Weekly Sales Tips: Thinking “Plus One”

Are you a high achiever? If you are, you’re gonna carry that mentality, and we’ll be able to see that in your sales approach. Today we’re gonna talk about sales motivation, and the mentality of thinking plus one.

The world is so full of people willing to do the least that they need to do. There are just so many people out there who are content to turn in work that is mediocre at best.

In their defense, part of this has to do with our natural tendency to conserve mental energy. Daniel Kahneman refers to this as the Law of Least Effort. We’re always looking for the easiest way to do anything at all. It’s the way to preserve the energy in our brain. But that thinking can really hurt your sales success. It just reeks of mediocrity.

Have you heard the term minimum performance standards? I hate that term! That term represents the bare minimum of work that you need to do in order to keep your job. Of course, that’s not how true professionals think. In fact, it is inconsistent with the belief and the thinking of strong sales performers.

I don’t know about you but I don’t want anything to do with mediocre thinking. That’s a big part of the reason that I launched Sales365. That’s where we formed a community of sales professionals who never settle for the bare minimum. We are all plus one thinkers.

Part of this might come down to your own mindset. Do you have an abundance mindset or a scarcity mindset? Abundance thinkers always believe that there are greater opportunities and that there are opportunities for everyone. But those infected by that scarcity mentality feel like there’s just not enough to go around and so I’ll just sort of get mine and stop there.

Here’s my question for you. Do you believe that you’re entitled to your fair share? Or do you want more than your fair share?

In sales environments, we see this play out in the form of sales quotas. I recorded a 5 Minute Sales Training about this not that long ago. While you’re there, weigh in on the comments section, please. Are you an abundance thinker or are you a scarcity thinker?

Here’s the problem with quotas. They can tend to make us a bit lazy. You see, we reach our quota and then we settle for whatever we have accomplished right there. But it doesn’t necessarily inspire us to wanna do bigger and better things.

Thinking Plus One

There’s gotta be a different mentality that we can adopt in order to get this right, and there is. I call it the plus one mentality. What I mean by plus one is that we want to do what we have to do but then let’s ask another question. What does plus one look like?

So an obvious example is to say what’s your sales quota? Great, what’s your sales quota plus one? What would you have to do to get one more sale?

I can also break this down into specific behaviors.

• How about the prospecting call plus one more?
• How about going through the sales presentation and looking for that plus one step to advance the sale just a little bit further?
• How about adding one more new technique over the course of my day or my week.

Sales Motivation Amped by Plus One Thinking

Plus one thinkers are never content to do the minimum.

They’re always looking for opportunities to do and then get even more. They want their share of sales, and then they want somebody else’s share of sales. Not because they’re arrogant but because they’re outperforming everyone else and they deserve that higher number.

Plus one isn’t just a mindset, it’s a way of life.

Plus one people on this planet do more, they achieve more, they get more and they enjoy more. People who carry this plus one mentality, they are more successful, they’re more effective and they’re more content with their results.

So what about you? What would it take for you to adopt a plus one perspective?