I found a great piece of encouragement to start you off in a new week of selling. It's from Tony Alessandra, a well respected sales trainer and author.
He's talking about being resilient, and how important that trait is for today's sales professionals. He uses the example of a well known politician who had to show a lot of resiliency in his career to get to where he was going:
Resilience means knowing how to cope in spite of setbacks, or barriers, or limited resources. Resilience is a measure of how much you want something and how much you are willing, and able, to overcome obstacles to get it. It has to do with your emotional strength. For instance, how many cold calls can you make in a row that all turn out to be "no thank you?"
Remember Abraham Lincoln? You wouldn't, if he had given up. In 1832, he was defeated for the state legislature. Then he was elected to it in 1834. In 1838, he was defeated for speaker of the state house. In 1840, he was defeated for elector. Lincoln ran for Congress in 1843 and guess what -- he was defeated. He was elected to Congress in 1846 and then lost for re-election in 1849. He ran for U.S. Senate in 1855 and -- was defeated. In 1856, he was defeated for Vice-President. He ran again for the U.S. Senate in 1858 and lost. And in 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States -- one of the best ones we have ever had -- but only after eight major setbacks. That is resilience!
Your challenge to stay resilient may not be quite the size of Abe Lincoln's. You might be working on making a sales quota when 90% of your prospects say "no." You might be pushing for a change in a local zoning ordinance and you have to fight city hall. You might be trying to get your co-workers to recycle paper in order to save money and trees. When you are up against obstacles, you can either maintain your resilience -- or cave in to defeat.
Don't cave this week. Keep on fighting, and reach your goals.
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