Stress, Sales, Success, and Satisfaction
MEET JULIA. SHE’S BEEN a top sales producer for fifteen years and is a person who is described as perpetually upbeat and positive. But lately, her sales results have been inconsistent, hitting quota one month, not the next month. She is short with colleagues and other members of the team.
Julia is struggling. She’s managing a lot of stress in her personal and professional life. She’s a member of the sandwich generation. Her aging parents are resisting moving into assisted living, so much of Julia’s free time is spent helping them. Julia’s two children are teenagers and have become experts at pushing her hot buttons on a daily basis.
On the professional front, achieving sales results is getting tougher. An aggressive new competitor has entered her territory and is lowballing prices. She is experiencing more and more prospects defaulting to status quo simply because they are overwhelmed. Sticking with the status quo is easier than making a decision to move their business. Oh, and the big deal that was supposed to close—not happening. The prospect just announced they are being sold.
Let’s add one more factor to complete this scenario. The company is rolling out a new ERP system and the rollout is not going well. Customers are upset with incorrect invoices and installments. Julia is tired, demotivated, and sick days are increasing.
Her concerned sales manager provides Julia with more coaching around lead generation, pipeline management, objection handling, questioning skills, selling value not price, but sees little or no improvement. Why? Because the sales manager is working on the wrong end of the problem. Julia may need more coaching around her selling skills and approach. But she also needs help managing stress.
According to a HubSpot study, 54 percent of salespeople describe their life as stressful and 68 percent as challenging. Stress causes burnout and turnover as high as 27 percent, double the rate in the general workforce.
Burnout is now included in the eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as an occupational phenomenon. It is defined as a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.
Stress costs sales organizations a lot of money. Salespeople execute at half-speed because they are fatigued. Peak performance is never reached because peak performance takes energy and a positive outlook. As a result, salespeople deliver below-average efforts and below-average sales results.
Great Selling Is a Combination of Psychology, Physiology, and Consultative Selling Skills
In our Emotional Intelligence for Sales Success workshops, we teach that effective sales—and sales management—requires an understanding of psychology, physiology, and consultative selling skills. Most sales managers and salespeople aren’t aware of how physiology affects their ability to consistently execute the right selling behaviors.
Let’s go back to the paper-rock-scissors game. Rock is your body’s physiology. Scissors is a person’s selling skills. When a salesperson is stressed, the body’s physiological reaction to stress will smash or at least blunt a salesperson’s ability to effectively apply sales knowledge and skills.
When a salesperson is stressed, the body releases the stress hormone cortisol. Too much cortisol creates fatigue, depression, lack of sleep, and lack of creativity. In a study of more than two thousand people, participants with the highest levels of cortisol performed worse on tests of memory, organization, visual perception, and attention. Obviously, not a winning formula for achieving sustainable sales results.
Stress Management Is Sales Management
Stress is a part of life, and the better you can equip your sales team to understand and manage it, the better chance you have of managing a sales team that hits the sales quota and the fun quota.
Apply self-awareness and think about times you’ve felt stress. Were you operating at your best? One of the common emotions causing stress is that of feeling out of control. Apply empathy and step into your salesperson’s shoes and tune into the selling scenarios where they are feeling out of control:
• Every prospect and customer in a salesperson’s territory is demanding information or deliverables in the same week. The salesperson’s calendar is overbooked and out of control. Stress.
• The operations side of the business isn’t keeping up with the sales generated by the sales organization. The salesperson is fielding angry calls from customers asking about their orders. Operations doesn’t report to sales so the salesperson feels out of control in trying to correct the situation. Stress.
• The company has rolled out a new CRM system and the deadline is looming to integrate into daily sales processes. The salesperson is feeling the pressure to master the new system and feels out of control. Stress.
• The accounting department screws up invoicing and the salesperson’s large new client threatens to take away the business. Accounting is buried, trying to keep up with the company’s growth. No one is returning the salesperson’s phone calls or emails so he can’t get answers to his customers. The salesperson feels out of control. Stress.
• Your industry is being disrupted. The salesperson must amp up her learning to remain relevant. She’s wondering how she can tackle all the new information coming at her each week. She feels out of control. Stress.
Stress isn’t going away but sales managers can improve their sales team’s ability to manage it.
Building Your Sales Team’s Stress Muscles
Developing your sales team’s ability to manage stress is like developing any skill. Sales managers must first pay attention and devote time and education to developing their sales team’s stress muscle.
Revisit chapter five and teach your sales team the concepts around internal and external locus of control. Internal locus of control (increased control) equals decreased stress. Decreased stress equals increased energy, improved problem-solving skills, and happiness.
Author Scott Halford summarizes the difference in internal and external locus of control nicely in his book Activate Your Brain.
