"Disappointments are inevitable; discouragement is a choice"
Charles Stanley
How many of you have been faced with the temptation to give into discouragement? Let's face it, bad news and rejection are all a part of sales. What's important is how you handle it.
Spend any amount of time in sales and discouragement inevitably sets in. It’s part of what makes sales unique as the highs are high and the lows are low.
Discouragement, disappointment, discomfort, failure, and setback; these can motivate us to new sales heights if we cultivate an empowering mindset. The key is to learn from these experiences, and minimize the amount of time you allow yourself to drown in discouragement.
A discouraging sales day becomes a discouraging week. A week becomes a month, becomes a year, and becomes you quitting or worse never maximizing your potential.
A career in sales is not for the light-hearted. Hitting or overachieving steep quotas along with sales managers who reek of commission breath are things those in sales deal with every single day.
We all have our limits. And, sometimes, frustration sets in, getting the best of us.
As a sales professional, getting frustrated is a recipe for disaster. I’m sure you’ve experienced some degree of this within your sales journey.
Discouragement, it screws with your ability to do things correctly, things you normally have no issue in handling. Your sales performance suffers as quotas are not hit which results in even more frustration.
"Discouragement is a constant temptation and something that can be a constant companion if we don't have a strategy."
Sales professionals consistently ask themselves great questions to avoid succumbing to the pity party known as discouragement.
They self-reflect, asking themselves...
- The last time I got discouraged, what worked in order to overcome it?
- How have the people I look up to overcome discouragement?
- Is being discouraged bringing me closer to achieving sales success?
Knowing the source of discouragement is your first step. You can't take control of something you don't understand.
"Change your sales sob story into a sales success story"
AVOID THE PITY PARTY BY DOING THESE THREE THINGS
First, let's define a pity party. It's a way of experiencing discouragement, in which you spend time feeling sorry for yourself; whining endlessly about how crappy your sales life has become. Invitations are usually sent out to colleagues, close friends and loved ones. They attend to comfort your poor soul as you ask yourself what you did to deserve the discouragement.
"Mentally strong people don’t try to gain sympathy from others by complaining about their difficult circumstances."
A sales professional cuts out all the bitching, moaning and groaning and they just do something about it.
DAILY SELF-REFLECTION
Benjamin Franklin said it best, "early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." Adapt to it and learn to love early mornings. Think about capturing the first hour of every morning to self-reflect.
Reassess, recharge and recapture the moments through mental exercises. The best way to avoid being hit over the head with the mental hammer is exercise. Spend the first hour of every morning clearing out your mind and taking care of your body.
"When your mind is not clear, it starts to play tricks on you"
Secondly, reconnect with your values and reflect on them.
Every morning ask yourself...
- Who am I really?
- Am I living and staying true to myself?
- What am I most grateful for?
- Am I achieving the goals I set for myself?
Self-reflection allows us to understand what's important, and to focus on what needs to be done differently.
Personally, self-reflection is one of the best ways you can shift your mindset, increase positivity, and uncover a greater connection to yourself.
RECONNECT TO GOALS
Striking out, its part of baseball and it happens to all of us in sales. A baseball player who misses out 70% of the time is consider a "stud". Please understand that striking out is a part of sales, however; a true sales professional will use this to reconnect to their goals.
Are you lying to yourself?
Many will say they're working towards their goals when in all actuality they haven’t made much progress whatsoever. Cut through your own bullcrap! Most give up on their goals because they believe it's too hard rather than giving themselves a fair shot.
To help you overcome discouragement, take out your sales plan and realize failure is built into it. Reconnect to your activity and drill into your activity as this will help you to avoid being frustrated.
Reconnect emotionally to your goals. The nice thing about emotionally reconnecting with your goals is that it's inherently personal.
Ask yourself...
- What do I need to do differently?
- What am I willing to change?
- What do I need the most right now?
Reconnect and refocus... Does the goal still resonate with you? Why is the goal still important to you?
Reconnect to what matters.
REINVEST IN YOURSELF
The sales profession and the National Football League are quite similar. Its smash mouth, an in your face, full contact business sport. You get knocked down and you must rise back up. You must take rejection and brush it off just like a quarterback sack!
How many conversations need to happen in order to set up one quality meeting? I don't care if the number is 25, 50 or 75; it's downright tough!
The best sales call you can make, is to yourself. I guarantee you will get through 100% of the time!
Investing in yourself has the single best return on investment and combats being bitten by the discouragement bug. I promise, investing in yourself will have tremendous impact in your life, your well-being, and your ability to perform to the best of your sales ability. Your sales future will be determined by your willingness to invest in yourself.
Invest in yourself and stay truer to true.
One must give to themselves first before they can give to others. This takes personal commitment but the rewards are well worth it.
Reinvesting in yourself packs a powerful punch!
TAKE ACTION
"Self-pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality."
John W. Gardner
What's your plan the next time you find yourself being invited to the pity party of discouragement?
Overcoming pity and mass quantities of discouragement is only temporary. You must learn how to process it. Once you start executing your plan, the discouragement you feel will start to leave just as quickly as it appeared. Hold on tight to your vision and values. No one achieves success without periods of discouragement and failure. Don’t give up. Don't accept the invitation to the self-induced pity party!
I understand and I get it. I get where you all are coming from. Every day, I walk in your shoes. I'm fully committed to helping your sales team integrate social aspects through the eyes of a practitioner into your current sales process to grow new business. I want you to get results. This is why I am passionate about doing this the right way, the genuine way, the authentic way! It's about understanding value before visibility.
Selling From the Heart is making a difference! I poured my heart into every page of this book and I think you're going to love it. You can find it on Amazon in paperback and Kindle. You can click on the book image below and this will take you to Amazon.
You can find more material inside Selling From The Heart.
In a world full of empty suits, I'm passionate about helping sales reps succeed by getting valuable before they get visible. I help sales teams understand the true value they bring to the market.
I appreciate getting the opportunity to share my stories. Integrating the use of social and sharing my story on LinkedIn was my “game-changer” in the highly competitive office technology world. With great pride I transform, challenge, coach and inspire sales teams to grow new business by helping them share their story and how they communicate it out by integrating the use of social inside the sales process. You can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter and on my podcast by clicking on Selling from the Heart.
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