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The Success Conundrum

Jan 29, 2020 11:30:00 AM

white picket fenceAt 35, Rachel built a nice career for herself, and she was enjoying the benefits of that success. There was a nice house in an upscale neighborhood, the vacations in all the places she ever dreamed about and a luxury set of wheels sitting in the driveway; all of it earned through hard work and commitment to Rachel’s goals. Her life looked like the epitome of success, and Rachel was very proud of it all. There was, however, one thing Rachel didn’t have, and it seemed the more successful she became the less of this one thing she had at her disposal. Rachel hated to admit it, but all the success cost her time to enjoy her life with friends and family. To Rachel, it became obvious that success had a price and she wasn’t sure it was worth it to raise the bar and experience even more of it. She found herself admitting that being more successful just meant giving up most of what was left of her personal life.

Rachel’s situation can be found all over the business landscape. People strive for success by working hard, doing whatever it takes to make a customer happy and chasing prospects for as long as necessary to garner their business. She had been trained that if she didn’t do that her competition would steal those opportunities from her, and Rachel couldn’t imagine losing an opportunity because she was outworked. If it meant working 15 hours a day, seven days a week, so be it. When she looked around there were few people that had achieved as much as she had by her age, and she was understandably proud of that. But now, Rachel didn’t know what to do when her quotas were raised, and she had less and less time to give. How could her boss expect more from her when she knew Rachel was already working crazy hours? As time went on Rachel kept hearing a voice in the back of her mind asking the one question she never thought she’d ask, “am I about to burn out?”

Burnout is real. The constant drive for success, reaching higher and higher can cause even the most committed professionals to ask themselves if the effort is worth the price. Rachel never took the time to ask herself if her efforts were the best way to achieve her goals and have balanced life. She was so busy competing and winning that she didn’t realize what she needed to learn new tactics and strategies to keep on an upward career path. By saying yes to every request Rachel had created a success model that could not be maintained as she moved forward. She had too many prospects and not enough decisions. She had too much follow up to do to keep adding more prospecting. Rachel was literally running out of time to succeed. Luckily, Rachel had her epiphany earlier rather than later in her career, and she decided to invest in some training to help her shed the opportunities that were not qualified and to help her manage the sales process to make it both efficient and effective.

Rachel was as committed to the training as she was to her sales success, and in turn she found out she could have the success and a life.

Are you reading this and relating to Rachel? Growth Dynamics officers sales training and we have a new session starting on Feb. 5, 2020. Contact Sarah Waple to learn more about the program.