Selling With an Innovative Mindset

Nearly half of all salespeople, 48%, never make a follow-up attempt after their first contact. Imagine that. It’s like showing up at the gym, doing one squat, then walking out and wondering why you’re not getting stronger. Sales, like fitness, rewards persistence, resilience, and mindset.

As someone who teaches CrossFit, I often see business and the gym collide in surprising ways. When you first try a new skill, pull-ups, or even just staying on the assault bike, you get thrown around. It feels awkward. You fall and you fail, and you feel foolish. But with coaching, repetition, and resilience, you do better each time. Eventually, you master the movement.

Sales is no different. It’s not about tricks or gimmicks. It’s about how you think. The best salespeople don’t just do different things, they think differently. They see sales as service, setbacks as feedback, and persistence as non-negotiable.

From years of experience training salespeople and elite athletes, here are my eight ways to change your thinking – and, in the process, win more business.

1. Confront Your “Gremlins” About Selling
Many professionals quietly carry negative beliefs about sales: that it’s manipulative, pushy, or beneath them. These gremlins show up in hesitation, avoidance, or apologetic conversations. Reframe selling as serving. When you truly believe you’re helping, the conversation becomes lighter, more confident, and more valuable for everyone.

2. Beware the Lunch Loop
Relationships matter in business, but they can also become a trap. Too many “catch-ups” and “coffee chats” risk keeping you in the comfort of the friend zone, rather than moving forward. The lunch loop feels safe, but it isn’t sales. At some point, you need to move from rapport to results.

3. Re-Chip your Thinking Like an Optimist
Optimists outsell pessimists, and it isn’t luck – it’s mindset. Optimists interpret rejection as temporary, not permanent. They treat setbacks as situations, not verdicts. In training, if you fail a lift, you don’t give up on strength, you rework your approach. Sales requires the same optimism: a belief that the next rep, the next call, the next conversation could be the one that lands.

4. Redefine Rejection: “No” Is the Second-Best Answer
Most people fear rejection. But in sales, “no” is clarity. It gives you direction, saves you time, and allows you to pivot. The real enemy is silence, the endless limbo of “maybe.” Just as in CrossFit, missing a lift teaches you more than avoiding it ever could, a clear “no” teaches you to refine, adjust, and move forward.

5. Persistence Wins: Silence Does Not Equal “No”
Nearly half of salespeople stop after the first attempt. Yet most deals require multiple touches. No response often means “not yet,” not “not ever.” Persistence, delivered with professionalism, demonstrates belief, belief in your offer and in the value you bring. Just like building strength in the gym, it’s the consistent reps, not the one-offs, that change the game.

6. Build Trust in a Virtual World
In a world of screens and emails, trust can feel harder to establish. But opportunities are everywhere if you know how to create them. Small talk, appropriate self-disclosure, and a touch of humanity can create intimacy even in virtual interactions. People do business with people, not with avatars.

7. See Sales as a Process, not a One-Off
Sales success isn’t about big wins or chance encounters. It’s about rhythm. Just as structured training delivers fitness, structured activity delivers sales. Prospecting, nurturing, and follow-up aren’t occasional tasks, they are disciplines, habits, and part of your weekly routine.

8. Find Your Authentic Style
The best salespeople don’t wear masks. They don’t mimic someone else’s technique. They find a style that feels true to them – and because it’s authentic, it builds trust faster. In CrossFit, athletes scale movements to suit their bodies. In sales, you must do the same with your approach. Authenticity always beats artifice.

Finally, sales, at its core, is about mindset. It’s about showing up consistently, pushing through the awkwardness, learning from rejection, and playing the long game. Change how you think, and you change how you sell.

In the gym, the more you try, the more confidence you build. The same is true in business. Resilience, persistence, and authenticity don’t just keep you in shape – they put you in control of where you’re going.