When you feel that sense of control over what happens to you, you’re more likely to be successful. You’ll take responsibility for the ups and downs that come your way—a not-so-secret to success. Being aware of what we can control puts us in the driver’s seat. You can start moving toward an internal locus of control simply by listening to the way you speak. When something occurs that isn’t to your liking, if your immediate response is to look for all the reasons why other people or circumstances cause this bad thing in your life, take a moment before responding and reframe the statement into an “I” statement. What did you have to do with the scenario? What could you have done to change the outcome? That’s taking control. When we switch our language, we open up our brain to the possibility of learning from a mistake.
Open up your sales team’s brains on new ways to take control and change their existing circumstances. Include stress management coaching in your individual or group meetings. Remind your sales team about the impact of the reptilian brain on logical and rational thinking. The reptilian brain is wired for survival, and when stress appears, it raises the red flag of fear, flapping loudly. Fear is the great paralyzer of action, and action is needed to take control and reduce stress. The reptilian brain works overtime trying to get a salesperson to focus and worry about everything out of his control!
Help your salesperson engage the logical part of his brain to regain a sense of control. Ask your salesperson to write down all the areas of sales that he can control, regardless of external circumstances. Here are a few suggestions to get the “take control” coaching conversation started.
Control What You Can Control
• Sales activity. Salespeople are in control of doing the work. Make five more prospecting outreaches. Come in early and don’t go home until you’ve set two appointments. Connect with potential referral partners, ask clients for referrals, become active in your trade association, host an event with one of your strategic partners, conduct a provocative webinar. Sales activity is in a salesperson’s control.
• Sales skills. Salespeople are in control of learning and practicing new selling skills. That low-price competitor can be beaten by learning new skills and strategies around selling value. A salesperson can target better prospects, ones that still pay for value. Salespeople can ask their sales manager for advice. A salesperson can call a colleague to practice. Improving selling skills is in a salesperson’s control.
• Sales attitude. Salespeople are in control of their mindsets. They control what time they go to bed so they can wake up early, allowing time for introspection. Each morning, salespeople have the ability to start the day with gratitude, writing down three to five things for which they are grateful. This habit triggers the reward center of the brain, releasing the feel-good hormone dopamine, which is much better than the stress hormone cortisol. They control the company they keep. They can choose to hang out with salespeople who are walking around glasses that are always full, not half-empty. Attitude is in a salesperson’s control.
• Sales and service. The company is experiencing service issues and the salesperson is flooded with complaints. A salesperson may not be in charge of operations but they are in charge of returning calls, giving clients bad news, and not dodging the tough conversations. Customers don’t like mistakes but they really dislike salespeople who don’t call, own up to the problems, or keep them apprised of steps to fix problems. Salespeople can control giving exceptional customer service.
Teach your sales team to focus on what they can control instead of what’s out of their control. Increased control results in decreased stress.
In my early years of learning the sales training and speaking business, I conducted practice sales calls. I’d set appointments with prospects that didn’t fit my ideal profile, ones from whom I was probably going to hear no. Why? I created a safe environment to practice and try new skills. Even if the sales call didn’t result in a close, I observed how my questions landed, learned about potential objections, all of which helped me get better at my craft. I was in control of my sales development.
No Victims Allowed
If you’ve been in sales long enough, you’ve walked out of an appointment or hung up the phone with a prospect and said, “Now, that really sucked.” Pessimism, self-doubt, and victim mentality show up in full force. “I have the worst prospects—no one can sell to these people.” This out-of-control thinking leads to increased stress and a victim mentality.
Teach your sales team to stop complaining about tough prospects. Be grateful for tough prospects because they are a salesperson’s best teacher. I’ve had more than one tough prospect elevate my selling skills, making me a better sales professional. Those tough prospects asked more questions, pointed questions, and better questions. They made me work harder to get better at my profession. Tough prospects aren’t always pleasant calls; however, with the right perspective, they always provide a free sales education.
Work with your sales team and apply the EQ skills of self-awareness and self-regard. They must have the awareness and confidence to understand where they can do better on a sales call, what they can control.
Teach and coach your salesperson to ask himself introspective questions, ones that reduce stress, increase ownership, and elevate optimism.
• What part of this do I need to own? Did I prepare enough for this appointment or am I starting to slip into a little bit of complacency?
• What did I learn from this appointment? How will the new learning help me do better on future sales calls?
• What did I do well? How can I bring more of those skills to every sales conversation?
• Who can I reach out to in my network that can provide me with additional insights?
Change your salesperson’s self-talk from that of a victim to that of a victor. Teach and remind salespeople they are not victims of their circumstances; they are in control of their circumstances. They are victors, ones who have the control to take the right actions to continually improve and succeed.
Be Thankful for Tough Prospects
Here’s a great exercise to conduct with your sales team. It helps them recognize the power of gratitude, control, and optimism. Have them craft a letter to a difficult prospect.
