Face it; sales is difficult even for the best in the profession. For many sales provides too many opportunities to give up or make excuses for not making quota or just setting an appointment for a sales call. Being significantly successful in business development requires a commitment to being significantly uncomfortable a significant amount of time. You must learn that without risk of failure there is little chance of experiencing the rewards that top producers enjoy, and frankly, for many that cost is too much to pay.
Sales is a game that includes a tremendous amount of failure, and with that failure comes plenty of reasons to be discouraged about your potential to last in the game. Suspects steal your time, abuse your willingness to help, lie about their intentions and disparage your character. What is not to like about all of that? The absolute best understands that all of that is the price to be paid if you want to get to the top of the profession. The top 10-20 per cent of salespeople know that at times selling is not fun, but they do not allow themselves the opportunity to dwell on the negatives, opting instead to keep focusing on the positive outcomes created by a job well done. These business development professionals learned that being discouraged cannot last much longer than the time it takes to dial the next number or ask for the next referral.
What the best rely on that others will not commit to is having “this-couragement” rather than discouragement. “This-courage” requires you to have thick skin, to look at the big picture rather than one negative result, to knows your numbers, to believe that hearing NO is when selling starts, to act like time is valuable, to do what others will not do, to ask tough questions, to set goals and to create a plan to achieve them. “This-courage” is the power to be self-responsible and never be a victim no matter how easy it might be to blame someone else for not getting a decision. Sales professionals with “this-courage” do whatever it takes.
Photo by Katrina Wright on Unsplash
