One very good sales representative in an outbound telesales center told me his single, biggest strength was that he was resilient. A couple of days later he sent me the following:
From the American Heritage Dictionary of the English language.
re·sil·ience [ri-zil-yuh ns, -zil-ee-uh ns]
“After making calls all day, this is the way that I feel,” he said. “Bent, compressed and stretched. But I have developed the attitude and ability to recover quickly. I have to become enthusiastic again right after a series of bad calls or the next customer will hear it in my voice and I won’t have a chance with them.”
One of the best, outside, business-to-business sales representatives I ever worked with at BellSouth Mobility was also one of the most fearless cold-callers of her time. She made more cold calls than anyone else to construction companies and sold more cellular phones than anyone else. At our year-end sales conference, she won almost every category of sales award given. She had made quite a name for herself and it appeared that she had a very bright future with our company. However in late January she walked into my office and resigned.
“I just can’t do it anymore,” she said. ”Ninety percent of the people I call tell me they have no interest. They’re not mean and most aren’t rude, but they still reject me and my product. I can’t deal with being rejected all day long. It makes me feel bad and I’m sure people can sense it when I make that very next call.”
Try as I might, I couldn’t talk her out of her decision. Although it was not obvious considering her performance, she lacked resiliency. When I asked her what she was going to do, she said she was going back to school to become a nurse.
The best salespeople tell us that it takes more than determination and persistence to be successful. It takes a resilient mindset. There are times when every sales representative will be bent, compressed and stretched. The ones who have learned to recover quickly have a huge advantage over all others. So, how do the best salespeople develop a resilient mindset?
Now get out there and get bent, compressed, stretched, bounce back and find those Easter eggs!
Dan Norman is a sales performance expert, a professional speaker and the author of Top Ten Selling. He has hired and developed thousands of sales representatives and hundreds of sales managers. Throughout his career, Dan has made a science of understanding the fundamentals of what it takes to be the “best-of-the-best” in sales and management performance. To book Dan Norman for your next event visit www.toptenselling.com© 2008 Dan Norman. All rights reserved.
