Episode #71: Back To The Sales Drawing Board

Sisyphus was banished to Hades for misdeeds in life and spent eternity rolling a large stone to the top of a hill, to just watch it descend again. This is the sales life. Every end of financial year, we are back down at the bottom of the hill. Here we go again, having to push that big rock all the way to the top.

“You are only good as your last deal” is a common refrain in sales. We struggle all year to make our targets and then we go back to zero revenues and start rolling those massive KPI rocks up the hill once more.

Most salespeople struggle to make their targets and the targets are always being raised. The effort to get deals over the line before the cut off, leaves us in a disheveled heap.

Maybe we made your target or maybe we didn’t. It doesn't matter because we are in a new financial year now so we have to start again. So the first thing is to not worry about the past. Draw lessons from it, but don’t allow yesterday’s worry to intimidate today’s attitude.

Fill our mind with thoughts of peace, courage, health and hope. We cannot tolerate a vacuum in our minds, so either the good stuff goes in or we allow the bad stuff to disable us. We should not dwell on the negatives, but concentrate on solution finding for client problems.

Expect ingratitude. This way, bad news and bad behavior never catch you mentally unprepared. Your client chooses your competitor and not you, despite the close relationship you have together. If you assume ingratitude is the usual state of the world, then you just brush it off and move forward.

Count your blessings not your troubles. You are focused on the hill and the rock but not your strengths. You have experience, contacts, track record and a good reputation in the marketplace. You are a professional, who always has the client’s interests as your first priority. You practice your craft and you study to improve even further.

Don’t be overwhelmed by the hill in front of us. Break it down to centimeters and roll that rock a little a day, every day and we will get to the top. Okay, we have to start again but that is the fun of the game. We get to play again and see what we can do this year. See which wonderful new clients we can help. See what creative solutions we can generate. We are an awesomely powerful learning machine and the game is our university of life.

Action Steps

1. Don’t worry about the past
2. Fill your mind with thoughts of peace, courage, health and hope
3. Expect ingratitude
4. Count your blessings not your troubles
5. Try to profit from your losses
6. Create happiness for others