Sales Advice Archives - Meaning2Work

Morning Meltdown? Five Steps to Fix Today’s Disaster

For experienced salespeople, bad days can be both excruciating and inevitable. The next time you want to give up, try these five steps.

Meaning2work bad day five steps — Photo by Joline Torres via Unsplash.com

Nobody wants this:

You pull on the interstate only to slow to a stop. A river of brake lights stretches for miles ahead of you. There goes your first sales call! Why didn’t you leave earlier? Right then, your phone chirps with a text from the Boss. The quarterly sales rankings are in and you’re..NO WHERE NEAR THE TOP?

Clearly you misunderstood that. Keeping your eyes on the road, you fumble in your bag for your iPad which is…NOT IN YOUR BAG? You must’ve left it charging on your nightstand! WHAT’S NEXT? As if on cue, your son texts. He wants to quit school.

Before you can respond, your phone rings. It’s the school principal who gives you the slightest tap. TAP? You look up as the driver ahead you twists to see what kind of an idiot you are. Yep, you kissed his bumper. MAKE IT STOP!!!

We All Have A Bad Day Behind Us…

I know I have. I’d wager all salespeople have. And, the longer you’ve done the job the more days from Hell you’ve probably endured.

Ok, we’ve all have bad days, the question is what to do? Admit it, on those days, the easiest thing to do is to give up, call a friend, and vent. And why not share a little misery? It works – for a few minutes anyway, then you get back to scolding yourself.

And that’s too bad, given the gut punch a horrible day can deliver, is only a few minutes of joy enough?

And A Bad Day In Our Future. Are You Ready?

What will you do when your next bad day strikes? Call whomever you want, but if you REALLY want to turn things around, do the following:

Stop Beating Yourself Up! Just as when a storm hits, you take shelter, when all your plans crumble, take a step back. Important problems require creativity, not anger. Experts have found that positive, not negative, emotions are key to creative problem-solving.
Assess The Damage. Get beyond the surprise and ask yourself what you need to do in that moment and act on it. Fortunately, most bad days don’t require a visit from EMS. Still, an appointment may need to be cancelled or a boss called. Do so and you’ll buy the time you need for the next step.
Reprioritize and Reassign. “Don’t tell me about your goals. Tell me about your plan,” says Jeffrey Haden, author of The Motivation Myth. As it stands, your day’s original plan is meaningless. What you do with the time left is everything. Re-start the day from the beginning, jump in somewhere in the middle, or plan something new. It’s your call.
Get to It! Don’t mourn what happened. Instead, take your new priorities and GO! According to best-selling business author, Ryan Holiday, some of history’s greatest achievements came from people who chose to head toward, not away, from their biggest obstacles. You’re likely to find more courage and skill than you ever realized!
When the Day’s Over, Pause and Reflect. Don’t just pull in the drive, get the mail, and collapse onto the couch. Think for a few minutes of how your day started and how it finished. YOU pulled off quite a turnaround! Celebrate today’s victory so you’ll remember it when you face your next disaster. You might even find they become less frequent!

Of course it’s not enough just to read my advice. You must understand and DO it! All of us have a bad day coming. The question is, HOW WILL YOU RESPOND?

Sincerely,

Meaning2work.com

P.S. If you found this or any of my other advice helpful, leave me a comment and subscribe to my email list! Whatever you do, tell only the colleagues you like. You don’t want to help a competitor! 😃 Seriously, I write articles like this to be helpful – you know, in the REAL WORLD! Any feedback you provide is a much-appreciated gift!

Breaking Bad News: A Wimp’s Survival Guide

You love your customers. They love you, your product, and your company. Life is grand!

Only one thing can happen when life is this perfect: certain disaster!

Your company is about to enact a change, one that may just chase away your rainbows and unicorns. What the the bad news is, for purposes of discussion, is irrelevant. It’s the impact that most important.

Imagine your about to walk into your customer’s office for the first time to explain the situation. What’s going through your mind?

Try these on for size: Man, I hope she doesn’t get upset! What if he asks a question I can’t answer? Will she threaten to go to another vendor? Will he kick me out of his office? What if? What if?? What if???

Ok, let’s think. No one likes an unpleasant surprise but, is that what THIS is? If you were in the customer’s shoes how would YOU feel? Why is the change taking place? How do YOU feel about it?

