How Do I Get Out of a Sales Slump?
5 minute read
It’s happened to all of us. There’s an old school concept out there that salespeople are forever in one of two moods: Either elated, ecstatic and walking on top of the world; or depressed, frustrated and sitting in the corner waiting for the day to end.
In an industry so full of ups and downs, it’s pretty realistic to anticipate that at some stage you’re going to experience a slump. The way our minds have an impact on our actions, too, means that when things are good, we usually take that energy from one prospect to the next. The best time to sell is when you’ve just sold: If I’ve had a really positive experience, my confidence and enthusiasm will be heightened in my next.
So too does it have an impact the other way. When I’ve had a few negative interactions in a row, my mind is naturally going to start anticipating negativity with the next interaction. I’m probably sending out some subconscious messages lacking confidence. I may even suggest that the customer should take more time and do more research and think about the price, because that’s what I’ve started to believe based on my previous customers.
It can be a nasty spiral indeed, and even when we realise that’s where we’re heading it can be hard to flip the switch and hop straight out of a slump. Here are a few ideas you might try next time you find yourself stuck in a slump:
1. Recognise that it happens.
I don’t know anyone who hasn’t experienced even an extremely short term ‘slump’ before. The sales profession is one that requires resilience, because there is rejection, there are drops in the market, there are times when we do well and times where we don’t do as well as we want for the day or the week or even the month.
You can’t fix a problem if you don’t admit there is one. So recognise where your mind is sitting and use this as a kick off point to make some changes.
2. Monitor your self-talk.
When we find ourselves in a negative state of mind, it’s common to start expressing some absolutist statements. For example:
‘All my customers are terrible this week.’ (often said on a Monday.)
‘The market sucks. No one wants to buy.’
‘My month is done. I’m over it.’
‘I always get the worst prospects.’
‘I never hit my targets.’
... You get the point. Of course, when we start expressing something in such certain terms, it has a great effect on our actions – especially when they’re attached to words like never, all, no one, always. This makes us feel as though there’s nothing we can do about it, so we’re justified in not doing anything about it. I realise it’s much more difficult in practice than it is to simply say ‘be positive’. So what I encourage you to do is this:
Don’t try to never have a negative thought. They happen. When you find yourself having a negative thought, though, acknowledge its presence and ask yourself, ‘what would be a more positive way to approach this?’ What we do with our thoughts makes a difference – practice giving negative thoughts less power and go on a mission to seek out the positive. When you do this, you start to break the habit and be more in control of your mindset. Everything is habitual, positivity included.
Expecting good things to happen, or ‘dispositional optimism’, has been linked to greater wellbeing in all areas of our lives. Seek out the positive, see every prospect as a buyer, and choose your attitude for the day.
3. Go back to basics.
You know what normally happens when we’re in a slump? We have a few negative interactions… and we start expecting more negativity from future interactions. Because I’m anticipating negativity, I probably start to subconsciously speed up my process,and skip steps because then the meeting will be over more quickly. In a bid for self-preservation, we try to spend as little time as possible in customer interactions because we dread the final outcome will be a ‘no’, and we want to get it over and done with.
Ironically, because I’m skipping things and going quickly, I’m far less likely to have success – so it all becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
This means you need to go back to basics. Review your process and pretend you’re new: What do you need to do? What questions do you need to ask? Write down a process, even as a script, and practice it as though you’ve never seen it before. Set yourself a task of going through your whole process and review after each customer interaction to keep yourself accountable.
It can also be a good idea to record yourself giving a presentation or role playing an interaction. Usually, when you hear yourself back, you can immediately pick up the parts that you’re skipping and phrases you’re using that you wouldn’t normally use.
4. Seek out positivity
I am a firm believer that negativity is like a disease – it’s contagious. That means if your colleagues are being negative, you’ll probably catch that and run with it yourself. The opposite is also true. Choose not to engage with the Negative Nancys, and stick with people who will uplift your mood.
5. Do something
What’s something that gets you in the zone? What pumps you up? For some, it’s music. For others, it’s taking a walk around the block. We all have actions with positive associations, and consciously engaging in something that you know makes you happy or excited is a great way to re-motivate and re-calibrate. Make sure it’s a change to your routine so you’re breaking your current state.
6. Get grateful
In Ken Blanchard’s the One Minute Manager, he talks about great managers catching people doing something right. When we’re in a slump, we’re often not kind enough to ourselves and this propagates our negative state. So get into the habit of catching yourself doing something right and giving yourself a little pat on the back. Every morning on your way to work, think about three things that you’re grateful for or proud of. Be your own advocate, and you’ll start to feel your confidence grow.
Einstein coined the phrase that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. If you’re in a slump, you need to intervene and take control of your mindset, your self-talk and your actions.
What do you do when you find yourself falling into a sales slump?
Make Today the Day,
Sonia
This blog post was originally posted on my training website, Statusone.com.au, on Sep 18, 2018. I have since been moving some of my favourite blog posts from there over to here, as this is now my ‘content hub’ and I want you to have access to some of the cool stuff I’ve written about before. You can still check out the Status One site if you’re interested in corporate training if you want. Also, don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter below for updates and weekly exclusive content.