How to get rid of head trash in sales

The biggest barrier to success in sales is head trash.

Limiting beliefs. Thinking you can’t do something, even if you never tried it.

I was speaking with a founder recently that said outbound wasn’t working for him. He wasn’t good at it. I asked how much he did, he had sent 10 emails in 2 weeks. And he let himself believe that it wasn’t working.

I was on a coaching call with another founder yesterday where he felt like he had to go straight into his demo on the first call, and that he had to show a lot. He wouldn’t do enough discovery, felt like the prospect didn’t want him to. I asked him if he was ever told to stop asking questions and show the product, and he said no.

We all have these thoughts. We all have self doubt. It’s rampant in sales.

Today, we’re going to talk about a few ways to identify and get rid of head trash to boost your confidence in sales.

What’s 'Head Trash'?

'Head trash' is all the self-doubt and negative thinking that pops up when you think about sales. Stuff like, "I'm not a natural salesperson," or "Sales isn't as important as product development."

Sound familiar?

This kind of thinking can stop you from engaging with prospects, closing deals, and growing your business. It's a big deal.

In order to fight head trash, you need to be able to identify it. Here are the most common thoughts I’ve heard over the years that signal head trash:

• I can’t… (finish the sentence)

• My product isn’t ready yet, so I can’t start prospecting

• I don’t have this feature yet, so I can’t demo

• I’m nervous about asking tougher questions, I don’t know how the prospect will react

Most of the time, head trash is related to either fear or perfectionism. Both can stop you right in your tracks.

When you think “I can’t” - ask yourself, why not? What’s really stopping you from doing it today? What’s the real challenge there for you?

If there’s a legitimate reason - that’s fine. But if not, then you’ve successfully identified head trash :)

Now let’s bust through it.

Shift Your Mindset from Product to Sales

You’re great at building products, but sales? You’re new at it. So you don’t feel like you’re great, yet.

Here’s the thing: shifting your focus to sales doesn’t mean you stop caring about your product. It means you start caring about revenue too.

And guess what? More revenue means more resources to make your product even better.

Benefits of a Sales-Focused Mindset

1. Faster Market Validation: Talking to customers and making sales quickly shows if your product really solves their problems.

2. Increased Revenue: More sales mean more money, which means you can grow your team and improve your product.

3. Better Feedback: Sales conversations give you insights into what customers really want.

How to Overcome 'Head Trash'

Reframe Negative Thoughts: First step, start catching those negative thoughts and flipping them around. Instead of thinking, "I'm not a natural salesperson," try, "I can learn and improve my sales skills with practice."

You need a framework to get from negative to taking action.

Starting with “I’m not” or “I can’t” puts you in a position where there’s nowhere for your mindset to go but stay in the negative.

“I’m not making sales.” How do you get from there to “I’m closing deals.”

It’s hard when you use that kind of language, so reframe your thinking to “I’m getting ready…”

• I’m getting ready to do sales

• I’m feeling ready to do sales

• I’m ready to do sales

• I’m starting to do sales

• I’m doing sales

With this kind of thinking, you can give yourself a natural path to a positive mental state.

Exercise: Write down three negative thoughts you have about sales. Now, reframe each one into a positive or proactive statement.

Develop a Sales Routine: Consistency is key. Set aside time each day or week dedicated to sales activities. Make it a habit, just like coding.

Best way to do this is to time block, or give yourself a small daily goal.

Maybe from 10-11 AM, you’re going to send personalized emails. Every day. That’s your routine.

Maybe you’ll set yourself a goal of reaching out to 15 prospects every day.

Maybe the goal will be having minimum 1 sales conversation with a customer or prospect daily - on phone, zoom, email, LI DMs, face to face. But having just 1 conversation daily.

Whatever your task or goal is, make sure it’s a proactive selling task.

• Emailing prospects

• DMing prospects

• Liking/commenting on their posts on LI

• Connection requests

• Cold calls

• Taking prospect meetings

• Sending out proposals

• Doing follow-ups

• etc.

What you want to avoid is setting non-selling tasks as your routine. Those would be anything that has you sitting behind a screen doing project work or busy work, but not actually reaching out to prospects.

Exercise: Create a simple weekly schedule. Block out time for prospecting, follow-ups, and calls.

Leverage Support Systems: You don’t have to do this alone. Find a mentor, join a sales community, or hire a sales coach. Learning from others can speed up your growth and boost your confidence.

It’s hard being a founder. You’re doing most stuff by yourself. Having peers you can bounce ideas off of and troubleshoot your head trash really helps.

Exercise: Spend 15 minutes researching online communities or local meetups. Join one that fits your needs.

How to Overcome Sales Anxiety

Daily Affirmations: Start your day with positive affirmations to boost your confidence.

Try these:

• “I’m improving my sales skills every day.”

• “I’m good at asking probing questions.”

• “I’m able to close deals.”

I actually have a whiteboard in front of me where I write down all the things I’m good at when it comes to sales.

Because on days where I’m getting lots of rejections. Or inbound trials are down. Or someone cancelled a demo. Or a deal gets pushed out an extra quarter. It’s REALLLLLLLY easy to forget that you’re good at some things.

Remind yourself daily that you can do this.

Role-Playing Sales Scenarios: Practice makes perfect. Role-playing with a partner helps you get comfortable with different sales scenarios.

Actors rehearse their lines 100s of times before they shoot a scene in a movie. Even then, they’re still a bit nervous.

Having a hard time asking that discovery question about how much their pain is costing the business? Rehearse it. Over and over again. Say it out loud. On walks, at your desk, in the car. Make sure if you’re nervous about doing or saying something, that you don’t say it out loud for the first time in a sales call. That’s too high-pressure. Take the pressure off, run your lines, then try it in a pressure scenario.

Exercise: Pair up with a friend or mentor. Practice a few common sales scenarios and give each other feedback.

Reflective Journaling: Keep a journal to track your sales experiences. Reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and how you felt. This helps you learn and improve.

I do this in a few ways. After a sales call, I’ll take 5 minutes to play back in my head how it went. What did I do well, what can I do differently next time. Do it immediately after a call since it’s still fresh. You can also do that same exercise watching your own call recordings. Go through the recording and recognize both the good and the bad. Then what would you do differently.

I also have a nightly journal where I will write down what happened in the day. What did I accomplish. Where did I get stuck. Where did I waste time. What were my wins.

The last thing I do is once a week, EOD on Fridays, I post in my founder-led sales community about my wins for the week. Other founders do the same. The point of this is to look at all the stuff that went well that week. Because we tend to focus on the stuff that doesn’t go well. Focusing on the wins helps create momentum for more wins.

Exercise: After each sales interaction, write down:

• What happened?

• How did it go?

• What will you do differently next time?

Let me know what’s your biggest negative thought about sales. Would love to hear from you and help you troubleshoot your head trash.

For more practical early-stage sales tips, connect with me on LinkedIn.

If you’re looking for more hands-on help implementing your first sales process, reach out for coaching packages.

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