On the Journey to Higher Level Selling

How to maximize your instincts, experience, and impact

In this post, we are looking at five of the best sales books for psychology and influence. We aren’t going to go overly-deep or into the weeds. We will explore Getting Things Done, Blink, Thinking Fast and Slow, The Power of Habit, and Subliminal to apply our intuition, increase our influence, and build stronger foundations.

Yes, we are going to talk about books. No, you don’t have to read them. But you should.

All high performers read and study their craft. Finding the time to do it can be challenging, but we urge you to look for ways to create bandwidth in your days so you can learn some higher-level skills in human psychology, influence, habits, and behavior. It’s not only important to have solid sales processes in the steps and tools you use, but you also need to build your “people processes” by designing better ways to connect and build conversations that sell.

We are pulling out the most actionable portions of these powerful ideas for sales. These are all proven, researched, and contain deep insights. After reading this article, you will be ready to speed up your growth.

Getting Things Done (Creating a successful foundation)

What makes Getting Things Done a powerful resource for salespeople. It's not that it helps you stay organized or gives you a bunch of steps to do. GTD is valuable because it provides you with an actionable framework to tackle your work. Now you can get through that never-ending amount of things you need to get done.

• Get control back by focusing on the most critical item. One item at a time. Know what these are ahead of time and in each moment, not after the fact.
• Have one inbox for everything, and nothing gets lost. You know exactly where to go to get things done.
• Can you do this thing now, do it. Otherwise, defer it by booking a meeting or follow-up.
• Set it and forget it. Set your next step and then move on.
• Take care of the fundamentals with a process. Then you can be present at your next sales meeting.
• You won’t have a task list bouncing around in your head. No more wondering about what you have to do or if you made the right decision or not on something that’s already passed.
• Get the bandwidth back for coaching & development.

We allow the stuff to pile up, get easily overwhelmed, then try to multitask. It’s a losing battle every time. When you only work on one thing and only touch that one thing once, you’ll be surprised at not only how quickly you work but how much less of your energy it takes. This thinking is a cornerstone of Basix and is not optional if you want to win. 

The result of applying the “Getting Things Done” framework is that you immediately get more time back (bandwidth) so you can get to work on some of the higher level “people process” ideas below. It’s not about doing more, but rather being able to do less and win more. 

Blink (Apply your intuition to win by thinking without thinking)

• Trust your instincts. Decisions made quickly, in each moment, can be more potent than stewing on something. In sales, this means when you are with that individual prospect/customer, not after. These are the in-the-moment, with the person situations.
• Do not trust them always. Know when your instincts betray you. For example, reversing decisions, going backward in sales doesn't work. It’s about the other person, not you. Trust the original instinct.
• Learn, practice, and control your snap judgments. “Thin-slicing” during the actual interaction lets you do this. For example, in sales, set the next step right then when you are in the moment with the other person. Not going back to “pull” accounts later.
• Too much information gives us the illusion of certainty but leads to more mistakes.

When we work with high-performing sales teams, it’s common to hear them tell us “it depends” or “sometimes” when talking about their processes, especially their sales conversations (people processes). However, when you observe winners in action, they inevitably have patterns they follow, even if they do so unconsciously. When you start to isolate those patterns, you see how their minds are thinking without thinking and helping them achieve their goals quickly. Sales are not some mysterious or magical art form but rather a set of repeatable best practices you can learn, evaluate, and improve on. Basix gets you there.

The trick is that too many salespeople improve their technical & operational process skills rather than their people process skills. This is why sales coaching is so valuable. Getting the technical & operational process out of the way is the foundational step to allow the focus to shift.

Thinking, Fast and Slow (Apply your intuition and increase your influence)

System 1 is thinking fast. Instincts matter! At the moment, right now. Thinking fast is your sales flow.

• Examples where this works: setting your next step with a prospect, where this deal is at, determining prospect engagement, flagging something for coaching.
• Examples where this doesn't work: deciding which sales skill to develop next, changing your pitch strategy

System 2 is thinking slow. Thinking slow is how you improve your sales flow.

• Examples where this works: deciding which sales skill to develop next, changing your pitch strategy
• Examples where this doesn't work: setting your next step with a prospect, where this deal is at, determining prospect engagement, flagging something for coaching.

Loss aversion

• We worry more about what we may lose than what we may gain. You have to move on in sales because your time is valuable. Trust your instincts. Focus on where the prospect is demonstrating verifiable outcomes. When you get that customer-driven outcome, it means the deal is moving forward.

Endowment Effect

• Take ownership of the part of the process that you can impact the most, the “people process.” We cannot own everything and do it all well.
• Let the prospect own the solution. Then the prospect will be internally motivated. Don’t try to sell the prospect your solution. They will naturally resist.

Priming

• If you think about the sale at the very beginning, you will act differently. They will smell your commission breath. Focus your intention on that first micro-conversion. Look to serve and add value. What’s that first step? Aim at that by setting your intentions before you go into that interaction.
• Instead of focusing on the pain today, help them visualize what will be better going forward. That way, the current state will not be something they want to go back to.

Sunk cost fallacy

• Everything should be moving forward or backward (avoid the sunk cost fallacy of putting more time into something because you’ve already put time into it)
• Put your time, energy, and efforts into what’s moving.

