How To Master The Mental Game Of Sales

Hey. Hey. Andy Neary here. Before we dive into today's podcast episode, think back to how you came upon this podcast. Maybe it was through a post, a share, or one of your own peers shared this podcast with you. I don't take any ads. I don't take any sponsorships. The only way this podcast grows is through word of mouth. So if you would be so kind to share this with a peer, with a teammate, with a friend, a family member, I would be forever grateful to you. This is how we impact more business professionals, and this is how this podcast grows. All right, let's dive into today's episode. Hey. Hey. Welcome back to Bullpen Sessions. My name is Andy Neri, and this is episode 274. In today's episode, I am providing a debrief from my interview with Dre Baldwin in episode 273, the Mental Game, the Four Pillars of Sales Success. I absolutely loved my conversation with Dre, and I thought it was very appropriate for my audience. You know, most folks in the insurance industry believe sales is about knowledge and tactics and strategy. But sales is 80% mindset. And if you don't believe you can win, you're right. You can't. And when I look at how we coach our clients here at Complete Game Consulting, I can tell you the majority of our conversations are more mental than they are tactical. So I wanted to break down my conversation with Dre for you and share the four pillars of sales success that Dre and I talked about that I think could have a massive impact on your sales goals here in 2024.

You're going to learn why most insurance producers struggle right now.

Due to things like imposter syndrome or self talk or just selling from fear. But you're also going to learn the four pillars of sales success. Now, if you haven't had a chance to go back and listen to my interview with Dre, do that. Go back and watch or listen to episode 273. It was phenomenal. But by listening to today's episode, I promise you, you're going to get more confidence, you're going to be more consistent, and the energy you bring to your sales will be matched by your prosp. Affects receptiveness, which means you're going to win a lot more than you are right now, and you're going to do it with a lot less stress. So I hope you enjoy today's episode. Buckle up. Tune in. You're really going to enjoy what Dre and I had to say about sales success and how I am giving you the Tips Dre shared with me. So enjoy today's episode. Let's dive in. Hey. Hey. Welcome back to the podcast. Today I'm excited to share with you a topic that I was quite blown away with when I had the chance to interview Dre Baldwin last week. And what I want to use this podcast to do today is share my thoughts from my interview with Dre. You know, the episode was titled Mental Game, the Four Pillars of Sales Success. And I think what Dre shared last week was absolute gold. Because when I look at our work we do in the insurance industry with insurance producers, the mental side of sales is something that goes overlooked for far too often in the industry. And I want to talk about that today because I think I've got some tips. My thoughts from what Dre shared last week that I think could be really helpful for you if you haven't had a chance to Listen to episode 273, my interview with Dre Baldwin, make sure and go back and watch it. In fact, this would make a great one, two, punch. Go listen to episode 273 and then come back here to episode 220 74, or vice versa. Listen to me right now and then go back and listen to my interview with Dre. Because here's what my promise is to you. Today on this episode, I am going to give you my perspective on the four pillars of sales success that Dre shared in episode 273. Because when I look across the insurance landscape, I see a lot of producers right now who are not hitting their sales goals. And there is an immediate thought that they're not due to the fact that they lack knowledge or they lack the right sales strategy when I can tell you they lack the right mindset. Sales is 80% mindset. And if you don't believe you can win, you're right. And today, I'm going to help you overcome that by talking about the four pillars Dre shared last week. You know, when I work with our clients and we are sitting on our coaching calls, I could tell you the conversation is more mental than it is tactical. To win in sales, you have got to have a good mindset. It's got to be geared for success. That self talk has got to be positive. And I speak from empathy or with empathy, because I've been there. I can tell you. Self talk has been one of my biggest allies, but it's also been one of my biggest enemies. Early in my insurance career, one of the main reasons I wasn't all that successful was because of my self talk. And I can bet that if you're struggling to hit your sales goals right now, it's probably the same if you gut, if you checked your self talk, you would have to admit it's not very good. And the problem right now is you don't believe you can win. Every year you set sales goals that could change your career, it could change the financial picture for you and your family. But then you go into trying to sell and hit those goals with a mindset that's not geared for success. So let's talk about that. What are some examples of.

