Sales

 

Certainly one of the most significant aspects of a career in selling is a salesperson’s health. The pressure in our great profession can often be overpowering. Think about just a few “stressors”: the need to meet quota; the introduction of new products; the increasing competitiveness for the consumer dollar; the high-tech aspects of many phases of the business; an ever-increasing emphasis on customer service and quality products; the prevalence of alcohol and other drugs in the workforce, accompanied by the social pressures to drink and do drugs; the heavily congested traffic situation—necessitating more time spent traveling from home to the office to prospects; the two-career family, which, when children are involved, includes baby-sitters, day care, schools, and many other complicating factors. These and a host of other “distress items” place mounting pressure—physical, mental, and spiritual—on the salesperson.
How can you, the professional salesperson, take care of yourself in this climate? As I have said before and will say again, mankind is tridimensional: physical, mental, and emotional (spiritual). The answer to your question lies in evaluating yourself in these three areas.
The advice I would like to share with you is relatively simple, but following it could well get complicated. Let’s begin with some advice from a real superstar of selling, Walter Hailey. Walter made a fortune in the life insurance business and then sold his company to K-Mart for somewhere in the neighborhood of $78 million (which is a mighty nice neighborhood). So he made a lot of small sales, and at least one colossal sale, too. He was a man with enormous energy, unlimited enthusiasm, and a zest for life that made you feel he was twenty years younger than he was.
Walter would say that an incredibly high percentage of people spend most of their time “looking back in anger and forward in fear.” And with the double burden of anger and fear, you are literally, as Walter put it, “mortgaging your future.” The anger of what has happened in the past creates fear of what is going to happen in the future. And even potentially successful people become paralyzed in the present.
So, what’s the solution? Step number one: Go ahead and blame the people who did whatever they did to you for all of the misery and problems you’ve suffered in your lifetime. My psychiatrist friends tell me it’s okay to blame somebody else for your problem. So get started right now blaming Mom, Dad, Uncle Charlie, a former boss, a former mate, a former associate—and anyone else who comes to mind—for every one of your problems.
Step number two: Now that you’ve blamed others for your problems, forgive them for whatever they have done. In some cases that might be extremely difficult and could even require counseling. I think of physical, emotional, or sexual abuse as an example. If you need help in forgiving, I encourage you to do whatever is necessary to get the help you need. I feel so strongly about the importance of forgiveness because until you forgive those people for the roles they played, they are going to play a major part in your future. And your future is not going to be everything that it might be. As a matter of fact, it can be dismal—until you learn to forgive.
Forgiving is not necessarily forgetting. Archibald Hart, a Christian psychologist, defines forgiveness as “giving up your right to hurt someone back.” When you forgive someone you agree to forfeit any revenge that you previously felt needed to be exacted. You may remember the deed, but you release its power to control you, and you release your desire to hurt the doer of the deed. This is not a “quick fix.” Forgiving, as Dr. Hart defines the concept, is a process that works over a period of time.
Step number three: Now that you have blamed others for your past and forgiven them, you must accept responsibility for your future. Until you accept responsibility for your future, you’re going to relive your past and repeat the mistakes. One of the most meaningful statements I have been making over the past five years is this: failure is an event, not a person. Yes, you may have failed, but you are not a failure.
When you follow that statement by understanding logically and emotionally that “yesterday ended last night and today is the first day of the rest of your life,” you begin to truly accept responsibility for your emotional health. I want to encourage you with every fiber of my being to look forward with hope to the future! As my friend John Maxwell says, “If there’s hope in the future, there’s power in the present!”