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Good morning!
Over the course of my many, many sales conversations, I hear reps and owners express a lot of frustration. If you believe them, everyone else is a Rock Star sales rep who is currently killing it while they are suffering, alone, and almost certain to fail completely. This week, allow me to dispel the 5 myths I hear most frequently:
- “Everyone else can remember names except me”—Let me tell you something, this is a universal issue we all share, regardless of whether you are in sales. My best hope for remembering a name is to repeat it back to someone immediately and then use it again in the first seconds of a conversation, or in this case, an introduction:
Allison: “Bill, I’d like you to meet Linnea.”
Me: “Please to meet you, Linnea. Tell me, Linnea, how do you know Allison?”
There. Now I’ve heard it 3 times in 30 seconds. That increases the odds the name “Linnea” is resident on one of my brain cells. - “Everyone’s sales are going great except mine”—Nnnnnope! Other reps or owners might tell you their sales are up, but take it from someone who’s had this conversation for decades, for every one person who is killing it, there is one who is in the sales doldrums.
- “Sales comes easily to everyone else but me”—Oh, so you think others just walk in and walk out with an order? Don’t believe the stories you hear of sales bravado. Reps who tell boastful this-is-how-I-closed-a-huge-order also tell their kids tales of walking to and from school uphill both ways. Everyone is the hero in their own story. No one’s sales come easy. We are all struggling to succeed.
- “I am the only one who’s physically and mentally drained”—There has been a lot of attention paid to mental health of late and that is a good thing. Ask someone, “How are things going?” and you are much more likely to hear a truthful answer— “To be honest, I’m not 100%”.
There is a great scene in the movie Phenomena where John Travolta is apologizing to his best friend, played by Forrest Whittaker, and says, “I’m going through something” to which Whittaker replies, “Everyone is going through something.” - “My company sucks and there is something else better out there”—You start at a company and everything is awesome. Soon, you start to see the flaws. Eventually, it is inevitable to think, “I wish I worked elsewhere. It is better there.” The thing is, though, it’s not. That company has blemishes, too. So does that one. And that one. Listen, if you don’t like your job, do something about it. If it is extreme, go ahead and quit. Otherwise, control what you can control, shut up, and sell.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of sales people work on an island—we’re either the only sales rep, or a selling owner doubling as the sales force. Thoughts like these creep in and it is hard to keep them out.
My advice is to stay focused on the selling activities. Make it your goal to finish every day having done your job. Do the right activities and the results will follow.
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Sales Vault members meet via Zoom 3x a week, helping to dispel self-defeating myths like these. Find other sales best practices and contact Bill Farquharson at SalesVault.pro