Consider these six steps to giving bad news:

Accept and understand the change for yourself.

The first step to effective bad news delivery is acceptance. Notice I didn’t say anything about being positive, that comes later. Instead, it’s crucial to first understand the change itself and why it’’s taking place.

There could be, and often is, a rational reason your company made the decision. That reason may involve survival. Your vendors not only rely not only on your product but on your company’s ongoing support. And, of course, you need a paycheck. Therefore, you both need your product to succeed!

Determine the ramifications of the change.

Once you understand what’s really happening, consider carefully the change’s possible effects on your customer. Yes, management may say they’ve done this but you have a deeper understanding of your client.

The point of this step is not to find answers but to mentally prepare yourself. When you’ve thought through the consequences of the change, you’re in a better position to provide valuable insight to your customer. This makes that first conversation more productive (and less dangerous!)

Photo by Kristopher Roller via Unsplash.com

Consider what has not changed.

After a sober review of the ramifications, you may feel more calm about the change. That’s good. Now it’s time to put things in perspective. Is the news you’re about to deliver global in it’s reach? Or, more likely, is only a portion of a customer’s business is affected.

Next, prepare to make the same point to the customer. Otherwise, they may just apply your “bad” news to everything – you, your product, and your company as a whole. People hate to change the way they work. It’s uncomfortable to say the least. The smaller the change, the easier it is to swallow.

Put it together and prepare.

Once you’ve digested the change, thought through possible effects, and put it into perspective, its time to plan what to say. I’m not a fan of robotic memorized speeches. They take me out of the conversation and make me feel like I’m in a middle school play – the kind where I dress up as a girl.

Instead, just write down the pertinent points you want to make based on the above steps. Keep in mind that you might not have or get to say all of them. Your customer may think your news is a non-event. On the other hand, what you have may still not be enough. More on this later.

It’s talk time!

Depending on the situation, you may feel the urge to kneel at your customer’s feet and beg forgiveness. Don’t. Conversely, you may think you need to “sell” them on how your bad news is really the best thing they’ve ever heard. Also, don’t. Just calmly, confidently, and succinctly explain the change itself, why it’s taking place, and it’s scope. Then make sure they’ve understood what you’ve told them.

Realize every thing we say, in addition to facts, also delivers emotion. Therefore, how we feel about the change will inevitably come out in how we present it. That’s why the previous steps are so important. Our emotions are cues for customers emotions. If you FEEL calm and confident when you present, you invite your customer to feel the same way. Conversely, if you lose your cool, you can expect them to do the same.

Lastly, ask for feedback and wait.

There’s no rules for this part. It’s the customer’s turn to process the change and respond. Sadistically, I think it’s the fun part. Whatever the customer says next will not physically harm you in any way. Stick and stones, remember?

It’s like strapping into a roller coaster, we’re scared out of our wits, yet we know it’s going to be ok. This is the attitude you must take. As your customer shares their thoughts (or gives you a piece of their mind) listen closely. Don’t jump to conclusions. Make sure YOU understand exactly what their saying.

Maybe they misunderstood and you can easily correct them. Maybe they bring up issues you’ve never considered. If you have legitimate answers, by all means, give them. If you don’t, just sit and listen. You may not be able to make the customer feel better right then and there. Just don’t forget to ask to for a chance to follow up.

When things go bad.

Let’s be honest. Despite your best efforts, you may walk away from the meeting with your pride bruised. Your delicate preparation shattered, you may be tempted to call it all a waste. Give the situation time. Sometimes, customers need the time and distance to process changes. At your next meeting, you may find them in better spirits. Suddenly what was a catastrophe is now a speed bump, a non-issue.

When issues do linger, don’t shy away from passing your customer’s concerns up the chain of command. A little internal advocating can go a long way. At this point, you’re ready to repeat the process and go back in! Do your best to go back in with something new, even if it’s just a new way of thinking about the change. You never know what’s approach is going to resonate with a customer until it already has.

Now, get out there and give bad news! When we improve our delivery, not only do we feel better, so do our customers!

Sincerely,

Meaning2work.com

In Sales, “Playing The Game” Means "You Lose!"

