THE BELIEF SYSTEMS
THAT DISTINGUISH
WINNERS
In researching the Salesperson's Secret Code thousands of hours of interviews were held with salespeople. Everyone spoke of five foundational beliefs related to their role – what we call their Destination Beliefs. See the graphic below which shows the categories related to the five Destination Beliefs. Destination Beliefs embody a single, over-arching truth: that beliefs are matters of personal “faith” and will flex and change along with one’s life experience.
Destination Beliefs are necessary components of a salesperson’s belief system, but what really separates the top performers from the lower performers is how those beliefs are interpreted and synthesized internally. Put simply, for each Destination Belief salespeople describe a wide spectrum of attitudes towards the belief. These are the ten sub-beliefs, two for each Destination Belief at oppopsite ends of the 'belief sprectrum'. What we have learned is that the most successful salespeople respond to certain sub-beliefs with greater intensity than they do to others. And it is their response to the intensity of the sub-belief which motivates them to behave in a particular way. For this reason, we have called the sub-beliefs Journey Motivators. Journey Motivators send us down a particular track; they demonstrate how we respond to what happens to us on the journey. Journey Motivators set our attitude, and when we use the word “attitude” here, we do not mean a 'good' or 'bad' attitude. What we mean by attitude here is the original dictionary definition, where one takes a perspective, standpoint, position or approach. As leadership expert John Maxwell says, your attitude is “the librarian of your past, the speaker of your present and the prophet of your future.” Journey Motivators lay out in front of us the path that we will walk. And though much may have been said and written about having the “right kind of attitude”, now, for the first time, we can measure it in a specific population. Here, finally, is a causal chain, a formula for success – The Salesperson’s Secret Code.
What are these?
The most exciting insight from our research was that all salespeople, without exception, referenced most of these five Destination Beliefs. It was clear that Destination Beliefs are necessary components of a salesperson’s belief system, but what really separated the top performers from the lower performers was how those beliefs were interpreted and synthesised internally. Put simply, for each Destination Belief our research described a wide array of attitudes towards the belief. These formed 10 Journey Beliefs.
Why are Destination Belief so important?
The most successful salespeople respond to certain Journey Beliefs with greater intensity than they do to others. And it is their response to the intensity of the sub-belief which then drives a behaviour. Journey Beliefs send us down a particular track; they demonstrate how we respond to what happens to us on the journey.
How can Destination Belief insights help me?
Our primary aim in designing this developmental tool is to offer any sales personnel useful insights into those personal beliefs and attitudes which are driving their sales behaviour, and in turn performance.
What will I have to do?
We invite you to contribute to the next design phase of this exciting new tool. We ask only that you devote 12-15 minutes of your time. You have therefore been chosen to complete a trial version of our Salesperson’s Secret Code questionnaire. Completion of the questionnaire would indicate your permission for the results to be used by TPI for this research. It would be a great help to us if you could complete this questionnaire as honestly as possible.
