Recently, I was with a salesperson who I felt had always demonstrated a high level of sales motivation. Whenever I would engage this person on the phone, they were always upbeat and positive about their business and the prospects for the coming months. I never had a reason to doubt their level of sales motivation until the day I spent a couple of hours with the person and I got the shock of my life.
The salesperson wasn’t able to do anything outside of what they had specifically planned for that day, right down to the place where they intended to eat lunch (even though they were going to be eating alone). What shocked me about this rigid schedule was how they reacted to their cell phone ringing. First, they refused to answer it, even though twice when it rang, we were clearly in a position where they could have answered the phone. Second, the salesperson knew exactly who was calling and even why they were calling, but because it was not something they were specifically expecting that day, they didn’t think they could handle it.
Not only couldn’t this person handle taking the call, but they also proceeded to stew about it and how it was going to be such a pain to have to respond to them. I viewed those calls as simple quick interactions with customers, which ultimately means potential sales. But the salesperson was letting those incoming calls not only impact negatively their sales effectiveness for the day, but also hamper their sales motivation on a grander scale.
The reason I share this is simple. We have to expect deviations to come up — it’s what sales is all about! We need to remain positive about adjusting our schedule when needed and not letting such alterations negatively impact our sales motivation. Sales is all about seizing opportunities! They come in different shapes and manners to every salesperson out there. Be ready and willing to handle them, to capitalize on them and most of all to use them as a positive impact on your sales motivation.
2 Responses
Hi Mark,
I just want to ask, what do you think is the best way we can get over this kind of situation?
Wherein we become “less” motivated due to certain issues or problems that we face. I think this really comes to every salesperson who has face difficulty.
Hope you can help me.
Jake Bere
http://salesmentoronlinephilippines.blogspot.com/
Thanks for the comment Jake! Sorry about my delay in responding. People who don’t like change can’t be expected to suddenly embrace it. The key is to start slowly by doing such things as challenging yourself to find one new opportunity each week. Then challenge yourself to find a way to respond to it and capitalize on it. By working through new opportunities, you will also begin to condition yourself to see new things. When you’re able to solve them it will increase your level of confidence in being able to handle change. People who are extremely rigid are in my book people who lack confidence and therefore despite how positive they might be outwardly, they will never be able to achieve the level of “top performer” because they won’t be able to maximize opportunities that arise where they least expect them to. Hope this is helpful!