Are you playing the game?
Do you ignore the inept policies, bad managerial decisions, and unrealistic expectations that come with your sales job in hopes for a brighter future? Do you instead do EXACTLY what you’re told in the manner you’re told to do it? Do you tell management what they want to hear, not how you really feel?
Why We Do It:
You look good to your manager.
You get favored treatment.
You have job security.
You see no other alternative, except the shame of undperformance.
Why We Shouldn’t Do It:
1. You look good only if your numbers are good.
Most of us are only two bad quarters away from a performance improvement plan. Following company protocols rarely, if ever, saves anyone with weak sales results.
2. You take incomplete or bad advice.
If making the sale was as simple as following the 5 step strategy you learned in training, you wouldn’t have a job. A high school kid would be doing it. There is always more to do and learn than management tells you.
3. You often don’t improve your skills.
Doing only what your told is a convenient excuse for not trying anything new. It’s been years since your boss has really sold anything. Have the courage to expand your abilities by talking to customers, reading books etc.
4. You are vulnerable to the next market change.
Selling by the book may pay handsomely now, but when your market changes, you’ll be behind the reps who were thinking ahead.
5. You annoy your customers.
Your customers pay for the value that you and your product bring them. Even the ones that like you have limited patience. Don’t waste their time with anything that doesn’t meet their needs even if it makes the boss happy.
6. You perpetuate the very conditions you complain about.
Can you lose weight without diet or excercise? If you don’t at least TRY to change your company for the better, nothing will happen! The pharmaceutical industry is a great example. For years, many doctors have often not allowed sales reps to talk to them. To make their sales call metrics, pharma reps have, for years, simply put fake calls into their CRM systems. The result? Unrealistic call metrics never go away!
Modern research supports not playing the game as well. For a more in-depth analysis, read on:
Sales is a world of accountability gone wild. When they say “Sell!”, we say “How Much!” Yet we are only as good as our latest sales report. Again, regardless past achievements , most of us are only two bad quarters away from a performance plan. You tell yourself you seek challenge, achievement, and money but more so, you fear failure.
In her book, “Leading Professionals: Power, Politics and Prima Donnas”, Professor Laura Empson says that many companies look for employees they describe as “insecure overachievers”. These employees hide their insecurity behind a tremendous work ethic. Many salespeople suffer from what I call the Oxygen Mask Problem. “Please put your own mask on before attending to children” We’ve all heard the safety message when flying. The Insecure Overachiever does the opposite. He or she thinks that taking care of everyone else will ultimately result in taking care of herself. Except the world doesn’t work that way, especially in sales.
Playing The Game
Playing the game in a sales job means blindly following a set of rules with the hope that your career will be taken care of. As an official game player, you may see others who don’t follow suit as irresponsible or reckless. Ironically, it’s you that is not facing up to reality.
Sales people complain about everything from unfair pay, to manufacturing delays, to the color choices for their next company car. Some complaints are frivolous. Some are not. Either way, when at the next company meeting, a manager asks for feedback, you, the good rule-follower, remain hidden in the crowd refusing to speak up. Then, at the hotel bar later that evening, you unleash your complaints on whomever will commiserate. Congratulations! Send me your jersey size because you are officially playing the game!
You tell yourself there are valid reasons for doing this. It’s what everybody else does. It avoids getting you noticed for being a complainer. It puts you on your boss’s good side. Playing the game paves the way to your next promotion. It’s the best thing to do for you and your family. When the opportunity comes to act independently or speak up you turn it down. Ironically, in an effort to avoid betraying the system, you betray yourself.
Take A Time Out
Change is scary isn’t it? The system you hate is still one you know. Why take a chance when things can get worse? “I’ll just put my head down, do my job, and wait until things get better,” you may think. Unfortunately, things don’t usually get better on their own. Some have thought, “I’ll change the system by first rising through the ranks and then working to make a difference.”
Eric Barker, author of the popular motivational book “Barking Up the Wrong Tree” calls this sequencing. It’s the belief that you can plan your life in large chunks. Life often intervenes with family issues, health isssues, and anything else to send your dreams up in smoke. After downing the huge dose of conformity it takes to be promoted, you will you have the willpower to think of the less fortunate souls you left behind? There’s a reason newly minted sales managers are know for playing by the book. They are pre-selected based on their willingness to do so.
So, am I saying you should flip off the boss at the next meeting or conduct a Ghandi-style hunger strike until conditions improve? Absolutely not! Let’s revisit some reasons not to play the game and explore some ideas of what to do instead.
Reason One: Your Boss Is Human.
Sales people, like craftsmen, see their skills grow with experience. Unlike craftsmen, the material they work with, their customers, change constantly and have a mind of their own. Chances are, the customers and situations your boss dealt with, as a salesperson, are not the same as yours are now. High performing salespeople don’t even make the best managers, according to a large study published by the National Bureau of Economic research entitled, “Promotions and the Peter Principle“. The sales advice your boss gives you has it’s limits. The more experience you have in sales, the less valuable this advice is. Lower your ROI expectations on what your boss tells you.
Reason Two: You are being judged on your results, NOT on how well you follow rules.
What you do means more than a number on a spreadsheet. Like it or not, this is still the way most salespeople are evaluated. Whether or not you agree with the system is irrelevant. Most managers are playing their own version of the game and you have to live with it. In reality, how much you sell trumps everything else. A stellar record with turning in reports and kissing up to the boss rarely saves anyone with low sales numbers.
Reason Three: Remaining silent helps no one.
The Bystander Effect, coined by researchers John M. Farley and Bibb Latané in the 1960’s, is a phenomenon in which witnesses to emergencies are less likely to help a victim when in a crowd. Sound crazy? It’s not when you consider that each individual expects someone else to help out. Ignoring serious problems doesn’t solve them. It’s like telling your 13-year-old to skip all the difficult problems on his Math final. Not bringing up a legitimate concern to management can do a disservice to your real boss – the customer. Don’t forget, he or she makes the buying decision, not your manager. For a more thorough discussion of this point, check out my post “Think BACk: Free Will Is A Bitch!” Speaking of customers, how often do they change their buying habits without you or another salesperson supplying them with a reason? Serious problems don’t solve themselves. YOU need to speak up. It’s that simple.
What you can do about it.
Take responsibility of your own happiness. To address problems you can’t solve on your own, you have three options: bring the issues to the attention of someone who can solve them, decide not to let them bother you any longer, or seek out a better job.
Be thoughtful in the way you present your concerns. Do not make your complaint personal or deliberately insulting. Explain the ramifications of the problem as you see it. How does the problem hinder the sales process or your customer’s business? Finally, be prepared for any response. If you’re miserable and your company shows no signs of improving, look for a better opportunity. The same holds true if your company ignores problems and sacrifices the business you worked hard to win.
Be brave enough to demonstrate how much you care about your company. It’s unlikely you’re alone in noticing what needs improving. You might gain more respect from your peers for doing it.
Regards,
Meaning2work

