Are sales people supposed to be happy all the time?
As a salesperson or manager, How often do you dive into the mechanics of how sales people behave. Why they do what they do. Where they get the energy, or why they have zero energy.
Sales people are like everyone else. They have good and bad days. They make a sale and celebrate or they lose one and "cry", then pick themselves up and start again.
All of these feeling are OK. But if we really start to ask the right questions what can we do about the ups and downs of sales?
Have you ever heard the old song "Whistle While You Work"? Some salespeople probably feel that anyone who walks around singing that song has NEVER had to make a cold call. Often salespeople are taught to "put on a smile and be happy" and to "present themselves in a friendly manner." Too often they are told that they need to suck it up and "don't worry, be happy." Sometimes, that is just not realistic.
In his book Man's Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl discusses the fate of the optimists. Because they were often unrealistic about the reality surrounding them, the optimists were often the first to perish. Sadly, this can become true in sales as well. If you haven't closed any business in your expected sales cycle, you are justified in feeling angry and unhappy. If you keep getting "think-it-overs" instead of decisions, then you had better feel depressed!
It's OK to get depressed sometimes, because feeling that way is often necessary to facilitate change. Unfortunately, many salespeople believe that revealing anything negative about their performance on sales calls is a bad thing. This misguided optimism is a problem for a few reasons.
First, an unrealistic salesperson cannot be effectively debriefed, nor can he effectively plan. If he is not willing to look at current results in the cold, hard light of reality, it will be almost impossible for him to guess where he should make corrections to his current sales process.
Second, if he is unwilling to correctly measure the connection between activity and results, it will be a guessing game for him to decide what behavior(s) he needs to change in order to create the right amount of new sales. Finally, salespeople who are always happy seem artificial and shallow to their customers. Since people buy from people who are like them, it is very difficult to sell to a prospect who sees you as shallow, or fake.
Be yourself! If you are feeling depressed about your performance, it is OK. Don't force things into a positive light. If something is negative, do not ignore it. Confront it. Depression is a human response. Don't allow yourself to wallow in self-pity, but pay attention to your feelings. Take action. Attack the things that are causing you to be depressed. Change your behaviors and techniques to obtain results that will enable you to feel positive.
If all of us do that effectively, we will actually be depressed less often, and not because we are faking our happiness!
Copyright 2000 Sandler Sales Institute.
To learn more contact: Jeremy Rawitz
jr@salesstrategycorp.com