Dear Ms./Mr. Prospect:
Thanks for meeting with me this week. Your good questions and thought-provoking questions made me realize my selling tools are in need of serious sharpening.
I could have better prepared for the meeting as the questions you asked and objections you raised aren’t new. However, without preparation, I stumbled on answers—which probably raised concerns in your mind about my company’s credibility and ability to execute.
Thanks for reminding me that I might be getting complacent. In this day and age of information, there is no reason not to be prepared for a sales meeting. If I had been better prepared, perhaps the meeting would have been more relevant for you and a second meeting would be on the calendar.
Thanks again for being a tough prospect. I will reach out next week and admit my less-than-perfect sales performance. If you give me another opportunity, I will show up prepared and ready to add value.
Sincerely,
The Self-Aware, Grateful, Take-Control, Optimistic Salesperson
Lighten Up
Optimistic salespeople are similar to great comedians in that comedians actually love running into situations that often create stress for other people. Why? It’s new material!
I learned this stress management tool from my colleagues in the speaking business who are humorists. These are some of the funniest people on the planet, and not surprisingly, they are often less stressed than most of us.
I was listening to a panel of humorists during one of our local Colorado National Speakers Association meetings. This funny group of speakers was trying to teach the rest of us (who may need to work a little harder at finding the humor) the methodology for developing our humor bones. It became obvious to me that comedians and humorists view the world through an entirely different lens than most of us. They see stressful events as gifts because these events are their future funny stories for their next engagement.
My colleague Karyn Ruth White is a laugh-out-loud keynote speaker and comedian, who teaches companies how to manage stress and laugh more. She shared a story that is a classic example of viewing a stressful situation through a humorous lens.
Late one night, Karyn Ruth was checking into a historic hotel in Colorado. There was no bellman to be found, just her and the young lady at registration. Karyn Ruth got her room key and started down the long hall, hauling her own luggage. Cranky, she opened her hotel room door and flipped on the lights. What she saw was a room filled with fleas! The hotel was undergoing renovation and apparently the displaced fleas had decided to meet in her room.
Karyn Ruth shared with the audience how she was tempted to march back down that long hall and give the registration clerk a piece of her mind. But rather than default to a stress response, she asked herself this question, “Is there anything funny about this?” So, she approached the young lady behind the counter and said, “We need to chat about my room. I could have sworn I asked for a single occupancy.” Alarmed, the clerk asked, “Is there someone in your room, Miss White?” Karyn Ruth’s response, “No, there’s not someone in my room, there is a party going on in there . . . thousands of tiny sand fleas doing the Macarena, drinking little tropical drinks with itsy bitsy umbrellas in them, and I’m pretty sure there’s a group in the corner . . . smokin’ something!”
After a moment of shock, the registration clerk realized that Karyn Ruth was making light of the situation and she laughed along. She apologized and gave Karyn Ruth an upgrade to one of their best suites at no charge and a gift certificate for a free weekend for two.
As Karyn Ruth was checking out, the same young lady at registration asked her, “Miss White, has anyone ever told you that they really like the way you complain?”
This panel of humorists gave all of the participants great tools for managing stress. Lighten up! See adversity through a new lens: a new avenue for providing great stories to share in trainings and keynotes. That perspective keeps me happy and lowers my stress.
Humor Management Is Stress Management
Teach your sales team the power of using humor to decrease stress and improve their optimism. When your sales team experiences a failure, setback, or adversity, ask your sales team to immediately shift their thinking by asking these questions:
• What’s funny about this?
• Where’s the humor in this situation?
• What kind of story do I have to tell?
After attending our Ei Sales Management Course, one of our clients asked everyone to come to the next sales meeting, prepared with their worst sales war story.
The stories were hysterical. The best one came from a new business development person. This young man is dedicated and really good about doing the work necessary to fill the sales pipeline. He shared his story of foot canvassing an office building. (Which is a prospecting activity that works in their industry.) One of the tenants in the building didn’t like this approach and asked him to leave the building. Being a tenacious young salesperson, he kept foot canvassing. At the end of a lot of door knocking, he entered the elevator on the twentieth floor, and unfortunately for him, he ended up standing by the tenant who had asked him to leave. For twenty floors, he heard comments about people showing up unwanted in the building. It was the longest elevator ride of his life. His optimistic note to his peers: take the stairs.
Sales Leaders EQ Action Plan
1. Make a decision to teach your sales team key principles of stress management. Stress management is sales management.
2. Help your sales team focus on what they can control, not what is out of their control.
3. Teach the power of perspective and optimism.
4. Have your sales team write a letter to their toughest prospect.
5. Include a humor section in your next sales meeting about the worst sales call. Hold a contest for the funniest story!