Most Plans Lack One Crucial Ingredient: Humility

You’ve gotta have a plan.

Plans are essential, are they not? Without a plan, your weekend jaunt to the Carribean can, thanks to a tropical storm, turn into a hotel room Netflix marathon. Without a budget, you may unknowingly forego your next home repair for an extra round of drinks. In short, if you had clean underwear and gas in your tank this morning, you have planning to thank.

Without a doubt, we need to have plans and not just for practical reasons like the ones discussed. Thinking ahead makes us FEEL better too. Theoretically, without the worries of tomorrow we are free to enjoy today. Not only that, a solid plan can make us feel just a little superior to others, like those poor souls who didn’t use call ahead seating at the restaurant.

It makes no sense to fight city hall (or the Future).

Despite their enumerable benefits, our best laid plans inevitably come under scrutiny. If you’ve ever done a major addition to your house, you’ve probably had to submit building plans for approval from a Zoning Board or Commissioner before beginning construction. In response to your submission, you typically get one of three responses: an approval, a denial, or an approval contingent on changes. In short, the process is not as simple as picking up a hammer and swinging.

Unfortunately, even outside of the construction world, life’s response to our planning efforts can be similarly uncontrollable. It’s as if a Future Commissioner hands down judgements of our plans. However, unlike the Zoning Commissioner, the Future Commissioner requires us to enact our plan before she decrees one of the same three answers, a denial, an approval, or a conditional approval.

Humility – the missing link to most plans.

