comment: T21 Group It’s all in the mind


Paul Laville, owner of T21 Group, says it’ll be no surprise to anyone that there are certain words sales trainers should think twice about using in their presentation. One of those words is Mindset, which tends to induce a rebellious wave of groans, glares and sheer gut-wrenching terror


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positive mindset can turn a bad day into a great day, which helps


your attitude, commitment & wellbeing. Secondly, it can turn an average customer experience into a truly memorable experience (for all the right reasons) and thirdly, it can make all the diff erence between selling and not selling. Quite oſt en we fi nd that it’s not so much the selling skills that are lacking, it’s the mindset behind them. If you’re still not convinced, think about


‘winning’ and ‘failing’ and how you deal with responsibility and the prospect of changing your behaviours. In a retail environment the ‘win’ may be that high-ticket sale you made with a customer who wasn’t even thinking of buying today. Or perhaps it was a customer who called to complain and you turned them around, left them feeling delighted that you quickly resolved their issue. Or it may be that you negotiated a great deal with your supplier that suited the both of you and which launched a whole new relationship focused on growing both your businesses. The ‘fail’ would be the opposite: the customer who didn’t buy from you, the complainer who decided to take things further, the supplier rep who left without an order after an hour’s discussion over nothing. Whilst it’s easy to say that ‘these things just happen sometimes’ and move on, the harder, more noble action is to analyse how that fail occurred, your role within it, and take action to change the outcome next time. In our sales training we often highlight the


diff erences between a positive ‘growth’ mindset and a more negative ‘fi xed’ mindset. People with a growth mindset are better at accepting responsibility, they’re more willing to grow their skillset and change their behaviours so that they can analyse ‘wins’ and ‘fails’ and use the information to infl uence the conditions for success with increasing consistence.


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accept our help in the fi rst place. And it’ll take longer for the training to have a positive eff ect on the business.


But it can happen; it does happen. The fi rst


This benefi ts them, the business and their customers.


Those with a growth mindset understand that whilst there are certain things beyond their control – the rising cost of living, the weather, the parking in town for example – there are also things that they can control, such as their attitude and approach to customers, and the experience and service they want to give those customers. People with a fi xed mindset however


often fi nd the idea of change diffi cult. And whilst they may recognise that things are not perfect they rarely accept responsibility for their contribution to a catalogue of errors – lost sales, lack of positive reviews, even competitor activity. They often believe that they don’t need to improve, that they are right and everyone else is wrong, and it’s not their fault things aren’t happening the way they want them to; it’s the customer’s fault, or their suppliers’ fault, it’s the internet, the weather, the aggressive tactics of their competitors and so on. If our trainers are in a room full of people with a fi xed mindset, then we know we’re in for a challenge. The training will seem harder for our trainees because it’ll take them longer not just to understand why they need to change and how they can do it, but for them to


July/August 2023


step is to accept that anyone can change, that all of us can be better at what we do and no matter the enormity of everything stacked against you, you can improve your sales and be better than your competitors. No matter how old or how small or large your business is, or how ‘diffi cult’ your customers can be, with the right mindset you can give yourself every chance of creating the best conditions for consistent success. However, there’s only one person who can change your mindset – guess who that is…


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