How to recover confidence in sales

The phrase “Form is temporary, class is permanent.” has it’s origins rooted in horse-racing though often adapted by commentators in other sports to isolate and frame a poor run of form against a proven pedigree of excellence across an entire season or career.

We’ve all been in that sales room where a similar shout has gone up in celebration of a closed deal that not only brings to an end a run of bad luck but ushers in a sigh of relief.

In horse-racing when a horse’s form fluctuates, the inherent quality and breeding capability goes unquestioned.

Unlike the sales person, a horse loses no sleep over the debate.

There’s plenty to worry the sales person on a daily basis but when it comes to a dip in form the biggest battle ground can be in the mind.

Bad news – and bad luck – can come in rapid succession in sales, regardless of how much control you have over the controlables.

It doesn’t take much for doubt to set in even with the most formidable of sales operator.

Ghosting, as an example can be crippling when a pipeline is stuttering – that email or a left voicemail message that has gone days without reply can play havoc with confidence and energy levels which in turn can have a catastrophic impact on the successful delivery of broader sales activities.

Not for everyone of course, there are people who have a more optimistic perspective on life and take things as they come and not to heart.

I probably wasn’t one of them, often finding the road into catastrophising easier than the road out.

But thankfully there are ways out.

Here’s one of them, taken from Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman which draws on elements of (CBT) Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and suggests a number of ways to tackle the root of all problems – not the problem itself but the underlying belief system.

Take the problem – or adversity – in the case of ‘ghosting.’

Ghosting itself comes from a belief system that might say:

• “they’ve read the email and they’re avoiding me”
• “they have already selected another supplier”
• “they don’t like me personally”
• “they’re not going to buy because I did a really bad presentation”
• Some or all of the above

In the book Seligman talks about tackling the belief system in two ways, through either ‘Distraction’ or ‘Disputation’ both requiring the reader to have a word with themselves, the former being a short term solution, the latter being more long term and requiring a bit more thought.

Around the time of COVID, I was an avid listener to  The Finding Mastery Podcast, in it Dr MIchael Gervais, talked about having your own personal case-studies of proof of how good you have been in the past that you can call on to reboot your efforts.

That can be a useful tactic over the short term.

When you start to ‘Dispute’ your beliefs with yourself it can be a body of work in itself:

• Finding evidence to challenge your belief (I send proposals to other customers and always eventually get a reply.)
• Look for an alternative explanation for the Ghosting (The prospect might be on holiday)
• Explore the wider implications of your pessimistic thinking (This doesn’t serve me at all and influences negatively my other work)
• Examine the usefulness of these beliefs (No use whatsoever…etc…)

For a sales person trying to work their way through a bad run of form, repeating what you’ve always done isn’t going to be the answer.

Tackling the ‘problem’ and the ‘consequences’ won’t make a dent. The consequences of ‘ghosting’  are likely to be, anxiety, self-doubt or paranoia or you might end up sending more emails, making more calls and risk rupturing a good relationship in the making.

Your belief system is where the work is needed in a structured and processed way that will take time.

Ultimately you are trying to dispute what Seligman calls ‘habitual pessimistic explanations’ that lead to fear, moving towards greater optimism and affirmative action.

I see it as tackling the problem where it will have most impact – a belief system is decades (arguably generational) in the making and so it won’t be an overnight fix.

But it will be a start.

It’s something for the toolkit that allows you to take charge and try and fix some of the things that have held you back in the past and are likely to hold you back some time in the future.

Bukowski says it better in The Laughing Heart.

Thanks for reading
Photo by Pietro Mattia on Unsplash