Can you imagine cooking multiple meals for guests and allowing them to sample and pick their desired main course? In essence, we never truly know the right course of action in any given situation until we take action. And, however well-researched or thought-out, our plans can still be toppled as easily as a child’s tower of blocks. To acknowledge this fact we must be humble.

What if we somehow could see the future? No, I don’t mean in a prophetic way like a character in The Matrix. Instead, we can use an ability we’ve had since childhood – our imagination. Most conventional planning wisdom regards failure as something to be planned against, not accepted. What if, instead of fearing the worst we made peace with it? Wouldn’t we then be more capable to respond when things go bad?

It’s one of the most commonly misunderstood facts about planning. Failure is not an option, it’s an outcome. Success is also an outcome. Neither is a choice. If a Boeing MAX 8 lands on your car during your commute, anything else you planned to do that day will technically be a failure. True humility involves a surrender to fate.

Even if failure is not an option, it’s still a possibility.

At this point, you might claim your secret to success is denying the possibility of failure. In essence, you use pressure to motivate yourself. While stress has been shown to produce a short term boost in productivity, it’s also been proven to reduce creativity and drain our energy. Doesn’t this seem like a steep price to pay for the luxury of temporarily fooling oneself

Humility – the best insurance policy.

When it’s time to face the truth, humility can free us from the feeling of loss. The humble person knows they were never entitled to a good outcome in the first place. Our hard work was a prerequisite not a guarantee. The good news? It’s impossible to lose something we never had in the first place. We didn’t lose anything and, instead may have gained valuable experience.

I propose the key to better planning is a better perspective on planning. It’s a valuable tool to move us toward better outcomes – no more, no less. It’s time to acknowledge that we can never fully control what happens as a result of our efforts. Just as we have plans for the future, the future will inevitably have it’s own plans for us. We can only learn, adapt, and respond.

Sincerely,

Chris Pawar

Meaning2work.com

Pride: What Ben Franklin Knew About It (and You)

Aside from Electricity, bifocals, the pros and cons list, and numerous other discoveries, there’s one idea Benjamin Franklin is credited for which you may not be aware. It affects you on a daily basis and has to do with your pride. Consider the following story.

According to his autobiograhpy, Ben Franklin once deliberately asked to borrow a valuable book from one of his political opponents. The rival obliged and, thereafter, treated Ben with a greater level of generosity and respect. In fact, they later became friends. This human desire for consistency was later labeled the “Ben Franklin Effect” and, most recently, was classified by psychologists as Cognitive Dissonance.

I’m the type of person who would…

Cognitive Dissonance is the tension we feel when we act in a way contrary to our past. Ben knew if he could get his opponent to do him one favor, he’d be more likely to continue doing them. For example, the moment you order steak at the seafood restaurant, you’ve just increased the liklihood you do the same on you next visit.

Ironically, Ben used Cognitive Dissonance to change someone’s behavior when, by definition, it’s more often used as a reason NOT to change. In my sales career, resisting change has been mostly detrimental. Early on, I was the type of guy not to ask for the sale. Therefore, I lost business. Later, I was the type of guy not to speak up at a meeting. Therefore, I remained unhappy and disengaged with my job for long periods of time. Whoever we are, we usually want to stay that way.

The Ben Franklin Effect = Cognitive Dissonance = Pride

I believe the issue truly at hand is pride and what puzzles me is the following paradox: pride in a possession entails care and periodic improvement. When we take pride in our house we tend to the lawn and replace things like shingles and gutters. Pride in ourselves, however, largely means being unwavering and resistant to change. A proud person holds fast to core beliefs knowing themselves and the truth.

Why the dichotomy in our definitions of pride? I attribute it to fear of being alone. In a literal sense, anyone who doesn’t know themself is forced to uncomfortably spend their every waking minute with a stranger. Therefore, we feel we must act in ways WE can predict. Besides, the alternative is a very traumatizing condition known as Amnesia. In comparison, we can easily see in our possessions (and our relatives and friends) the constant need for improvement.

Photo by Samuel Zeller via Unsplash.com.

Can I take pride in who I want to be?

Still, can’t we pride ourselves, not by the past, but by what we want to be in the future? Perhaps, like the car enthusiast toiling for hours on a heap of metal, envision what we plan to be and take pride in that.

