Three Mindsets for Growing Your Business and Sales

(An article by Ron Karr, taken from the July/August issue of HBMA Billing)

If I ask you not to think about pink elephants, what will you think about? Be honest! You're thinking about pink elephants! But why would you, when I asked you not to?

The answer is simple: the mind cannot process the negative. If you are about to go into an account hoping to not lose the sale, what do you think is going to happen? You will lose the sale. The opposite is thinking about the deal you are going to close. Thinking about what you want to achieve, instead of what you don't want to have happen, makes all the difference in the world when it comes to your success in sales. Thinking about closing the deal puts you in an entirely different mindset that allows you to have the right conversation to make it happen.

Your mindset is the difference between closing more business and losing it. We have identified three critical mindsets that top producers use to grow their business. They are:

1. Creation vs. competition
2. Openings vs. closings
3. Alliances vs. lone ranger

Creation vs. Competition

Too many sales executives go into sales calls trying to beat their competition instead of creating better results for their customers. To build a value proposition that is second to none, you must concentrate on generating better results rather than competing against the processes already employed by the client. This is what Scott Nadell, Director of Sales for a third party billing company in New York, does.

Scott called me and wanted to know how he could close more deals. It seemed as though every time he walked into a practice, the walls would go up and office managers and doctors would be rude and unwilling to listen. Scott was going in to tell them how great his system was and how he could save them time and money. He was a threat to peoples' jobs and nobody wanted to deal with him. Sound familiar?

Scott changed his approach from competing against what they are currently doing to having conversations on how partnerships with his company can produce better results. He created different mindsets that enabled his audience to want to hear what he had to say without feeling threatened.
 

Openings vs. Closings

After switching his mindset to one of creation, Scott then looked at how he presented his position when introducing himself to prospects. Instead of telling them how great he was, he provided actual statistics on how much money his company had successfully billed and collected for its clients. He positioned his company as a valued resource that helps practices increase their profits and revenues through an efficient billing and collection system.
But here is the catch! Scott did not do this in a one-sided conversation. He got the doctors and practice managers to talk first about where they wanted to take their practices and what goals they had identified for their billing systems. Once he figured out where their struggles were, he then presented his systems and results in the context of what was important to each particular practice. When the managers and doctors heard his pitch, they felt like it was fully customized to address their issues.
 

Alliances vs. Lone Rangers

Scott then decided to take the same approach when it came time to creating alliances with other parties, such as attorneys and accountants. He realized that being introduced to a new prospect by one of their trusted advisors greatly reduced the amount of time it took to gain his prospect's attention and interest. If your attorney says that you need to speak to a service provider who is going to help your business, you are going to have that conversation.

Scott always knew that this was important. What he did not realize is that you need to treat each alliance as a client. In other words, don't just ask them for referrals. Do what you do with the doctors: ask about where they are trying to take their businesses, then discuss how partnering with you can help them get there.

Today, Scott and his company are enjoying great results from operating with these three mindsets. They are closing new accounts and creating alliances with influencers in their industry who are opening a lot of doors for them.

Scott started seeing results initially in the quality of the conversations he was having, which led to more opportunities and eventually more business.

What mindsets do you operate from? For doctors to switch third party billing companies or to go to a third party biller, they need to hear a compelling reason. That only comes when you operate from the right mindset. 

Courtesy of: http://www.hbma.org/news/public-news/n_three-mindsets-for-growing-your-business-and-sales