By Leanne Haogland-Smith
Post-Tribune, Merrillville, Ind.
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) Four months remain in 2017. If you are not satisfied with your business or sales results, maybe it is time to do a self-check in about your own mindset. Business coach Leanne Hoagland-Smith takes a look at what may be holding you back.
Post-Tribune, Merrillville, Ind.
To realize the full potential of sales skills and talents begins with the mindset of each salesperson.
Self-improvement experts, motivational speakers even those in executive leadership and management roles sing the virtues of a positive mindset.
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Years ago one of my coaches, David Herdlinger, constructed a great and simple visual. He drew a quadrant and left top corner he wrote the word “Knowledge.” In the top right corner of the quadrant he wrote the word “Attitude.” The lower left corner had the word “Skill” and to its immediate right was the word “Habit.” Herdlinger named this simple quadrant the “KASH Box.”
Then he asked this question about failure in business, sales and even personal lives: Is failure the result of a lack of Knowledge or Skills or poor Attitudes and Habits?
How much training and development be it for sales, customer service, leadership or management is about acquiring new knowledge and skills?
Yet if failure is due to poor attitudes and habits, why isn’t there equal if not greater emphasis on developing great attitudes and habits?
Aren’t these attitudes and habits the foundation for success?
Mindset is the desire or lack of desire to put into action one’s skills and talents.
For some this mindset may be called “grit” for others we hear the phrase “positive mental attitude.” Whatever we call mindset, the end result is the same that being forward progress even under adverse situations.
Many people have the necessary skills and talents to be successful. However sales and business success still eludes them. My husband, who is now a retired entrepreneur, captured the essence of the KASH Box mindset with this statement:
“It is not a question of do I know it, but rather of one ‘Do I want to do it?” He then went on and said, “If I want to do it, I will acquire the necessary knowledge and skills.”
So the question returns to you. Do you want “to do it” to:
–Increase sales?
–Increase commissions?
–Increase repeat business (customer loyalty)?
–(Fill in the blank)?
P.S. There are now four months remaining in 2017. If you are not satisfied with your business or sales results, maybe it is time to do a self-check in about your own mindset.
Leanne Hoagland-Smith is an author, speaker and executive coach. Her weekly column explores issues that impact the bottom line of firms with fewer than 100 employees. She can be reached at 219-508-2859.
