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- 4 Mental Models Top Reps Use, But Never Talk About.
4 Mental Models Top Reps Use, But Never Talk About.
Good reps follow scripts. Great reps think in models.
Good Morning! Good morning! It’s National Haiku Day, so in honor of the holiday, I wrote you a lil sumthin:
Pitch, close, sign the deal
Prospects bloom with each outreach
Quota met with grace
Now, let’s get into today’s Follow Up. 😁
4 mental models for sales 🧠
Make this change in your follow ups 📧
Former sales rep suing for $2M 👀
Sales jobs & a meme 😂
The 4 Mental Models Top Reps Use
Good reps follow scripts. Great reps think in models.
Memorizing objection handlers and email templates is great for getting started. But top performers are using mental frameworks that help them see around corners and make better decisions.
These aren't some fancy sales techniques you learn at Sandler training - they're ways of thinking that cut through the BS, spot hidden opportunities, and close deals with clarity.
Let's break down five models that elite reps rely on (often without even realizing it). 👇️
1. Inversion Thinking.
Instead of asking how to win, ask what would make you lose.
Most salespeople obsess over what will move a deal forward. Top performers do the opposite. They hunt for deal-killers before they pop up.
Charlie Munger (Warren Buffett's right hand man) made this approach famous: "Invert, always invert."
In sales, this means asking yourself:
Who hasn't been looped in yet?
What's the real blocker hiding beneath the surface?
Which assumption could blow this deal up?
By flipping the problem upside down, you spot the cracks early and fix them before the deal slips away.
A rep using inversion might ask: "If this deal falls apart in the final stage, what will be the most likely reason?"
Then they address that issue now, not later.
2. First Principles Thinking.
Boil problems down to their most basic truths.
First principles thinking means ignoring how things are "usually done" and asking: What is actually true here?
Elon Musk popularized this approach in business, but it dates back to Aristotle. It's about breaking complex situations down to their fundamental truths.
In sales, this means stripping your pitch down to what the buyer actually wants, not what marketing told you to say.
Instead of: "Our automated revenue intelligence platform leverages AI to optimize your pipeline visibility..."
Try: "Your reps aren't logging their calls, so you're missing deals. We fix that."
Break the message down to basics.
3. Opportunity Cost, (Sell the Tradeoff)
Every choice has a cost, even if it's doing nothing.
When prospects evaluate your solution, they're choosing between more than just you and a competitor.
They're weighing:
Do we spend this budget here or on new headcount?
Do we solve this problem or focus on another one?
Do we change or just stay the same?
Top reps sell the tradeoff.
They make the cost of doing nothing feel expensive and the upside of action feel urgent.
4. Hanlon's Razor: Assume Confusion, Not Rejection
“Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity.” Or just being busy.
When a prospect ghosts you, the average rep’s default setting is to assume rejection. The best reps don’t assume.
People forget. They misread emails. They get swamped with higher priorities. Assuming the worst closes doors that might still be open.
This is why FOLLOW UP is SO IMPORTANT. People are busy. They miss your emails. And they need to be reminded you exist.
This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:
“Pessimists get to be right. Optimists get to be rich.”
Why would you choose to be a pessimist when you have the choice to be an optimist?
Which mental model is your favorite? |
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