Are you struggling to feel confident with your new or existing sales job? Jill Konrath, author of the new book Agile Selling, explains why simply shifting your sales mindset can have a huge impact on your success.

Whether you’re just getting starting or you’ve been in sales for years, sometimes it’s hard to feel confident when walking into a room or getting on the phone for a sales call. The good news is there are simple things you can do to create a positive experience and generate positive outcomes no matter how the sale itself turns out.

Jill Konrath, author of Snap Selling, Selling to Big Companies, and most recently Agile Selling, says transforming a negative sales experience into a valuable learning lesson is an important state of mind that can propel you forward when things don’t pan out perfectly.

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“What amazed me about my first year in sales was the sheer amount of fear that I felt during that time. Many people in sales put on a good face and act confident but underneath it all there’s a fear that they won’t make it in sales.”

— Jill Konrath, author of Agile Selling

 

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 Key Takeaways

* Without the right mindset, its much easier to fail or mess up.

* Realize that success is a choice. Most people quit just before they get over the hump. If you just stay with it a little longer you figure it out.

* Some strategies to combat fear may seem trivial, but they really work:

* Transform failures into valuable learning lessons

* Even a small shift like sitting up straight can make you feel more confident

* Always return to the positive mindset. Its not natural at first, but you can condition yourself to treat all failures as positive experiences.

Transcript

Announcer: This is Labcast, insights and ideas for the expansion-stage senior manager, hosted by OpenView Labs.

CeCe: Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us today. This is CeCe Bazar with OpenView Labs. Thrilled to be joined again by Jill Konrath, author of Agile Selling and SNAP Selling. Jill, thanks so much for joining us again today.

Jill: I’m glad to be back.

CeCe: Thanks. Last time we spoke with Jill, we were talking about rapid-learning and the ability to chunk down, dump, and sequence information that you can learn everything that you need to know faster. This is all part of Jill’s new book, Agile Selling and how salespeople can get up to speed quickly in today’s ever-changing sales world.

That was a huge success, Jill, but we’re back today to talk about something a little bit different and a little bit more fundamental. Let’s talk about mindset. I know this is something that you’ve spoken about in the past. How can mindset affect sales people and their performance?

Jill: It has a huge impact because the mindset buys new salespeople the time to become proficient. That’s a strange thing to say. A lot of people say, “What comes first,