Developing a Sales Mindset

I came across “How to Adopt a Sales Mindset” by Harvey Mackay on Entreneur.com. I read the article for my boyfriend who works in sales and I ended the article with tips and straightforward quotes that can apply to almost anyone in a work environment. I’ve been feeling stressed and frustrated from my job lately and dealing with a dilemma with a solution I felt would not relieve my frustration. I have read many quotes on positivity and shaping one’s energy in order to change their outlook on life, but this article is a great refresher on the power of the mind.

I’m going to give those 13 rules on getting a “sales mindset” and a quoted sentence or two from each rule.  I only fully quoted 3 rules (3,9, and 12) because I felt they were very powerful; for the full wording of the rules please refer to the article. According to the article, the rules are an “adapted excerpt from The Mackay MBA of Selling in the Real World by Harvey Mackey. “

1. "Stay hungry. Every good salesperson I’ve ever encountered is driven. They have a strong work ethic and a high energy level”
2. "Never compromise your integrity. When customers trust salespeople, they buy from them”
3. "Stay Positive. Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude. Success is 90 percent mental. You can alter your life by altering your mind. In tough economies, it may not be your fault for being down, but it is certainly your fault for not getting up. You have to be a believer to be an achiever” 
4. "Be authoritative. Sales superstars know their products backward and forward.”
5.  "Get prepared". Self explanatory.
6.  "Mind your reputation. You can’t buy a good reputation – you must earn it."
7.  "Be genuine. Likability matters”
8. "Put you best foot forward. You never get a second chance to make a good first impression."
9. "Set goals. Winners set goal; losers make excuses. Goals give you more than a reason to get up in the morning; they are an incentive to keep you going all day. They must be measurable, identifiable, obtainable, specific – and put them in writing.”
10. "Become a customer-service fanatic. Take care of the customers you’ve got, and they’ll take care of you.”
11. "Remember to listen. Listening is a two-way process. Yes, you need to be heard, but you also need to hear others’ ideas, questions and objections.”
12.  "Keep it all in perspective. It is impossible to underrate the importance of a sense of humor. When there are inevitable setbacks along the way, learn to laugh about them.”
13. "Develop a thirst of self-improvement. Sales superstars are constantly working to become better.”

Remember, you don’t have to be in sales to take away some lessons from the list. What I take from this is that I can’t control everything in my work environment. For those things I can change, I will and for those I can’t, I have to not attach so much frustration and just laugh it off as the article suggests.