Paul extols the benefits of recharging after a run of lousy sales luck.
Show Notes
Make a date with your champions—your raving fans. Doing that will fill you up!
Get with your sales manager for some joint calls. Not sure how to explain it, but it will make a difference.
“Sometimes, the best way to get charged up is to unplug.” Do something that brings you joy.
During a trying time, you need to substitute your outcome-based goal with an activity-based goal. When you achieve that goal, you’ll experience a renewed sense of confidence.
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How do you recharge when you feel drained?
(Transcribed from podcast)
Today’s episode is based on a recent conversation that I had with a sales team on one of our monthly coaching calls. And the question is, “How do you recharge yourself when you feel drained?” Now, the insight I’m going to share with you, it’s so profound. I just, man, I’ve got to give a shout-out to Pete who came up with this idea on our call. It’s absolutely groundbreaking, yet surprisingly simple. I can’t wait to share it with you. So, let’s answer that question: How do you recharge when you’re feeling drained?
Before we get into that though, a quick shout-out to Andrea over at The Creative Imposter Studios. Podcasting is such a great way to connect with your audience, with your customers, with your fellow employees, with your audience. And so it’s important that you have a partner that’s going to help you build that podcast and take care of all those little things that you don’t feel like taking care of. And that’s exactly what Andrea and her team do for the Q and A Sales Podcast. If you need help with your podcast or you want to start one, reach out to Andrea and her team. They’re here to help you get started. Keep you motivated as well. So, reach out to Andrea and her team. We’ll, have a link over to her website on this episode’s webpage.
Now also, man, what I’m going to talk about on today’s podcast is also available in much more depth in the new book, Selling Through Tough Times. It’s available in hard copy; it’s available on Audible, Kindle, whatever version you want to get it, you can find it. The easiest way to get it is probably just to go to Amazon and you can pick it up there. One click order and get it shipped to you or shipped directly to your device. You can listen to it; you can read it. It’s there for you. This is going to be your guide on building mental resilience. As I mentioned on the last show, it is the number-one new release in the Selling category, so it’s taken off. Pick up your copy today.
So, let’s get back to that question: How do you recharge when you’re feeling drained? Well, before we get into that question, let me ask you a question. How often do you feel like you’ve just run into a lousy run of sales luck? You know, where things are just not going right; you feel depleted. Whether you’re experiencing a sales slump, you’re at the butt-end of your customer’s frustration, meaning, they’re yelling at you—they blow up at you. You blew a presentation; you’ve got supply issues; orders are being canceled.
Man, I can tell you, selling is a wonderful, inspiring, exciting, yet painful profession. You experience highs and you experience lows. And as you experience those low, you need something to bring you back. You need something to help you recharge. And that’s what we’re going to focus on today’s show. Because, in sales, you are going to experience rejection. That’s just part of being in sales. And the more rejection you experience, it’s wearing you down. It wears you down constantly. And sometimes we experience success, which charges us back up. But when you experience a slump and you’re constantly depleting your energy, man, you’ve got to find a charging port, just like a cordless drill. When you’re using that drill and performance starts to drop, that it is time to recharge. So what I’m going to do today is share a couple of tips and ideas on how you can recharge.
The first tip comes from one of the sales guys on our recent coaching call. His advice is simple yet powerful. When you’re having a, just a run of lousy sales luck—let’s say you made ten cold calls in a row. Every door slams in your face. You need to recharge your battery, and how you do that is you go visit your champions and your raving fans. Think about it. If you make ten cold calls and they tell you, get out-stay out-never come back-quit calling on us-we don’t want your business-we don’t want your product-we don’t need you-get out of here, when you hear that ten times in a row, it can’t help but wear you down. So, what you need to do is go and visit some of your raving fans and champions.
Now, every seller has a handful of customers that love their product, love their company, and then, also, they just love you as their salesperson. These customers welcome you with open arms. They are always eager to meet with you and to hear what you’re up to and hear what’s going on at your company. These customers are your biggest fans. So, when you feel depleted, when you feel like, “Man, I just can’t take any more rejection,” schedule a visit to go meet with one of your raving fans or your best customers. By doing that, it’s going to fill you up. It’s like putting yourself on that charging port and getting you ready to go. So, remember that—tip number one: make sure you go visit your champions and your raving fans.
