Your mindset plays a big role in your sales success. For so long, salespeople believed that many things, such as determination, confidence, hustle, and grit, were vital but paid little or no attention to the role of one’s mindset. That is changing as awareness about its importance grows. “80% of success is breaking through mental barriers,” Gerhard Gschwandtner believes. 

In a Manage Smarter podcast episode, he discusses just how vital your mindset is to being successful. “Sales success is all about having the right mindset, the right skill set and the right tool set,” he explains. Because so much emphasis has been placed on skills, Gschwandtner discusses the value of one’s mindset during his talk.

Do you have a growth mindset?

Gschwandtner believes that all salespeople have the power to adjust and fine-​tune their mindset. These people who actually do this have a growth mindset. “[People] have the ability to create the best version of who they are …[this is] the growth mindset. They can continue to grow, whereas other people say, ‘well, I have limitations; I was born with those limitations.’ They never go past that mental barrier. They repeat it over and over, and that becomes more and more entrenched…Whereas people who have the growth mindset adapt to new situations, learn new things, and they are curious. They try to become better and better as time goes on..[they] leverage all of their experiences.”

3 levels

According to Gschwandtner, there are three levels to your mindset: the implanted, the imprinted and the inspired. He goes on to discuss each of the three, starting with the implanted mindset. He explains that this level is from our childhood; how our parents and caretakers have defined us. 

“In the beginning, people define us and tell us who we are; we have no idea that we have a hand in the development as we grow up. So the implanted mindset is like a garden of flowers and weeds (the good experiences and bad experiences). We want to continue to water the flowers and stop watering the weeds and remove the rocks, the traumas that some people experience in the development of their lives." This metaphor paints your implanted mindset as something that you do not initially have power over; it’s shaped and impacted by your environment and upbringing. It’s important, he explains, that we understand and acknowledge this level. Once that is achieved, you are then able to more effectively mold your mindset yourself. 

Curious about the other two levels? Check out the entire podcast to hear about them. 

A necessity for today’s sellers

With a growth mindset, “We all can grow at any age, in any situation and adapt to any economy,” Gschwandtner believes. SalesFuel CEO Lee Smith is in agreement. He adds that it’s this mindset that makes sellers able “to be resilient and pick themselves up off the mat whenever they've had adversity handed to them.” 

Your mindset will impact your sales just as much as your ability to network, make a cold call or successfully negotiate. It’s time to give it the attention and work it deserves. 

Photo by MetroCreative Graphics, Inc.