problem, cannot fix it, it's costing them, and there's a compelling payoff to fixing it.
• Present and position offers as the perfect logical and emotional bridge to where they want to be
• Make the offer feel new, unique, and superior to past attempts.
• Justify why past attempts have failed.
• Ensure offers provide quick, tangible results with specificity and collapsed timeframes.
• Eliminate the fear of success in the offer.

Creating Certainty

• Clarity leads to certainty, which leads to decisive action.
• Overcome the prospect's fear, doubt, and suspicion through certainty.
• Build conviction through:
  • Identity document (review and refine daily): A story about who you are!
  • Morning priming routine for right focus and state
  • Honoring commitments ("saying what you'll do, doing what you say")
  • Reviewing testimonials and wins daily for clients, personal, and team
  • Weighing prospect's alternatives (the cost of not working with you)
  • Having faith in your ability to make it right (offering refunds if needed).

Getting in the Flow State

• Being in a state of poise, a calm sense of certainty under pressure is key to success.
• Achieving flow involves complete presence and engagement.
• Direct all attention and energy toward the prospect and their words.
• The sales calls becomes a meditation, with focus completely on the other person.
• Get out of your head and trust that you will do the right thing spontaneously in the moment.
• Lose yourself in the enjoyment of process and use sales as a creative outlet.
• Read "The Inner Game of Tennis" for practical mindset performance strategies.