How Top Salespeople Think Differently About Success

Have you noticed how much the sales profession has transformed over the years? Gone are the days when closing tactics and persistence were considered the hallmarks of success. Today's thriving sales professionals operate with an entirely different mindset.

Morris Sims draws from decades of experience training business owners and salespeople to reveal this profound shift in professional selling. The old approach positioned salespeople as persuaders who needed to overcome objections and "make the sale happen." This created a high-pressure environment where sales professionals felt personally responsible for every lost opportunity. As Morris explains, the most successful people in sales today have abandoned this outdated perspective.

The new sales paradigm centers on understanding what prospects truly want and helping them achieve it. Through compelling examples, Morris illustrates how top performers begin by acknowledging client challenges and offering to take burdensome tasks off their plates. Instead of leading with company credentials and product features, they conduct thorough discovery interviews to understand family situations, business concerns, and personal aspirations. This client-centered methodology builds trust and positions the salesperson as a valuable resource rather than a transaction-focused seller.

This shift reflects a fundamental truth about human behavior: we love to buy but hate being sold to. By focusing on adding value before ever asking for a commitment, today's sales professionals create an environment where clients naturally want to engage. Check your mindset, language, and approach - are you giving or taking? When you genuinely help prospects get what they want, the sales process transforms from a struggle into a natural, mutually beneficial relationship. Visit morrissimscom to discover more strategies for growing your business while creating more time to enjoy the results of your success.

Chapters

• 0:00 Evolution of Sales Mindsets
• 2:30 Introduction to Commission Code Podcast
• 4:10 Old vs New Sales Approaches
• 5:43 Learning from Top Salespeople
• 8:06 Adding Value Before Selling

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

The way that professional salespeople go about their business, the mindset that they hold.

Speaker 1: 0:07

Well, it's been changing over the years. I've seen it happen and I've adjusted my point of view because of those changes. It's reflected in how I sell my own services and it also shows up in how I coach and consult with business owners and other professional salespeople. It makes a difference in all the training that I do and the courses that I build. The result, well, revenue increases and we have more time to enjoy that increase in revenue. But here's the best part Because of these changes, we're helping people improve their lives and adding value by sharing our expertise that, frankly, there's no way they can get it from AI or any internet search. Let me tell you about it. Welcome to the Commission Code Podcast. We're here to help you overcome the challenges that most of us face in our business. From time to time, you know things like feeling like you're on a plateau and you just can't seem to grow your business, or maybe feeling overwhelmed, just trying to make ends meet and yet it seems like you're always working. Or maybe you've done quite well for a while, but now nothing seems to be working anymore. Well, we want to help you solve those problems and many more. Our objective is to provide you with practical solutions so you can grow your business and have more time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Speaker 1: 1:45

My name is Morris Sims and I'm going to be your host for this show. I've spent years okay decades really in the corporate world teaching business owners how to increase their revenue and use professional sales processes and run their business more effectively and efficiently. I started my own consulting and training business about seven years ago, I guess, and I'm helping my clients do just exactly that Get more revenue, increase their revenue and have more time to enjoy the fruits of their labor. But I got to tell you I'm having more fun than ever helping people build successful businesses. So, with all that said, let's get on with today's episode of the Commission Code for your Success. I've been training professional salespeople for decades and I've seen the theories of how to be successful in sales change.

Speaker 1: 2:44

In the old days, salespeople were taught that it was totally up to them to make the sale. I mean, yeah right, make the sale. If you presented well and asked the right questions, you could get the prospect to buy. The mindset was that the salesperson had to make it happen. The mindset was that the salesperson had to make it happen. If you didn't make the sale, it was something that you did wrong or something that you just didn't do. You didn't ask the hard questions to close the sale. You didn't answer the objections, you didn't do this, that or the other. The focus was totally and completely on what you did as the salesperson.

Speaker 1: 3:26

There was a story about a life insurance agent who, when he didn't make a sale to a family on his way out, he'd stop and he'd look up the stairs where the kids were sleeping and he would say little Jimmy, I'm so sorry I didn't do a very good job tonight. I couldn't convince your mom and dad to buy life insurance that would protect you and provide for your college education. But I promise you I'll work at it and I'll do better next time. Now that is an extreme example of how not to deal with the situation where the prospect doesn't buy, and it is never something I or any of my colleagues have ever taught anybody, but it does represent the terrible mindset that we were taught back then. Boy, if you just know the answers to the objections and if you ask the hard questions, then you can make a sale. Well, as the years roll by, I've had the opportunity to meet and work with some of the very best salespeople that exist in the world today.

Speaker 1: 4:33

Here's what the top salespeople did that was not in our training. They didn't push or pull or ask the hard questions. They focused on what the prospect wanted and worked at trying to help them get what they wanted. One of the top agents that I've ever met has a graphic that he uses when he goes in to meet somebody for the first time and it simply shows the things that he does to help business owners, and his opening discussion, well, it was something kind of like this Mr Business Owner, you have a lot of things to work on in your business and all of that takes your time, and some of it's not productive time. Would you agree? Yeah, it is. Well, here's what I do for business owners. I take some of these things, I take care of these things so that you don't have to.

Speaker 1: 5:23

He was focused on the prospective client, not on the product features or benefits, not focused on making a sale. He was focused on how to help that other person free up their time and operate their business more effectively, and how he could help them do just exactly that. It wasn't the old. Here's who I am. This is why I'm a good person in my credibility. Here's the company I represent. See how great we are, boy, we're wonderful. And here's the product that we provide, and it will do everything under the sun for you. Instead, it was. Here are the things that you have to spend time on that are not generating revenue for your business. May I take some of that off of your plate.

Speaker 1: 6:13

Then, when the prospective client identifies their most frustrating thing that they have to deal with, he'll do a complete discovery interview to learn more about their family, their business, their desires, their worries, their concerns. Then, and only then, would he begin to start crafting a recommendation for the business owner. Do you see the difference in the approach? Do you see the difference in the mindset? Do you see the difference in the mindset? Do you see where he is putting the prospective client's desires first and trying to help them get what they need, what they want? Sales training is adjusting to this change in mindset. I can tell you for sure mine is. And how you begin to build that trusting relationship with a prospective buyer. Well, that's all changing.

Speaker 1: 7:04

The foundation of professional sales training is understanding the role of the salesperson, and that role is helping people get what they want. It begins with the mindset of a professional. See, the professional believes that they're there to add value to the prospect long before they ever get to the point where the prospect is making the decision to buy. You know, we humans we love to buy things. Just look at Amazon. Come on, the Amazon delivery guy is at our house more often than our grandkids. We love to buy and Amazon makes it easy, right? Well, now here's the point. We all generally hate to be sold.

Speaker 1: 7:52

Our mindset directs the questions that we ask in the language that we use in the sales process. Words and language matter in professional sales training and in there we focus our training on giving, not on taking. So check your mindset. Check your mindset and go out to add value to your prospects and find out what they really need and what they want and help them get it. And when you have the solution they need and you present it to them, they're going to buy. Best wishes, have a wonderful week. I'll see you again next time. My name is Morris Sims. Well, that does it for this episode of the Commission Code Podcast. This is the place where we want to help you find the commission code to success in your business. Remember, go to morrissimscom for more information and in the meantime, hey, have a great week, get out there and meet somebody new, and we'll see you again next time right here on the Commission Code. Best wishes, I'm Morris Sims.