A sales mindset that is set to fail? The one I hear and see all the time is imposter syndrome. There are so many insurance producers right now who deal with imposter syndrome. And if you think about what imposter syndrome is, we often talk about imposter syndrome popping up when you start comparing yourself to others, which is true. But imposter syndrome occurs most often when you're talking about things you haven't done before. So I'll give you an example. You're a health insurance advisor and you're trying to convince a prospect or a client to move from a fully insured plan to self funding, yet you actually have never sold a self funded plan before. Or you're trying to implement a risk management strategy that you have not executed upon before. That's where imposter syndrome comes in and it's warranted. If you have not done it before, imposter syndrome is going to kick in, and rightly so. But you have to be okay stepping into that fear of the unknown and do it anyways. That's how you overcome imposter syndrome. You will have a point in your career where you talk about things you have not done before. But you've got to step into that discomfort trust that you have partners and teammates that can help you. Because when you do it and you succeed and that imposter syndrome is going to start going away.

The second example of a sales mindset that is set for failure is not believing in what you sell or not believing in your team. And I hear this a lot. I have a lot of producers that I work with. Whether you work, whether they work for an insurance agency, so they're a broker or they're a partner to the industry that sells a specific product. There's a lot of producers who don't believe in what they sell. And if you don't believe in what you sell, it's very hard to convince prospects they should hire you or convince prospects they should Buy your product. The second part of that is not believing in your team. This is a huge one. I talk to too many advisors every week who are just not convinced their team can execute on what they're selling. And I get it. It's a tough place to be if you find yourself there. But you have to recognize if that's how you're going into a sales opportunity, you're not going to win. You can't sell if you don't believe in your team's ability to execute on what you're selling. So if that's where you find yourself today, you got some tough choices to make. Maybe it's time to go find a team you can trust or think about what it is you're selling and what process your team is using to backing up what you sell. And maybe you need to make some adjustments there so you do feel more confident. And then the third example, and this one blows me away.

Having this fear about losing a piece of business you haven't won yet. I hear this one all the time, Andy, man, I know this is a big opportunity. This is a 200 life group or it's a million dollar commercial account. But I'm kind of afraid to win it because what's going to happen if they leave us someday? That's a big chunk of business we might lose. Really? You haven't even won it yet. You gotta let go of that fear. Having a fear of losing a piece of business before you have actually won it is one of the main reasons you're not winning business. You see what's happening right now is you're trying to hit your sales goals by selling from a place of fear.

And your prospects can feel it. There's no way you can win consistently if you are living in this state of mind. You can't sell when you are gripped with fear. Whether that be imposter syndrome, whether that be you don't believe in your product, you don't believe in your team, or you're already concerned about what would happen if you lost this piece of business before you even received the agent or recorded, or it's a combination of it all. If it is, you are most likely never going to hit your sales goals. And that's where I was early in my career. Hi, it's Andy Neary and thank you for listening to the Bullpen Sessions podcast. Did you know the ideas shared on this show are things we actually specialize in helping you implement? If you're an insurance professional and you want to turn your credibility into consistent client acquisition, visit completegameconsulting.com and and schedule a free strategy call. Again, that's completegame consulting.com to request your free strategy call. All right, let's jump back into today's podcast episode.

And this is why I found Dre's four pillars of sales success so powerful. Because this is a guy.