Our biggest obstacle is how we understand and use power. A landscaper has the ability to dig, trim, and plant with their own hands. She can therefore make what she envisions come into reality. Many of our dreams involve money or accolades coming from others. And, try as we may, we don’t control others, we can only influence and observe. As we wait for the compliments, Facebook likes, and glowing performance reports to come in, we relinquish the power to cultivate and shape ourselves.

Is change mandatory?

Yes (gasp), at least in a scientific sense. Our bodies replace most of their cells over a period of seven years. Therefore, it would be impossible for us to physically stay the same, even if we wanted to!

One could argue that, in a mental sense, change is mandatory as well. After all, the people and situations around us are in constant flux. Some degree of change is mandatory just to adjust. That said, the way we change needn’t be dictated by someone else. We can certainly act as our own catlyst.

Again, that darn pride issue pops up! We look down on people who change to please others and, at the same time, yearn for people to like us for who we are! Pride without the willingness to change is essentially a lie. It’s like someone proudly showing you their rusting car, citing how sexy it was when they drove it off the lot. Who we are is fluid. We don’t have to live in the past.

Who’s in charge here?

To those of us, myself included, who desire too much to be perfect, the very suggestion of change can be an insult. Who are they to tell us how to change? You know you’re defensive when you can’t even question yourself! This is when we have to give up and resolve to no longer defend who we were in the past and instead plan what actions we can take in the future.

Of course, not all advice is good and much of it, however well-intentioned, should NOT be followed. Still, we shouldn’t dismiss criticism based solely on the source. That would again give up our own power to choose. Rest assured, when we think for ourselves, the choice to take advice is never weak. It’s probably the only way we can excercise true pride – the kind that improves who we are and doesn’t cling to the past.

Sincerely,

Meaning2work.com

Skill vs. Luck: A Useless Debate

Photo by Joel Danielson on Unsplash.com.

My sales career (rose-colored glasses required):

When I’ve crushed sales goals, won awards, and made the big bucks, it was in situations where I had a:

Realistic sales quota
Territory with high quality customers
High quality product
Reasonably priced offering

In my mind, these factors combined to reveal the talent I already possessed. Finally, I was getting the recognition I deserved!

Sure, I know I’m special – a one of kind salesperson. See how I excelled when given the proper opportunities? Heck, I’ve even done well without having one or two of the above factors on my side!

Conversely, when my numbers were lackluster and the accolades weren’t flowing, my:

Sales goals were way too high
Territory had little to no potential
Product was low quality
Product was overpriced

I was clearly set up to fail! Luck and circumstances were not on my side!
And I went on thinking this way – for years.

Eventually I saw a pattern. When times were good I always took the credit. When times were bad I took none of the blame. And, in doing so, I wasn’t special. In fact, based on those around me, I was rather ordinary.

Are you ordinary too?

We all have a natural tendency to attribute our accomplishments to skill and those of others to luck. Ironically, when it comes to failure, we do the opposite. Ours is due to bad luck and theirs is due to lack of skill. Check out Thinking In Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts by Annie Duke for an interesting read on this topic.

Sadly, all of us, from entry level reps to VPs of sales regularly fall victim to what Ms. Duke calls Resulting. It’s the tendency to judge skill and effort based on results. In doing so, top reps get promoted and bottom reps get fired sometimes for doing the exact same things. Only we don’t see it that way. Surely the top performer MUST be doing something better than the bottom one?

Is motivation the key?

It could be that those who find motivation are destined to win. Unfortunately, we see it as a prerequisite for superior performance without realizing the opposite may be true (I call it the Performance Effect). Seriously, what’s more inspiring than a rosy sales report or more damning than a performance improvement plan?

So, how can someone inspire themselves when their sales numbers scream, “There’s no use! You’re destined to fail!”? Here’s what I did: I stopped caring about things I had no control over and started focusing on things I did. Sales results? They never were totally about skill or luck, just a combination of the two. I control what I put into my job every day, not what comes out.

Skill vs. Luck – A Useless Debate

How much of our job is skill and how much is luck? It’s the million dollar question. Perhaps the answer would assure us a place at the top of our sales rankings indefinitely. Winning the lottery would be nice too! We may never know the answer. It may differ from job to job and rep to rep. For my own sanity, I’ve stopped pretending to have all the answers.