There is a lot in this one! Break this down. Build in the process to improve how you work, and Then you can focus on the “people process” of sales and get more deals. Basix is built on these foundations and helps create bandwidth for the rep to focus on the "people process" side.

The key to applying “Thinking, Fast and Slow” is all about getting yourself into a state of sales flow. This has two parts. Your System 1 (unconscious) where you are in the zone and connecting with your prospect. While at the same time engaging System 2 (conscious). Looking for patterns and hidden opportunities to improve. This takes practice, but top performers can be both in the moment selling and simultaneously watching. It sounds crazy, but you can do it. 

The Power of Habit (Building stronger foundations by giving you more bandwidth)

• Make things muscle memory (a habit), both the easy stuff and the challenging but valuable stuff.
• Habits overwhelm decision-making, and they don’t disappear. We overcome with better and more powerful habits.
• CUES, ROUTINES, and REWARDS
• Identify: What CUEs help you move a sale forward? Watch for the CUEs during your sales interactions.
• Act: Establish routines for these situations. What you do now or what next step you set are what you want to create
• CUEs and ROUTINES are your playbooks for the “people process” in sales.
• Redefine your REWARDS to customer-verifiable-outcomes, all those micro-conversions that move your deals forward
• Spot the CUES to apply the right ROUTINE and get your prospect to the REWARD...then you get the sale.
• Get into your sales flow by avoiding distractions. Focus on one thing, one account, or contact at a time only. Not your corporate emails, not second-guessing past decisions, or changing your mind.
• By always moving forward, you will build the momentum to win!
• Repeatability makes improvement possible. All this sets the foundation for your growth.

Pick one habit at a time, do it until it is in place. Move to the next one.

This book combines very well with the idea above in Thinking Fast and Slow. When you build your habits, you reduce the mental energy it takes to perform your routines throughout the day. Basix decreases that even further. With the decrease in mental energy, you can tap into more higher-level thinking in the moment, such as System 2 (conscious).

Subliminal (Building stronger foundations and influencing others)

Warning! When you get deeper into human psychology, you’ll realize that we are typically not in control of our actions. We are often the worst predictor of our own future behavior. That’s why the subtitle for this book is “How your unconscious mind rules your behavior.”

However, the good news is that once you know this truth, you can learn from it. You will see how humans have specific patterns they follow, how you can influence easier, and how to be very careful with assumptions.

The big ideas, influencing ourselves and others, and the scientist’s brain vs. the lawyer’s brain.

Use mental scripts to increase your positive impact & influence:

• Don’t tell, show...use the word “because” and show them your viewpoint.
• Voice matters...not the words but your tone, pitch, and cadence.
• Anchoring to create a shared frame to discuss together vs. debating to get on the same page faster. We work on that shared frame vs. against each other.
• Don’t pitch, don’t sell. Communicate, frame, move together with the other person.
• You have to believe. If you don’t, the other person will pick up on it, subconsciously.

Change how you see the world to win more sales ("scientists" vs. "lawyers"):

• What salesperson wants to be a "scientist"? (Stick with me for a minute. It’s worth it.)
• The "scientist’s brain" looks for patterns, looks for theories, and tests.
• The "lawyer's brain" begins with a conclusion. It is looking for supporting evidence and discredits contradictory evidence.
• The "lawyer's brain" is more comfortable. This is because we feel correct right from the start. This limits who you can sell to.
• Unless your customer already bought and wants you to fend someone off who is bugging them...this isn’t sales.
• The "scientist's brain" will always find better answers. Focusing on continually improving. This means everything is on the table to change. With this approach, you constantly gain influence, add value, and create micro-conversions to get more deals!
• Salespeople who want to win more adopt the "scientist's brain." They apply this to the “people process” of selling. It's time to put yourself out there and move forward.
• We are taking away from this as salespeople are the curiosity, intelligence, and adaptability to focus on finding the best answer.

One of the big examples in this book was how we subconsciously pass on our beliefs to others. If you feel like someone won’t be successful, you will communicate that. So in sales, you have to make sure you spend time working on your beliefs. You must 100% believe that the person in front of you will succeed with your offer. Otherwise, you will subliminally trigger their “spidey-sense” and shatter their belief in your offer.

You can see that these are not simple topics, but some high-level thinking you will need to understand and then apply. How much time are you committing to building these “people processes” into your sales process?

Change is going to feel awkward. The good news is that it means it’s working.

Here’s what we suggest you do.

1. Create bandwidth by finding 30 minutes per day to work on these skills by applying the lessons in Getting Things Done (or use Basix to sell, which builds this in, and you’ll instantly have more time).
2. Then pick one skill you want to work on for a week, such as setting your intentions.
3. Studying for 2.5 hours, plus applying it throughout your sales interactions, will probably get you at least 10 hours of applied practice that week.
4. Each week, be intentional about building your people processes. Set a plan and build habits.
5. Do this for 90 days, and you will have developed 13 new skills and built a strong set of habits.

Get out there, apply these ideas, and always be developing as you go. Set up process and feedback loops to put this into practice. We continuously work with sales teams on developing their people skills because Basix focuses on getting the “stuff” out of the way through technology.

If you want to evaluate your people, process, and technology, connect with us.