Who has overcome every hurdle he's ever faced. This is a guy who went from playing intramural basketball his junior year high school to making the varsity team his senior year, but not playing all that much to somehow working his way to play Division 3 basketball at the collegiate level. But then he found himself off the team by the time he was a junior because a new coach came in with new players. So he played intramurals in college, and then somehow he worked his ass off into playing professional basketball in Europe for nine years. How does that happen? Mindset. And this is why I love his mindset and his perspective on how you can use a success mindset to succeed in sales. And in that episode, he talked about the advice he received from a friend of his in eighth grade. This is wise advice in eighth grade. And this is a teammate his he had in basketball in eighth grade. And this teammate said two things to Dre that really opened his eyes, and it really resonated with me, which was, number one, Trey, don't play scared. There's no way you can win on the basketball court if you're going to keep playing scared. Think about that in your sales career. Think about everything we just talked about. Imposter syndrome. You don't believe in your product. You don't believe in your team. You're already worried about losing a piece of business before you even won it. That's playing scared. And the second thing is, he told trade, you need to go buy a game. You need to get better. And that's just a reality. If you're struggling with sales right now, maybe the answer you just need to get better. Whether that be product knowledge or just the art of selling. What are you doing to ensure you are putting yourself in the best position to win? You know, one of the things that frustrates me is how many producers I see in this industry who need help, they need coaching, and they tell me that they're going to hire a coach when they start having success.

Let me think about that for a second. So you're not having success today.

And you're not winning like you want, so you're going to wait to get help until when you start winning? Okay, let me. Let me know how that goes for you, you got to get help if you are not where you are today. As Dre's teammate told him, you need to go buy a game, which might mean putting in the work off the field, getting the help you need, getting the coaching you need to get better.

This is how you start down the path of sales success.

Take it upon yourself. By the way, little side note on that income, when it comes to buying a game, it's not your boss's job to buy the game for you. It's not your boss's job to invest in your professional development. It's on you. Not once in my career did I ever expect my company, my boss, my sales manager to invest in my own success. I invested in coaching and courses when I couldn't afford it, when I had to put it on a credit card, because I knew if you need to, put it upon yourself to invest in you. Now let's talk about Dre's four pillars of sales success. And I absolutely love these, because sitting behind, if you're watching the video right now, those four or three portraits I have behind my podcast studio here on my back wall, is our. Is is our pillars of how we operate at complete game cons. And that is consistent, persistent, and patient. And I felt in my interview with Dre that these pillars aligned so well with what Dre was saying, because if you look at the first pillar he talked about, he calls it the third day. And the third day is the day that you keep showing up, even when it hurts, when it sucks, when you suck, you keep showing up no matter what. That's consistency. He used the example in the interview about hiring a personal trainer, right? The first day you go to work with a personal trainer, you're excited, right? You're fired up. You got a new plan. You got some clarity, which gives you confidence. You're ready to go. You have your first day of training. Feels good. Day two, you wake up still excited, a little sore, but you're still excited. So you come back, you have workout number two, two down. Now you feel like you're starting to get consistent. And then you wake up on day three, the third day, and you are in pain. It hurts. And now you start negotiating with yourself. You start making excuses, and before you know it, you get on the phone and you tell your trainer, I take a day off. I can't come in today. I'm a little too sore. And that starts the spiral back to mediocrity. And that's why I love his concept of the third day. It is about being consistent. Everyone quits on the third day. But if you just become willing to show up on day number three, when it hurts, when you're not doing well, when you're not selling anything but you are willing to keep showing up, that is going to create consistency with which is a key ingredient for you to start hitting your sales goals. It starts with consistency. Pillar number two is separation day. Now that you're consistent, if you just keep doing that day after day after day, you are going to separate yourself from the competition. You're going to leave the competition in the dust. That's persistent. Long after everybody quits because they were seeking the fast win, they didn't have the commitment to stay consistent. The fact you keep coming back every single day, no matter what, you are going to separate yourself from the pack. That's separation day. First you got to show up on the third day, and then you got to keep doing it day after day after day. Consistent, persistent.

The third pillar is stepping into the super. You and I see this happen a lot with insurance producers in the industry. Producers who are living an old story. They're still living in a in an old story that defines who they are. I got a couple producers I've worked with who still today, three, four years after a specific event happened in their insurance career, which might have been like leaving one of their agencies. So they lost their entire book of business. They're still living in this story. The reason they're not hitting their goals is because they're still talking about how I lost my book of business four years ago. That's why you're not winning.

