Helping Others
There’s no better outcome for me than helping others become successful.
Helping your client succeed allows you and all those who support you to meet your own goals. There’s the recognition within your company that you’re an “A player” and the person who can be counted on to deliver results. Sometimes, the success you help your clients achieve impacts your financial future like you never dreamed. But getting to that outcome is a challenge.
Helping others become successful is possibly the best part of being a salesperson. But you’ve just changed sales jobs and being the new person you’ve been handed the Greenfield account list. Anyone who’s taken on the challenge knows what this means.
There’s a challenge that every salesperson has to rise to every single day they go to work. It’s a battle against themselves, you know the one, the battle to work your plan, the plan you created to break into your assigned prospects. I’ve often said I’d rather have a client who hates my product or company than start from scratch with a raw prospect.
New prospects mean anxiety: It’s the anxiety of starting from scratch to build your franchise; the anxiety of prospecting with people who really don’t know they need to hear from you; and the anxiety of rejection and more rejection.
Eons of Evolution and a Typical Tuesday
Eons of evolution have shaped our brains to avoid painful activities and anything that causes feelings of rejection ranks up there with the most painful things you can do!
Life for a salesperson means learning to deal in rejection. It’s full of people who absolutely do not want to talk to you, ever. Take yesterday, for example. In just one day, you had some less-than-fulfilling experiences that included the administrative assistant of an executive you’re targeting asking you to stop calling and emailing. My favorite is being hung up in mid-sentence.
Then, there were those four rushed calls — it was obvious that the prospect was trying to get off the phone with you. You know that feeling. As soon as you identify yourself, your prospect tenses up so hard that you can feel it through the phone as they go into terse response mode. And this was just a typical Tuesday.
Our amazing brains help us in so many ways, but they really excel at helping us avoid pain. Maybe these aren’t situations that will cause you physical pain, but if you haven’t experienced these sorts of awkward conversations you should give it a go for yourself. You may even rethink how you treat salespeople cold-calling you at home.
Been Mauled by a Bear Lately?
Thousands of years ago, pain may have included avoiding being attacked by a lion, chased down by a pack of wolves or mauled by a bear. How could the pain of prospecting compare to running for your life from a wild animal? There’s no comparison to the palpable discomfort of rejection experienced in sales. If you doubt it for a minute, get a job in sales where the only thing you can really count on is constant rejection.
Consider how most people view salespeople. Now, mix in yesterday’s prospecting results. Despite all the misses, you actually had a call with a target prospect. She told you that she had a terrible experience with your company a few years ago and would never do business with your company again.
An interaction like this one is sure to get you inspired to wake up with your happy face on and do some more prospecting today. I know you’re already thinking that this sounds like a great gig and where can I get me some of that.
Perhaps these challenges are unique to me and who I am. Maybe you’ve experienced some of these recurring setbacks, belittling comments and subsequent feelings of worthlessness.
The Flipside of Rejection
There has to be something good about all of this, doesn’t there? Yes, there is. Among all the rejection, you discover the one person at your prospect who’s looking for something different, who’s looking to improve the way their company operates and who’s not afraid of change or negative consequences.
It’s just a start, but it provides the energy you need to persevere and pour yourself into earning the trust of this newfound relationship.
Ultimately, by planning your work and, working your plan — plus a little luck — you’ll discover the change agents in your prospective clients. You’ll become a trusted advisor to these key individuals, and ultimately you’ll sell them your product or service to help improve their organization.
Selling Can Be Rewarding, Don’t Forget This
A career in selling can be incredibly rewarding in myriad ways, whether it’s the genuine feeling of accomplishment you get when you see your client’s project finish as expected or better yet, exceeding those expectations.
The compensation in selling can be very rewarding, too. But helping others succeed is far more meaningful than whatever ephemeral pleasures or benefits money can provide. You can only buy so much stuff, but you can bask in the success of your clients again and again.
