Growth Dynamics Get Down

Symptoms:

Sally and Sanjay were comparing notes after a very busy week out selling. Sally was exhausted, but at the same time pretty satisfied that her week was highly productive and would produce some nice revenue for the company and herself. Sanjay, on the other hand, was exhausted and uncertain about what actually happened to him and what success he created. As they compared “war stories” Sally could detail where she was with each prospect she engaged and exactly what the next steps were in the decision process. She could validate she was in control and her future was certain to be positive. Stunned to hear such detail and certainty, Sanjay couldn't comprehend how Sally managed to systematically get through the minefield his sales approach created. “You mean you don’t have all these problems I keep running into?” Sanjay queried. Sally looked at him and replied, “You only have to deal with them if you do not have a process to keep you out of them.”

Symptoms:

Diane returned from the product demo certain that the features and benefits she shared with her prospect had wowed them. The buyer nodded when Diane asked if the product fit into the product categories they offered to their customer base, and everyone else that sat in on the meeting told her how much they liked what she had presented. She felt as good about this call as she had in a long time, but now six weeks later there was still no purchase order and the prospect had gone radio silent. How did their excitement turn into Diane's frustration?

This week Major League Baseball held its annual Home Run Derby.  We've seen the home run derbies before.  We watch them every year.  They are always the same - each slugger tries to hit more home runs than the other sluggers in the contest.  At the same time, they are always different and last night there were four stories that made this year's home run derby different from all the rest.  Pete Alonso, Shohei Ohtani, Trey Mancini, and Juan Soto made the contest different. It is always the individual story lines that make the mundane different.

Symptoms:

Lauren hated watching the network news or seeing the latest news flashing on her phone. It seemed like the "Big Story" everywhere was another mass shooting, a political meltdown, a plane crash or other sad story. The positive outlook Lauren typically brought to each day had always kept her going no matter what she encountered in her business development activities. But now, so many people she spoke with apparently felt like there was so little certainty left in the world, and some of them wanted her to join in their negativity. Looking at how hard she was working just to maintain some positive momentum, Lauren began to have some doubts of her own about the future.

Symptoms:

Mark is looking at his schedule and realizing the July 4th holiday is just days away.  Oh, Oh! Is the quarter really almost over? And the year is half over too. The sales reports are bound to follow, and he is determined not to let his performance slip away. Mark has decided it's time to review and get his game plan back on track. 

Have you been experiencing long-term stress? If so, you might be at risk of suffering from brain burnout. Brain burnout is more common than you might think, but it presents differently in introverts and extroverts.

Symptoms:

Marcy, her manager and their product expert just finished a conference call with a hot prospect, and after the last caller signed off, she felt like the last hour had just wasted a month's worth of effort in getting it set up. They had all agreed to dial in, so why was there so little interest, so few questions and no action items at the end of the call? Why was there so little interaction between her team and the audience? Granted, she didn't have too much to say on the call, but the purpose was to show off their company and their offerings. Or was it? Now, looking back, she wasn't so sure.

As the calendar hits mid-June and I can hear the kids in the neighborhood celebrate the last day of the school year I ponder what they learned about life as well as their scholastic advancement. Those ideas provoke thoughts about what salespeople learn from one year to the next, or are they just repeating their earliest days in sales over and over, not really growing from the experiences along the way. So often when I am working with a sales team someone will complain about a prospect that will not return a call or a customer that expects to buy everything at the lowest possible price. Inevitably someone says that is just the way sales is and that complaining never makes it different. In other words, just live with it because that stuff just goes with the territory.

Symptoms:

Andrea hated the pressure of selling. After three years in the business of selling payroll services Andrea thought she would be past this stage of professional development. Day after day, call after call it was still there; that pressure to convince someone that you are th

e perfect fit for their company when the market offered so many options. Andrea had to admit that at times she felt like she was lying to get a sale. The competition was not really any better or worse capable to deliver what the market expected for their services. At this point Andrea felt trapped by her inability to be gung-ho about her company. Was it like this in every sales job? Was there anywhere that the old feature and benefit routine did not exist in the sales culture?

The next episode of Charlie & Company Talk Business, Life and Everything In Between is here. Charlie Hauck, president and owner of Growth Dynamics, and Sarah Waple, general manager, spend some time with Chuck Swope and Nicky Lyddane of SwopeLees Commercial Real Estate.