These Four Limiting Beliefs are Undermining Your Sales

“Every salesperson has a collection of beliefs. When they are positive beliefs, they support positive sales outcomes. When the beliefs are negative, they sabotage ideal sales outcomes. Our thoughts and beliefs influence our actions, and our actions lead to outcomes.”

That’s Dave Kurlan, best-selling author of several sales books and owner of Baseline Selling, in a recent interview discussing how to help sales teams excel. Kurlan has worked with more than a million sales organizations over the past 25 years, assessing salespeople and helping companies decide who to keep, who to develop, and who to let go. In the course of that work, he’s identified key “limiting beliefs” that prevent salespeople from taking the actions necessary to win more deals.

We asked him to talk with us about those limiting beliefs.

Membrain: How do you know when limiting beliefs are present?

Kurlan: There are about 75 beliefs we look at that could be positive, negative, or not present in a salesperson. You know limiting beliefs are present when a coach or manager has worked with a salesperson on the same topic over, and over, and over again, and the salesperson simply doesn’t improve. It’s not that they’re dumb or stubborn or not understanding it, it’s just that they won’t do it because it’s different from an established belief in their heads.

Membrain: Among complex sales teams, what are the four most significant limiting beliefs that pop up over and over?

Kurlan: In complex sales, the four we see most often are:

1. “I need to call on purchasing rather than the decision maker,”
2. “It takes a long time to get people to buy stuff,”
3. “If they don’t have the budget, they can’t buy from me,” and
4. “It’s not okay to talk about money and budget.”

Membrain: Talk to us about, “I need to call on purchasing.”

Kurlan: This one is often passed down in departments from one salesperson to another, and it’s very damaging. The consequences of it are that you never get past low level employees, and you’re constantly competing against other vendors as a commodity.

A better belief is, “I’m good at reaching decision makers,” and a sister belief, “Decision makers easily engage with me.”

Membrain: Regarding, “It takes a long time to get people to buy stuff from me.” Isn’t this actually true in complex sales?

Kurlan: Sure, but not as long as you think. With the right beliefs in place, you can cut through a lot of bureaucracy and committees, and get straight to the sale itself. The consequence of this belief is that salespeople end up in too many committee meetings, too many presentations, and inviting in more competition. Sales cycles drag out and fewer opportunities turn into wins.

A better belief is, “I’m good at creating urgency and cutting through shortcuts to get the deal made.”

Membrain: And “If they don’t have the budget they can’t buy from me”?

Kurlan: This belief keeps many salespeople from turning perfectly good opportunities into wins. They give up at the first sign of budgetary limitations. They fail to have the conversations that create value and urgency in the buyer’s mind, and that help the prospect find the money for it.

A better belief is, “I’m great at helping my prospects find the money they need to do business with me.”

Membrain: And the last one, “It’s not okay to ask about budget or money.”

Kurlan: Salespeople are taught to ask, “How much is in your budget?,” or “Do you have a budget?” These are terrible questions. Dead ends. And many salespeople won’t even ask them, because of this belief.

A better question is, “Why don’t you have budget for this? Who makes that decision? Who do you go to for the money?”

But they won’t ask these questions as long as they’re limited by the belief that it’s not okay.

Membrain: Is there any hope for salespeople with limiting beliefs? Can they be changed?

Kurlan: They can, but it’s not easy. You have to decide that you’re going to invest in underperforming salespeople, and you have to expect that it’s not going to happen overnight. I’ve actually developed some tools to help with this. One of them, available through Amazon or on the Baseline Selling page, contains exercises for overcoming all 75 limiting beliefs. I also have a set of CDs that reprogram the brain through self-hypnosis. It takes about 21 days if you do it twice a day.

Membrain: What about at different levels of the organization? Do managers and directors and CEOs have limiting beliefs? Are they the same ones?

Kurlan: Almost everyone has limiting beliefs, and yes, they’re different at different levels. At the management level, a few that we’ve identified include:

• I don’t need to know what motivates my salespeople
• My salespeople don’t need to be motivated
• My salespeople already know what they need to do
• I don’t have time for coaching

At the executive level, the limiting beliefs are present as well. The only place we don’t see much in the way of limiting beliefs is in the top 7% of sales performers. There’s a direct correlation between lack of limiting beliefs and high performance. That elite 7% is supported mostly by positive beliefs.

Membrain: You’ve been doing this for 25 years. Has anything changed in terms of limiting beliefs in that time?

Kurlan: Not much. The industry has changed, certainly, but the same limiting beliefs are present. The one thing that seems to be shifting is among Millennials. Millennials in general tend to be much more intrinsically motivated rather than extrinsically, and they tend to be much more altruistic than previous generations.

For sales departments, I don’t think this is good news. Top salespeople tend in general to be more extrinsically motivated. And I would be very surprised to find many or even any altruistically motivated individuals among the top 7%. It would be interesting to look at that data.

Membrain: Do you have that data?

Kurlan: I do, in fact, but I haven’t analyzed it. I will now.*
Editor’s note: Kurlan did in fact perform the analysis, and you can see the results below:

Do you know what limiting beliefs are undermining your team’s sales performance? Sound off in the comments.

PS: If you like Dave Kurlan's Baseline Selling sales process and methodology, you're in luck! We've worked closely with Dave to make it come to life using Membrain. Read more and sign up here.