Mastering the mental game of sales: a masterclass for sales excellence students
On December 3rd, emlyon business school welcomed Carole Mahoney, Harvard Business School sales coach and best-selling author of Buyer First™, for an exclusive masterclass with MSc in Global Sales Excellence students. With 20 years of research behind her, Mahoney shows that sales is a "mental game," not a "numbers game." Her approach: sell with buyers, not to them. By applying cognitive science principles, salespeople build trust and help buyers feel ownership of the solution.
The mental game of sales
Carole Mahoney addressed a fundamental challenge: 70% of people view sales as "pushy" or "manipulative." This negative perception creates a psychological barrier that holds salespeople back.
Her solution? Change how we think about selling. "Selling is not something that we do to others. It is something that we do with them," Mahoney explained. Drawing on data from 2.4 million sales professionals, she demonstrated that success comes from mindset, not just effort: "You see, sales is not a numbers game. It is a mental game. And when we master the mental game of sales, that is how we are going to succeed. And it will have a direct impact on your results. How you think becomes how you sell."
This collaborative approach aligns with emlyon's philosophy of developing responsible, strategic sales professionals. As Mahoney emphasized, "Sales skills are life skills, and they're the skills that will enable us to design the life that we want."
Neuroscience Meets Sales Strategy
Carole Mahoney introduced students to research-backed techniques that transform buyer engagement. When salespeople ask open-ended questions, they trigger dopamine release in the buyer's brain, creating genuine trust. She also explained the "IKEA effect": collaborative selling is much like building an IKEA bookshelf. If a salesperson simply delivers a pre-assembled unit, the buyer may find it functional but uninspiring. However, when the salesperson and the buyer "assemble" the solution together, the buyer develops a psychological attachment to the result; because they helped build it, they value it more and are more likely to commit to the purchase.
These principles directly complement emlyon's "Global Interactions with Customers" module, where students learn key account management and long-term partnership development.
The framework for success
Mahoney shared her Six Questions framework that guides buyers to confident decisions: Why change? Why now? Why this type of solution? Why you? Why your solution? Why spend the money? This systematic approach to sales engagement – optimizing how sales teams interact with prospects throughout the buying journey – is central to the MSc in Global Sales Excellence. Students learn not to become salespeople themselves, but to become sales leaders who develop engagement strategies and equip their teams with the right frameworks and tools to drive performance while engaging in complex sales strategies.
Carole Mahoney also identified three psychological barriers preventing 93% of salespeople from top-tier performance: projecting personal hesitations onto customers, losing objectivity during conversations, and avoiding difficult questions due to fear of rejection. The emlyon program in sales excellence specifically addresses these challenges through coursework integrating behavioral science, ethics, and practical application.
The emlyon advantage
While Carole Mahoney’s masterclass provides the psychological foundation (understanding the "why" behind buyer behavior and seller stalls), the emlyon program provides the operational infrastructure to execute those psychological insights at scale.
This also illustrates a distinctive feature of emlyon’s programs: unparalleled access to leading practitioners and industry experts. Students learn directly from experts like Mahoney, who has transformed sales approaches for organizations worldwide, rather than simply studying theories in isolation. emlyon provides both theoretical rigor and practical application. Students gain proficiency in AI technology, digital sales platforms, and CRM systems while learning from master practitioners who demonstrate real-world application. This combination prepares graduates to navigate modern global and complex sales challenges and build professional networks with industry leaders before graduation.