Hardest Part of Sales Isn't the Obvious

I am convinced that everyone has something in their life that others look at and say, “I could never do that.” Me, I look in amazement at people who raise multiple children while working full time or wonder how friends commute into Boston every day. In return, people ask what I do and when they find out I am in Sales they say, “OMG, I could never put up with the rejection and if I had to rely on what I kill in order to eat, my family would starve! How do you do it?”

The hardest part of sales is not the actual selling. Selling is simple. It’s a conversation that combines listening skills and problem-solving. In print sales, if you have those abilities (and the lowest price), you will succeed.

And rejection? It’s a natural instinct to overcome rejection. If that weren’t the case, man would never reproduce (Think about that one. It’ll come to you.).

No, the hardest part of sales comes once a day, usually in the morning. It happens when you arrive at your desk or just before you pick up the phone the first time: You gather your thoughts and mentally prepare for the day ahead by injecting some form of self-confidence and, in the process, renew the eternal belief that is essential to sales success and forget all about the miserable day you had yesterday. In sales, you see, it all starts with Attitude.

Call it blind faith, but the sales person must believe that doing X will yield Y...eventually. Do X enough, and Y will come. The problem is, Y takes a long time. Weeks? Yes. Months? Yup, that too. In the meantime, there is a boatload of X to do and without the instant gratification we humans need, doing X in excess can be exacerbating and exhausting. Still, we somehow know that committing to X and exhibiting persistency can be exciting and lead to ecstasy.