help full insights

1. Five Powerful Insights
to Develop a
Winning Mindset
for Sales Success
SALES 2.0 CONFERENCE REPORT
2016
Sales 2.0 Conference Reports reveal how top sales
leaders are using new best practices, insight, and
Sales 2.0 tools to create highly effective and winning
sales forces. The Sales 2.0 Conference attracts speak-
ers from such companies as Cisco, Gartner, McKinsey
& Company, Oracle, Selling Power, Xerox, and SAP.
See a full schedule of Sales 2.0 events in 2016.
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2. All insights are based on presentations delivered by experts and sales-industry
leaders at the Sales 2.0 Conference in Philadelphia.
Five Powerful Insights to Develop a
Winning Mindset for Sales Success
A winning mindset has many scientific advantages, according to a number
of Sales 2.0 Conference speakers. The mindset of salespeople and sales
leaders is a critical element of success in any sales organization. It is just as
important as other elements (for example, sales enablement solutions or tech-
nology tools) you might adopt and use to achieve higher levels of success.
Without the right mindset, your success will be limited by definition.
Your mindset is a set of attitudes and beliefs that influence and shape your
behaviors. Each of us starts creating our mindset the moment we’re born.
We store our ideas about the world and ourselves in a particular area of our
brains, called the prefrontal cortex – where neural connections form cogni-
tive elements, memories, and associated feelings from past experiences.
Some call this the “executive function” of the brain. Sales 2.0 Conference
host and Selling Power founder Gerhard Gschwandtner calls the prefrontal
cortex your “inner CEO.”
When your mindset is functioning at optimum levels, you’re better able
to excel in tough sales situations. That’s because – according to scientific
research conducted by Professor Michael Bernard at the University of Mel-
bourne, Australia – high achievers consciously create a belief system that
helps them cope effectively with difficult situations at work.
We all have the capacity to direct our minds to become powerful, positive,
productive forces for ourselves. Here are five insights from various presenters
who spoke about tapping the power of mindset.
2 | Five Powerful Insights to Develop a Winning Mindset for Sales Success

3. Insight #1: Align your mind/body connection.
Dan Waldenschmidt, managing director of Waldenschmidt Partners In-
ternational, had the drive, courage, and tenacity to complete a 100-mile
marathon. In his Sales 2.0 Conference presentation, “Creating a Culture of
Super Success: Seven Proven Strategies to Empower Outrageous Results from
Ordinary Salespeople,” he told the hundreds of sales leaders assembled
that part of success is how you start your day. For example, Waldenschmidt
makes a habit of 1) drinking a lot of water just after waking up and 2) read-
ing for a few minutes each morning to intentionally fill his mind with ideas
and concepts that will carry him through the day.
Waldenschmidt revealed some of the challenges and triumphs involved in
running and finishing his 100-mile race (which was the equivalent of four
traditional marathons). His commitment to a strong mindset actually influenced
and enhanced his physical capabilities. Specifically, his mantra kept him go-
ing (despite hunger, thirst, exhaustion, and injury) and his meditation practice
helped him control his anxiety and fear. These mindset practices helped keep
him motivated to finish the race despite overwhelming challenges.
Insight #2: Challenge your fixed thinking with “could” statements.
Fears are frequently roadblocks on our path to success. For example, a
salesperson who wants to start landing larger accounts might have certain
fears based on unconscious assumptions about the world or herself. These
translate to negative thoughts. For example, imagine this fear expressing
itself as the following statement: “It’s going to take so much of my time to
court this big account, and I already have so much to do. I’ll never be able
to make it work.”
One way to alleviate our fears is to imagine other, more positive outcomes.
First, however, you must neutralize your fear-based assumptions. A good way
to do this is to use the phrase “could be true.” For example, the salesperson
can say to herself, “It could be true that it will take a lot of my time to court
this new account, and it could be true that I’ll never finish.”
This phrase helps the salesperson create distance from what otherwise might
seem a very heavy truth about the world (aka, that she will never be able to
juggle her current work plus the work it will take to land a big new account).
If something could be true, then it stands to reason that the opposite could
also be true. In this way, the salesperson can leave room for her to imagine
circumstances that would allow her to work toward her goal and achieve it.
Insight #3: Understand that you can change your feelings about
any situation.
Dr. Michael E. Bernard, who has made breakthrough findings about the
mindset of top performers based on his intensive academic study, said
people believe their feelings are caused by events and experiences. On the
3 | Five Powerful Insights to Develop a Winning Mindset for Sales Success

4. contrary, Dr. Bernard – who currently serves as managing director of The
Bernard Group and is a professor at the Melbourne Graduate School of Ed-
ucation at the University of Melbourne – said that you can change the way
you feel by changing the way you think about the situations you’re in.
By making a simple mental shift, for example, you can actually associate
positive feelings with an activity like cold calling, which might otherwise be
felt as a painful and difficult experience. The point is to not allow what you
currently perceive as a negative experience (getting stuck in traffic, cold call-
ing, etc.) to create a negative mindset.
Insight #4: Examine and question your preconceived ideas about
yourself and the world.
Gerhard Gschwandtner said that we all from neural connections based on
our experiences, emotions, and ideas. However, many people never ex-
amine their preconceived notions and feelings, despite the fact that those
notions and feelings inform their every interaction and overall perspective on
life. This can have a significant impact on your productivity and success.
For example, just believing negative ideas about the process of aging can
actually decrease your life expectancy by 7.6 years. This means that people
with a positive mindset actually live longer.
Insight #5: Believe you have the power to improve yourself
through work.
In a famous scientific study, researchers found that people with a fixed mind-
set about success are less likely to achieve success. In other words, a person
who believes he has a limited capacity to excel in a given area has less of a
chance of actually excelling in that area – simply because of his mindset.
Successful and positive people have a “growth” mindset. They believe that
their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, instruction, and
persistence. They don’t necessarily believe they can become geniuses, but
they believe they can become more skilled and intelligent by working hard.
People with a growth mindset tend to achieve higher levels of success.
4 | Five Powerful Insights to Develop a Winning Mindset for Sales Success
ACHIEVE GREATER SUCCESS: QUICK SUMMARY
Here are five things you can do today to achieve greater personal and
professional success.
1. Align your mind/body connection.
2. Challenge your fixed thinking with “could” statements.
3. Understand that you can change your feelings about any situation.
4. Examine and question your preconceived ideas about yourself and
the world.
5. Believe that you have the power to improve yourself through work.

5. ABOUT SALES 2.0 EVENTS
Sales 2.0 events are held each year at various locations throughout the
United States. Each event is designed to help B2B executives working in
sales, sales operations, sales enablement, and marketing learn how to
leverage Sales 2.0 technologies and best-in-class strategies to generate
improved sales performance and results. All Sales 2.0 events are produced
by Sales Dot Two, Inc. in conjunction with Selling Power.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Sales 2.0 Conference, Boston
May 2, 2016
Sales 2.0 Conference, San Francisco
July 18-19, 2016
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Selling Power Editors
In addition to Selling Power magazine, the leading periodical for sales
managers and sales VPs since 1981, Selling Power Inc. produces the Sales
Management Digest and Daily Boost of Positivity online newsletters, as well
as a five-minute-video series featuring interviews with top executives. Selling
Power is a regular media sponsor of the Sales 2.0 Conference.
5 | Five Powerful Insights to Develop a Winning Mindset for Sales Success