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It’s Only Common Sense: Great Salespeople Never Quit

If you are in sales and don’t treat your job with intensity, passion, and seriousness, you’ll never succeed. This is how you make your living, after all, and in some ways, it is what defines at least one facet of who you are. You owe it to your company to give 100% and you owe it to yourself to give 150%; it takes great effort to be great.

One of the things I have learned is that if you don’t have a burning desire to change the world, then don’t bother to get out of bed. It has been said by more than one person that “People do not fail, they just quit trying.”

When I am coaching salespeople, I am surprised by their lack of imagination and ambition. These salespeople are qualified and talented, and they want to do a good job, but they seem to have run out of ideas. Most of the time, my job is simply to help them find their mojo again; I work on getting them excited, rekindling their passion, and then helping them to get moving in the right direction with enthusiasm. There is no reason you can’t be the best at what you do.

This reminds me of Wendy, a character in the show “Billions.” Wendy is a trained psychologist whose job is to psych up Bobbie Axelrod’s traders so they can get their bloodlust back and go out there and make millions for themselves and billions for Bobbie. In a similar way, the best professional athletes all have their own sports psychologist to keep them mentally astute and fired up enough to deliver their best playing performance possible.

Here are some of the things I say when I am coaching a salesperson who is looking to get out of a rut of their own making:

1. Remember what winning was like. Re-capture that feeling. What was your best day in sales? What were some to the strategies and tactics you used? Remember them and use them again.
2. Value your worth. Think about how you got to this point in your life. Remember that you are somebody; that you matter and what you do matters.
3. The future is in your hands. No one can determine your future but you. Set goals: some easier ones at first so that you gain the confidence that comes with accomplishment, and then loftier ones as you go along until you are finally achieving amazing results.
4. Remember that sales is all about confidence; the more confident you are the better you will do.
5. Read books that excite you. Books that inspire you to get creative and come up with new and useful ideas of your own. Anything by Jeffery Gitomer, Seth Godin, or Tom Peters will do this for you. If you are going take your career seriously, you have to hone your craft.
6. Study the habits of successful people. Look for their traits, routines, and habits. What do they do to achieve greatness and find inspiration to be successful?
7. Realize that you are the captain of your own ship. It is up to you to decide the direction you go; your success is entirely in your hands.

Great salespeople rely on themselves. They realize and accept that the more they take their career seriously, the better they will do.

It’s only common sense.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.