I’ll focus on what I can control.

Meaning2work.com

Bias as Usual: Illusion of Control

There I stood, spandex clad and heart pounding, at the start line of a bike race. BAM! The gun went off and I was going. Call it the ultimate test, me vs. the other riders vs. the muddy trail. Despite all my preparation, I got to the start line late and had to start in the back of the pack. To make up ground, I put my head down and focused on passing other riders until I was – in the front?

That NEVER happened before! I was in CONTROL! I no longer heard the other riders, just the rush of the air through my helmet and the pounding of my pulse. That day, I finished a respectable 3rd out of 20 racers. Despite leading most of the way, victory was snatched from me at the last minute.

It didn’t matter, from there on, I was hooked! I spent 2 years training and racing to replicate that result. It never happened. Later, I learned that another big race took place that fateful day and many of the skilled riders attended it. Sadly, my ability to control a race was a mere illusion.

Psychologist Ellen Langer named this fallacy the Illusion of Control. It’s the belief that we control things in our lives that we don’t. Imagine a gambler thinking she’s “on a roll” and can’t lose or a day trader thinking he can make a stock price rise just by buying shares. It’s not hard to see their folly.

However, are we able to spot this illusion in our own jobs? Do we in sales control what our competitors do? Do we set the purchasing budgets of our customers? We know these and other factors heavily influence customer behavior but ignore them after we’ve had a good year. THAT accomplishment came from us alone! At the same time, when our numbers are sub-par, we point to a multitude of factors out of our control. And, leadership often suffers from the same bias, no one wants to tell their team a dose of luck may be essential to achievement.

Therefore, we need to acknowledge that control of anything requires time and effort – two resources we MUST use wisely. When we stop straining for things out of our reach we free ourselves to be accountable for the things we DO control – our thoughts, actions, and skills.

Chris Pawar

Meaning2work.com

The Stoic Salesperson: Want to Feel Invincible? First, Make Peace With Pain

Boxers make peace with pain photo — Photo by Hermès Rivera via Unsplash.com

The closest thing I’ve ever felt to a knockout punch is a well-timed, customer objection. Like an unseen blow to the temple, it only takes one of them to bring a sale down. While I suspect the pain from an uppercut can linger for months or years, I know the regret from an objection can seem unforgettable. Just as the only way a boxer can truly avoid a hit is to never step in the ring, the only way a salesperson can avoid objections is to never attempt a sale.

Sure, we don’t like the discomfort and nervousness objections produce, but don’t we feel the same when we watch a scary movie or our favorite team in the playoffs? Why then do we avoid, or agonize over, the difficult situations that can make us succeed?

There has to be more to it. A boxer walks into the ring knowing she will get hit hundreds of times and probably feel serious pain. “I was surprised how much it hurt to get punched,” said no fighter ever. Obviously, they’ve made piece with the pain well in advance.

What do we really fear?

The key problem to address is not the hit or the objection itself, it’s the pain. Conquer your fear of it and the punch no longer needs to be avoided. Similarly, when we can handle or dismiss the sting of objections, we can stop dancing around them.

I suggest the reason objections can hurt so much is the meaning we give them. Consider the following thoughts:

If I can’t answer an objection I risk losing the sale.
If I lose the sale I may not make my sales goal or lose a contest.
If I don’t make my sales goal (or lose) I’m a bad employee, parent, person, etc.

Do they sound familiar? Of course, these worries may not be at the top of our mind, but peel back the layers and they’re usually there.

How can we handle the pain?

Stoic’s, like Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, believed all we control is our own choices, actions, and beliefs. Customers make buying decisions; we do not. Managers make the only official judgements of sales performance. Again, we do not. However, feeling ashamed as a result of our job performance, that’s our choice. Therein lies a true opportunity to change ourselves for the better.

How can we change? We can choose no longer to feel anger or shame over events out of our control, like the choices customers and bosses make. In 25 years of selling, I’ve been layed-off three times. None of them were pleasant. Fortunately, I’ve learned to no longer live in fear of failure. I begin every sales call knowing, despite my best efforts, the customer may choose against my product.

