Sales jobs and weathering the storm

If you've worked in sales jobs for some time, you'll know that it's no picnic. The road to success is rarely smooth and downhill, you're likely to have to weather a few bumpy roads in storms to reach your goals. It's quite easy to sit back and explain that your route to success is going to be a bumpy ride, so just hang in there and the success will come, but when you're in the middle of a storm, it can be very difficult to see beyond the edge of the clouds.

There are many things which can cause a 'sales storm', some of them may be self generated, boredom, distractions outside of work, complacency, the list goes on. Or the cause may be external and outside of your immediate control, such as changes in the market like a new competitor launch, or reductions in your promotional budget. In either case, the resulting effect on your morale can be devastating, if you let it, and can further contribute to the decline in your results.

There are a number of things you can do to facilitate sailing out of the storm as quickly as possible. Firstly, you need to avoid the total mental meltdown that can result from declining results. This is wholly unproductive and can destroy the ability to think that you will need to improve matters. Accept that the most successful people in sales experience peaks and troughs in results. The ones that are the most successful, are those who can maintain a positive outlook and a proactive approach when the going is tough. The second thing you need is to remind yourself is that bad weather 'is' eventually followed by 'better' weather, and so good times 'are' ahead. Just stay focused on the task in hand.

With regard to the factors causing your slump, in almost all cases, you will be able to analyse the scenario and establish the causes or poor performance, and subsequently formulate plans to climb out of your trough, whether the contributing factors are internal or external. The key above is maintaining your focus to achieve this as quickly as possible. In my experience as a sales manager, most sales people will allow a slump to pull them down for at least a short period before regrouping to fight another day. The best sales people have that ability to minimise any 'defeat' in their minds eye to maintain a consistent level of effort.

To apply a sporting analogy to sales jobs, it's a player or team's ability to win when they are playing badly that is the sign of true champions. As a final comment for thought, I would suggest that it's a salespersons performance when they are down, which will have a greater bearing on their overall production in comparison to their performance when they are at a peak.