by Bill Brooks
Special to Realty/Builder Connection
It has often been said that life is balance. That all work and no play makes a dull person…that all play and no work leads to a lack of discipline…that time on the job mandates time off the job. You and I would, no doubt, agree that all of these things are probably true.
But how do they relate to sales? What does ‘balance in sales’ really mean? I recently observed a salesperson who had too much product knowledge and wanted his prospects to know just as much. The result? He confused his prospects and they were so overwhelmed that they bought nothing. In the same day I watched a salesperson with so little product knowledge that his prospect showed such a total lack of confidence in him that they didn’t buy either!
There is a fine line between being too aggressive and too reserved…between talking and listening…between persistence and being a pest…between actively pursuing business and being an obnoxious, pushy boor. Often between success and failure. Enthusiasm or burnout.
This fine line is, quite often, the one single thing that differentiates successful salespeople from everyone else. There are balance issues related to sales and to your physical fitness, emotional health, relationships, financial well-being and in every other facet of your life.
As a salesperson, it is often easy to believe that you need to always be enthusiastic. Or optimistic. Or interesting. Or networking. Or prospecting. Or anything else.
The real truth is that you simply have to be effective. All that means is to be doing the right thing at the right time for the right reasons. To identify what the most valuable thing you can be doing at that moment in time might be and then do it.
All of this assumes, of course, that you really do have a set of goals and objectives for the various compartments of your life, performance objectives as they relate to your sales career, personal, family, health, social, spiritual and recreational targets.
If that sounds like a lot of things to squeeze into your day, you’re right. Let’s take a look at health goals, for example. That arena demands exercise, sleep, diet, rest, stress management, reflection and relaxation and lots of other real-life, time consuming issues. And we haven’t even begun to look at lots of the other areas of your life!
The real problem? We simply get overwhelmed. And when that happens we tend to lose perspective. With that loss comes a propensity to push harder…or retreat. Call it fight or flight - the truth is that balance goes out the window.
Often we slip into a crisis mode. What happens to salespeople like you and me at that point? We push too hard or quit too easily. We say and do things we shouldn’t, perhaps, say or do. We get out of balance!
The real issue is that we all only have 24 hours a day, 7 days a week…and we are involved in a pressure cooker type of profession. Sales requires stamina, discipline, time management and commitment, tenacity, finesse, sales knowledge, product-knowledge, soft skills, an understanding set of significant others, physical and emotional fitness - and lots, lots more.
With all of this to deal with, seeking and achieving balance is sometimes, truly, an elusive goal. So, the next time you feel that you are out of control, consider the following:
• Stop whatever it is you’re doing
• Take a deep breath
• Take a long, hard look at yourself and ask yourself this question, “How will this behavior help or hurt me in achieving the long range goal that I should be working on at this single moment in time?”
• Then correct your behavior or keep doing what you are doing. At least you’ll know why you’re doing it!
• Never lose sight of the value of perspective, balance and the long term ramification of too many misguided short term, do-it-now activities. A lot of little things do add up — to a successful or mediocre sales career. Take your choice…and seek balance.
— Bill Brooks is a former corporate CEO. He has spoken or consulted in over 300 different industries while being engaged by at least 150 clients an astonishing six times each. He is the author of nine books, including “High Impact Selling.”