No, I don’t win every sale these days but I win much more now that I don’t fear losing. I can take the punches, fall down, and get back up. No one has ever died from an objection. You can be imperfect and still be unwavering or almost invincible. First, you must make peace with the pain.

Sincerely,

Meaning2work.com

Ps. I’ve taken sales questions from over a hundred people. Check out my responses on my profile page on Quora.com!

The Stoic Salesperson: All Stress Is Internal (And Why That’s A Good Thing)

Stress and the Stoic Salesperson — Photo by Nik Shuliahin on Unsplash.com

Just to reiterate my previous post, no, we don’t control other’s and the decisions they make. And, that can be tough to swallow, especially when we must watch our friends, family, and customers make bad decisions. It’s at these moments when Stoic Philosophy implores us to take control, not of others, but ourselves. A primary example is job-related stress.

In Sales, a bad year or even a bad quarter can put us out of a job. Despite giving everything we have, we still lose deals, and when we do, it can hurt. Rest assured, it’s normal to feel this way at first. True Stoic Philosophy is not about eliminating our emotions, but getting them under control.

Although it’s unrealistic to never experience sadness or anxiety, some salespeople waste too much of their day anticipating and reliving their losses. Whether it’s the firing that never comes, or the sale that got away, we can trap ourselves in a cycle of reliving an event, over and over.

In this fashion, we waste valuable energy stressing over events we did not, or will never, control. Even worse, we confuse work and worry. If you believe the late Andy Grove, the one-time CEO of Intel who wrote a book entitled Only the Paranoid Survive, we all get paid to worry about the future. Perhaps paranoia is a prerequisite for top executives. For the rest of us, it’s a recipe for mediocre effort and even burnout.

Therefore, it’s essential for salespeople realize the choices they make every day. How do we want to feel, stressed or empowered? Paralyzed with fear or ready to take action? The Stoics would point out that our day-to-day mood, and the resulting choices we make, are some of the few things in life we DO control. It’s important to understand, one can choose not to feel stress and still be effective or even excel at work.

So, who would choose a career frought with stress and unhappiness? Only those who don’t realize or believe they have a choice. Ultimately, when we acknowledge that stress comes from within, we take back control and fuel ourselves to sell with more vigor and enthusiasm than stress could ever allow.

Sincerely,

Meaning2work.com

Salespeople, Choose Wisely: Your Employer Represents You!

Photo by Zany Jadraque on Unsplash.com

“When you’re out in the field, make good decisions. After all, you not only represent yourself, but the entire company!”
A common sales mantra

Does any of this sound familiar?

It should. Many companies close sales meetings with this message for the same reason, it’s true. Often we act as a customer’s sole point of contact. As such, in their eyes, we ARE the company.

Hiding in plain sight, however, is a more startling truth; our companies also represent us. Our family, friends, and customers, are all aware of our choice of employer. Whether we like it or not, we’re often judged based on this choice. And, complain as we may about our company’s policies, it’s still our choice to follow them – and our customers know it.

Therefore, when our employers make serious mistakes, we, in our customer’s eyes, take on some of the blame as well. Any salesperson who’s had to deliver bad news knows this is true. Even if we voice disagreement with our employer to our customers, the reality of the situation fails to change. Thus, as sincere as it may sound, complaining directly to customers is mostly selfish. Doing so, for us, feels good and for the customer, accomplishes nothing. Even worse, when we publicly complain about our company, we invite customers to do the same.

And therein lies the problem, how can we be honest and helpful to our customers when we don’t agree with our own company’s policies? How can we sincerely represent our employers in a positive manner when they fail to do so for us in return?

To break from this blame trap, we can resolve to do two things: internally advocate for the customer and make more thoughtful career decisions. When our company fails our customer, we need to bravely advocate on behalf of both our customer and our company. This can include being transparent and offering ideas for comprise. If our ideas fall on deaf ears, we should reformulate and try again. If our requests continue to fall on deaf ears, we can then consider working for an employer that better aligns with our values.

What are your values? It’s a worthwhile question to consider. Ask yourself this, if you left the field for an extended period of time, how would your company treat your customers? If they would make efforts to mimic the service you provide, you’re in a good spot. If not, your company may not fully appreciate you or your customers.

Would you want that kind of a firm representing you?

Sincerely,
Meaning2work.com