Paul explains why taking a vacation is so critical
Show Notes:
“It’s okay to unplug and distance yourself from this challenging sales environment.”
Salespeople are the equivalent of elite athletes. Even the most elite athletes take a break. Pull a Rodman and blow off some steam.
A little break from the day-to-day can help you boost creativity. Vacation will boost your overall well-being.
The more distance you create between you and your work environment, the more productive you will be when you return.
Attention all sales managers: Don’t bug your salespeople during vacation.
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Referenced article and study:
4 Scientific Reasons Vacations Are Good for Your Health
Study by B. B. Gump and K. A. Matthews
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Why should I take a vacation?
(Transcribed from podcast)
On today’s episode we’re going to talk about vacation. We’re going to talk about taking a break. And I’m going to explain to you why right now is actually the perfect time to unwind, cut loose, and just take some time away from work.
I now I know you’re probably thinking: What has Paul been smoking? Why is he talking about this? We’re in the middle of a pandemic. We’re trying to crush our quota. We’re trying to hit our quota. We’re trying to make something happen, and Paul’s talking about taking a vacation. Well, I’ll explain why in just a couple of moments.
Before we get started a quick shout out to Andrea and her team, The Creative Impostor Studios. We’re going to have a link to her website on this episode’s webpage. So check it out. I know many of you might have been thinking about starting a podcast. You’re wondering how to get started. Right now is a great time. We have extra time on our hands. This is going to be the next big thing in marketing. If you’re interested in starting one, reach out to Andrea and her team.
Also, make sure you pick up your latest edition of Value-Added Selling. It’s available on Amazon or wherever you get your books. Just don’t read it while you’re on vacation. On vacation you’re supposed to unwind and relax.
So let’s get into the show. I know salespeople are stressed out right now. I’m talking to salespeople nearly every single day via virtual webinars, virtual meetings, just talking, having some one-on-one sessions, and I know that salespeople are stressed out right now. They’re concerned about making a sale. They’re concerned about even having customers meet with them, or some of their customers are going to go bankrupt, if they’re going to be around. There’s a lot of stress out there right now. And when we’re at these moments of peak stress, I would argue, these are the best times to take a vacation.
On one of our previous episodes, we talked about getting out of a sales slump, and I mentioned that taking a vacation is really a great way that you can do that: just taking some time, unplugging, getting away from it all. So on today’s show we’re going to talk about some of the benefits of taking vacation.
The first benefit that I can think of, and this is something all of you have experienced before, vacations reduce stress. There’s just something about taking some time and putting some distance between you and the challenging sales environment right now. That’s something we can do that will help reduce stress. In fact, there was an article in Inc. Magazine (Inc.com). They shared several examples of different work groups. One group of 900 lawyers—they found that taking a vacation will help them alleviate their job stress. One other study found that people that took vacation time away from work, when they came back, they had fewer stress-related physical complaints, such as headaches, backaches, heart irregularities, things like that.
We know that vacation will reduce our stress. And one of the things I think we need to remember is that it’s okay to completely unplug and distance ourselves from that stress occasionally. The world will still go on without us in our territory. Our customers will still be able to make things happen with or without us there. Sometimes maybe we have trouble admitting that. But it’s important that we unplug so it will reduce stress.
Not only that… I was listening to a podcast the other day. It was Jeb Blount. He does a lot with fanatical prospecting, and I thought he had an interesting analogy. He equated salespeople to the elite athletes. That’s kind of the analogy he was going with. He was saying if the business world was a sport, salespeople would be the elite athletes in that we go out there and produce.
I was thinking about that further. Even elite athletes will take a break; even elite athletes take some time for themselves to reduce stress, to go on vacation, to distance themselves from the challenges that they face. And this is no more apparent than in The Last Dance. If you’ve been watching The Last Dance, the documentary on Michael Jordan, there was one episode that I thought was perfect for what we’re talking about today. It was an episode where Dennis Rodman said to Michael Jordan and Phil Jackson. Rodman basically says, “Look, I need a vacation. I need a couple of days to just blow off some steam.” And he ran off to Vegas and just partied for like like 36 or 48 hours. When he came back, he was ready to rock and roll. I mean, he played amazing when he got back. And the reason why, he just needed some time to rest, to take some time for himself, to blow off some steam.
We, as salespeople, need the same thing. You are like the elite athletes of the business world. And in order for you to perform at your peak levels, it’s important that you take a break, that you take a rest. When you come back, you’re going to feel recharged and ready to go. So remember, you need to take a rest.
And third, taking some time can boost creativity. Think about this. When you’re on vacation and you don’t have the daily stress that you’re dealing with: the normal routine, all the mundane details that you tackle every single day; your mind is freed for just a little while. You’re able to explore depths of your inner thoughts that maybe you didn’t have time to explore before. It gives you chance to creatively think about maybe your profession; creatively think about challenges that you’re facing. It just gives you a chance to explore depth of thought that maybe you have not before. It gives you more time to be creative.
Number four: It’s good for your overall well being. There have been countless studies to show how taking a vacation can actually reduce stress. We talked about that already. But there was one study I found the other day (we’ll put a link to it on the website) that people who regularly take vacations have less of a chance of heart disease. In fact, in the study they found over a five year period, those people that avoided vacations, that didn’t take two weeks of vacation at least, ended up 30% more likely for heart disease.
Think about that. We need to look out for ourselves. We need to improve our overall well being. And one of the ways we do that is that we take some time. I’m not saying you need to hop on a plane, go to Hawaii to a five-star luxury resort. You can do things during even this pandemic: go camping, get outdoors, just take some time. It’s good for your overall well being.
The other thing to remember, during vacation times, and this is especially for managers and business owners that are listening, don’t bug your salespeople during their vacation. I’ve heard this from salespeople in the past that many of them are even required to call in and just see if everything’s okay while they’re on vacation. Don’t do that. Completely unplug. Don’t even bring your laptop on vacation. If you can, avoid bringing your mobile device as well. Leave your work phone with a colleague or with a manager or someone. Because this is your time to completely unplug and unwind.
The more distance that you create from your work environment—meaning not only geographically speaking, but just figuratively speaking—the more distance you can create from your work environment, the more productive you’re going to be when you come back from that vacation.
Vacation is critical. It’s critical that we take a break. You’ve earned it. During these tough times, I know that many of you have been working harder. It’s been a challenging work environment. You’re mentally exhausted. Take Some Vacation.
Make it a big day.
