The topic for this Mindset Monday is to view yourself as a helper. This could be a helpful shift for you because most salespeople align with more of a taker mindset. By flipping that around, you will not only have more confidence and purpose, but you will likely communicate better.
Let me explain what I am talking about here. Most salespeople use more of a product-focused sales pitch, which goes something like this:
This is who I am.
This is the company I’m with.
This is the product I sell.
Do you need what I sell?
Can we schedule a meeting to discuss my product?
Being a Taker When Selling
Most salespeople are not that direct, but almost all of the cold emails and cold calls I receive follow that outline. This type of sales pitch creates more of a taker mindset with the salesperson being all about me – my company, my product, do you want to help me by buying from me?
Not only does this approach greatly increase the objections you face, but it is more likely to make you feel like you are bothering the people you are reaching out to. And this is because you are being more of a taker, trying to take the prospect’s time so that you can take the prospect’s money by getting them to buy.
Not only can this taker mindset decrease your confidence and increase your anxiety and call reluctance, but it also positions you for less success in the interactions you have.
You Are a Helper
The reality is that you are more of a helper than a taker. The product or service you sell offers some sort of value to the people who buy and need what you sell. When you start to realize this, not only can you improve your mindset, but you can also begin to improve your approach to selling.
If we go back to the gym membership salesperson, when he uses a product-focused sales pitch, thinking and talking more about all of the equipment and amenities in the gym, he is more likely to have a taker mindset. But he helps people in many ways, and that is displayed in the ways his product helps his customers.
We help people to:
Improve their health and fitness
Lower stress and have more energy
Improve confidence and mood
Improve relationships and career performance
When you look at these improvements, it is clear to see that he helps in many ways. He is a helper. He helps the people he sells to. There are people who need this help. When he approaches prospects, he is just seeing if they are in the group of people who need his help.
View Yourself as a Helper
When you spend so much time thinking and talking about your product, it can be easy to forget that you help and that there are people who need your help. Because of this, you will need to remind yourself that you are a helper and that there are people who need your help.
One way to do this is to look at the improvements your product delivers to customers. These improvements are the ways you help. If you have a good and clear list of improvements, this should help you to see more clearly that you are indeed a helper.
This shift in mindset will not only improve your level of confidence and purpose when reaching out to prospects, but it might also help you to communicate better because you might end up talking more about the improvements you offer.
