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You probably think your competitor is the big evil company that just came out with a more superior product than yours. No! That big evil company is not your primary competitor. Your two biggest competitors are:

1. Your own self-limiting doubts about what you can’t do.

2. The “no decision” response that too many customers ultimately decide on.

I think far too much time is wasted on thinking that the answer to a sales slump and to even finding great prospects is developing a solution to beat a competitor. Skip the effort and first focus on your own mindset. Second, think about the number of sales that simply die due to a decision never being made.

You might think that both of these reasons are unique, but let me share how both are intertwined more than you realize. When a customer fails to make a decision, they are only doing so because they haven’t found a good enough reason to buy. Furthermore, the reason why they haven’t found a good enough reason to buy is because of two things: they were not the right prospect or you didn’t create enough value for them to see.

Let’s now link what I just shared back to the big issue of your mindset. When we don’t have the right mindset, we can’t see or even think clearly. Ask yourself: would you want to go into surgery with a doctor who does not have the right mindset? Absolutely not! You want your doctor to have the right mindset about what needs to be done. A doctor never reaches that decision until first making an accurate diagnosis. Your customers should be no different. The last thing you want is to be laying on the operating table and hear the people looking over you say, “I think we have this all wrong.”

Your customers want to make the right decision and for them, that sometimes means making no decision. Let’s now go back to your mindset. The first thing a doctor knows they need to do is to have you, the patient, be confident in their work and skills. Second, the doctor knows that he or she needs you to feel confident in the outcome. Now, most doctors do not even want to entertain surgery if they don’t think the patient is a good fit.  There’s a reason why often doctors will not perform a complicated surgery on an older person; the risks far outweigh the reward.

Are you beginning to see how this all fits together? The doctor has to have a clear mindset to make the right decision and when they do, the right outcome is achieved for them and the patient. Your job in sales is no different. If you have the right mindset, you will be able to select the right prospects. The right mindset will allow you to properly diagnose the prospect. In turn, that will  create maximum value and turn that prospect into a customer.

You’re probably now asking how you get the right mindset. I’ll boil it down to two things: first, you must absolutely believe that you are capable of making a difference. You know you can because of the impact you’ve had on other customers. If you’ve done it once, you can do it again! Second, you must know that it IS your job to help others and to help them get to a better place, whatever or wherever that may be. When you are certain that you can make a difference, it is amazing how intentional your questions and the entire conversation becomes. The more intentional you are, the more of an impact you will make. The bigger your impact, the more value your prospects will see and ultimately, the more customers you will have.

It’s time to quit focusing on the big evil competitor. Instead, focus on yourself and the difference you can make.

Copyright 2019, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results

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