You can't keep repeating an old story.

Your past results are not who you are today. Every day is a chance for you to rewrite your future. As Dre puts step into the new super you. And I'm not talking about faking it till you make it, but think about how you want the rest of your career to be and just step into it. One of the best examples Dre shares is how his high school basketball coach lined up his team one day. And he said, all right, for one day, I'm going to pair you up with a teammate. And for this one day, you have to model everything your teammate does. You have to perform and play just like your teammate. You're paired up with performs and plays every single day. And what he did intentionally is he paired the worst players with the best players. And what happened was now that the worst players had to model what the best players were doing, they started naturally becoming Better.

Think about that concept as you start or try to improve your sales success. Who can you model yourself after? Who's on your team that you could model yourself after? Start modeling what they do every day. Start modeling how they prepare for success. Start modeling how they prospect. It amazes me. We have clients who are having tremendous success. They're blowing through their sales goals because they're doing the right activities, like using LinkedIn, like getting clear about who their ideal prospect is. They're stepping into the discomfort, and their teammates are in awe of what they're doing. Yet do you think their teammates are modeling what they're doing? No. Nope, not at all. Which blows me away. So if you want to have more success stepping into the super, you starts by picturing what you want the future to look like. And then go find people who are doing what you want to do and go model them. Which leads us to the fourth pillar, self conditioning. Catch what you say to yourself. Catch how you react to things. What you say to yourself matters more than what anybody else says to you. These are the moments when you get caught in those cycles of maybe lost a couple prospecting opportunities. They didn't go the way you wanted them to. Maybe you lost a client. What are you saying to yourself? How are you reacting in those moments? Because that talk, that chatter, matters. And so you've got to be careful about the chatter that is going on between your ears, whether things are going well or whether they're not. It's easy to get confident, maybe even a little cocky when things are going well. It's also easy to feel like you're worthless when you're not winning. Check your self conditioning. Check the self chat self talk, because that is the most important ingredients to your sales success. This is how you build a mindset geared for success. This is how you win the mental game of sales. Because if you leverage Dre's concepts, the third day, Be consistent. Separation day. Be persistent. Keep doing it long after everybody else quits. Step into the super. You model those who are having the success you want to have and then constantly monitor your self talk and keep it positive. If you can, work on these four pillars and lock them in, number one, you're going to have more confidence. And the more confident you are, the more consistent you will be. Two, the energy you will bring to your sales will be matched by your prospects receptiveness. When you bring that confidence to your sales because you have a positive self talk, your prospects will feel that and it will have a positive impact on your sales. And number Three, you're going to win more with a hell of a lot less stress because you're no longer trying to sell from a place of fear. So I hope you take today's advice and I hope you run with it, because this can change your career. Like I said, the insurance industry places too much emphasis on knowledge and tactics and strategy and not enough emphasis on the mindset, the mental game of sales. So I hope today.

These words that I gathered from my interview from Dre Baldwin have a positive impact on you. Because my ultimate goal is to help you gain clarity. Because if you can gain clarity, you will grow confidence. And the more confident you are, the more consistent you are going to be. And the second you become consistent and you match it with your confidence, you are going to become unstoppable. So take these. Run with them. It's time for you to blow through your sales goals. Be good. Thank you for taking the time to listen to today's podcast episode. Remember, if you found value in this episode, do me a favor. Give it a like, share it, post about it, go subscribe to make sure you get every episode from us every single week. And my only ask from you is that if you have anybody in your life, whether it be a teammate, a peer, family member, or a friend, please share this podcast with them. That's how we grow. We only grow through word of mouth, and I would be forever grateful if you take the time to do that. All right, now it's time for you to take what you learned, and it's time for you to go out, share your message with the world. Execution, clarity, and consistency is everything. Be well.