Number two: make joint calls with your sales manager. This is one thing I remember. When I was in a sales slump early in my career, one thing I would do is I would reach out to my sales manager, and I would just ask him to join me for a day out in the field to go make some calls. And one of the reasons we did this—number one is that he could give me advice, maybe some coaching tips on what I’m doing wrong. But another thing was, when you’re going to experience rejection, sometimes you want someone there with you, someone there to help lift you up afterwards. And so that’s why I would invite him. But something miraculous would happen. On those days that my sales manager would go out there and make calls with me, I had better luck. And I don’t know why that is. I’m not sure the scientific reasoning behind it or the psychological reasoning behind it, but I noticed that I would have greater luck on the days my sales manager would ride with me. You know, doors seemed to open. We seemed to close more deals. We seemed to find new opportunities. And maybe it’s because there was another set of eyes out there and another set of ears listening. Or maybe it was just the teamwork aspect of it. I just remember that good things would happen. And after I would spend a day with my sales manager, man, I felt charged up and ready to go. I had some new opportunities I could pursue and follow up on. It created some more motivation. All right. So that’s the second tip is, make some joint calls with your sales manager.
Now, tip number three. You know, sometimes the best way to get charged up is to unplug. And you think about drawing on that analogy of plugging into a charger, but then unplugging at the same time. I know it sounds a little confusing, but hear me out for a minute. When you are facing tough times, when you’re facing a slump, whatever it may be, sometimes the best thing we can do is unplug and reset. Take some time off. Take a half-day, take a personal day. If we can separate ourselves from the rejection and what’s causing us that pain, we gain some natural energy. We have to let ourselves off the hook. That’s one thing that I see with salespeople is that sometimes they’re just too hard on themselves.
When you ask yourself who’s to blame for your failure, oftentimes, salespeople will take it on all on themselves. And you’ve got to realize that, during a slump, you need to give yourself a break. Cut yourself some slack. And one way to do that is to unplug and uncharge. Leave your phone at home. Leave your laptop in its case. Take a personal day. Unwind, relax. Do something that brings you joy. You are going to come back mentally ready to go out there and crush it. All right. So unplug. Get ready to go back out there. And what’s interesting about unplugging, sometimes if a salesperson is underperforming, or they’re in a slump or they’re just not feeling it, they almost feel like they haven’t earned the right to take a day. These are the individuals that need it the most. So take some time. Mentally recharge, unplug. It’ll get you set up for success.
Now, the next tip: substitute your outcome-based goal for an activity-based goal. And here’s what I mean. We all have a quota that we need to hit, right? Every single month we have that sales quota. If you are in a slump and you have very little chance of actually hitting your monthly number, it becomes a deterrent. You become frustrated. And there’s psychological studies based on this. The Yerkes-Dodson law is one of the most common ones. And this basically says, you have a goal that is out of your reach—it’s de-motivating. A goal that is too easy to attain, you’re not motivated to really go out there and achieve it. The key is, you want to find that sweet spot. Well, in the middle of a slump, that goal becomes unreachable, so it’s no longer motivating to you. Instead, it actually has the opposite effect. So, I would encourage you to ditch that outcome-based goal. Instead, focus on an activity-based goal.
For example, if there is, let’s say you’re heading into the final month of a quarter, and your quarterly budget is $300,000, and you’re at $50,000 in your pipeline. It looks relatively dry. You have very little chance of hitting your number. Don’t focus on the $300,000 quota that you need to hit. Instead, switch it to an activity-based goal. Tell yourself, ‘Okay, this month I’m going to schedule 80 face-to-face professional appointments. Eighty appointments—that’s my goal this month.’ And by focusing on that goal, you’re generating activity. By generating activity, that’s eventually going to lead to success. But it’s more realistic for you to hit that 80-scheduled-appointment goal than it is the $300,000 number. And when you achieve that goal, it’s going to give you a sense of confidence. And with that new sense of confidence, you’re going to feel charged up and ready to go.
All right, folks. Well, that is the show for today. Again, four tips for you on how to recharge and get out there and make it happen.
- Number one: visit your champions and your raving fans.
- Number two: make joint calls.
- Number three: sometimes the best way to charge up is to actually unplug.
- And then finally: substitute that outcome-based goal for an activity-based goal.
And, you know, as we close out here, one final thought. You might be wondering, ‘Okay, when is the best time to recharge?’ You know, it’s interesting, when you actually google, “When should I recharge my cordless drill,” the most common answer is “When you notice a drop in performance.” So, let’s equate that to salespeople. If you’re noticing a drop in your performance, if you’re noticing that struggle, it’s time to recharge. Use some of these tips to help you.
Make it a big day.
