Recognizing Head Trash Cures 70% of Your Selling Problems

Building Your Sales Engine

• 38 min

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Head trash — the self-limiting beliefs salespeople carry — quietly kills more deals than any competitor, and simply recognizing it cures about 70% of the problem. Head trash is the psychological baggage salespeople drag into every call, and it costs more revenue than any pricing objection ever will. In this episode, host Mark McGraw sits down with co-host Josh Pitchford to work through a list of 55 self-limiting beliefs they've collected over years of sales training — everything from "the economy is bad and my prospects don't have money" to "I can't close on the first call" to "I need my prospects to like me." Mark and Josh unpack why these beliefs are so durable: the Belief Wheel means your beliefs shape which evidence you notice, which drives your actions, which produces results that reinforce the original belief. Breaking the loop takes two moves — find evidence someone has already done the thing you think is impossible, or act in spite of the feeling and let the results retrain your thinking. Along the way they cover money head trash and the childhood messages behind it, why the budget conversation only fails when it's too early or too late, using a monkey's paw to get paid for services you're currently giving away, and why Need for Approval unpacks a thousand selling problems at once. Practical, honest, and occasionally uncomfortable — in the best way. Host: Mark McGraw — Building Your Sales Engine Co-host: Josh Pitchford — Building Your Sales Engine In This Episode What head trash actually is — psychological baggage and self-limiting beliefs that get in the way of selling more, and why it's part of the human condition "Is it a budget issue or a belief issue?" — why buyers with enough pain find the money, and why the seller has to believe first The Belief Wheel: how beliefs filter evidence, evidence drives action, and results loop back to reinforce the belief Two ways to break a limiting belief — find evidence someone else has already done it, or act in spite of the feeling and let results follow The four-minute-mile effect: the wealth manager who never closed on a first call, then went from 0-for-20 to 7-for-20 Monkey's paw selling — using small commitments to shorten long cycles, and getting paid for the design, survey, and assessment work you're giving away free Money head trash: the childhood messages ("don't talk about money, it's rude") that are still running 30 years later, plus John Rosso's rule on timing the investment step Why a salesperson is a problem solver — and why it's irresponsible to withhold a solution to a problem you know someone has Access to power: how not feeling "worthy" to talk to executives reads as a lack of conviction and loses the business Need for Approval — "I need my prospects to like me" — and how it quietly kills prospecting, questions, and asks for commitment Head trash is like cockroaches: turn the light on and it scurries Links Sandler: https://www.Sandler.com Episode page: https://www.BuildingYourSalesEngine.com/ Show links: https://linktr.ee/buildingyoursalesengine Mark McGraw on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmcgraw/ Josh Pitchford on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-pitchford-6163274/ Download the list of 55 Head Trash items referenced in this episode — available via the show links above