Asking great questions that drive a genuine and authentic conversation, then getting that next step, is a huge win during a slump. If you can’t get anything else right, take what you can get.  My strategy in a slump is to write down those wins in my notepad. Even if it’s in between my other notes or in the margins. Take the wins where you can so that they can snowball into greater successes. The best wins are the small ones that accumulate into a full day of intention. Don’t get overwhelmed trying to win it all back at once, take one step at a time.

Recognizing Small Victories

<ul><li>How can you ever expect to perform well in sales, which requires a deep level of emotional control and intelligence? </li><li>Every day in sales means dealing with rejection and objections, so if you don’t have your ducks in a row mentally, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage. </li><li>Studies have found that a sleep-deprived brain operates with the cognitive ability of a brain intoxicated with alcohol.</li><li>When you become aware of your slump, you have to make choices to get back on track. Those choices include getting to bed early and resting your body and mind adequately each day.</li></ul>

Sales Require Emotional Control and Mental Resilience

Ultra-high performers are obsessed with win probabilities. Making adjustments to their approach quickly allows top performers to change course and continue cultivating success.

Get Obsessed With Win Probability

Days or weeks will go by where it feels like you can’t get a win. People aren’t picking up the phone and when they do you can’t get the appointment, deals keep falling through, and your mind just isn’t in the right space.  One of the worst feelings we can have as salespeople is complete mental fogginess. When it feels like all the time you have is taken up but nothing productive is happening or when all the energy you have is zapped.

The Sales Slump

You are a sales professional and, as Jeb Blount says, an elite athlete of the business world. Wake up every day and make the choices to be better than you were the day before. Most days you will succeed, some days you won’t. That is human. Don’t let the bad days make you fall victim to bad habits.Create a strategy around creating awareness, getting the rest you deserve, and getting the wins you need to build back confidence. Make the choice to better your situation before you are forced to, and separate yourself from the rest.

Be Better Than You Were Yesterday

Awareness is difficult because in order to be aware, we require an event to shake off the guise of delusion. Often, delusion manifests deeper in those who take the term “individual contributor” all too seriously.

Beating A Sales Slump: Awareness

Before the train arrives at the station, the wheels have to turn first. So, my advice for getting your head right, heart right, and actions right is to seek small wins. Nothing happens in sales unless you make a call to someone and start a conversation. Often a slump can be attributed to a lack of prospecting discipline.

Taking Easy Wins

“Will what you are doing right now make you a millionaire?”

Which means that Just like a marathon, there are highs and lows in sales. Your mental strength will waiver during your career and there will be days that make you want to quit. There will be days when you have no doubt in your mind that you love what you do. There will be days that have no distinction as to whether they are triumphant or deplorable.  The highest peaks require humility, the mundane days require discipline, and the deepest valleys require strategy. At some point in your career, if you haven’t experienced one already, you will face what many consider a slump.

Sales Is A Marathon

<ul><li>Ultra high performers are coachable, listen to others, and know how to receive criticism with an open mind and open hearts.</li><li> Ultra high performers are keen to adjust their actions to find the most successful route. </li></ul>What this means is that in a sales slump, those salespeople have a network of people who help them create awareness sooner rather than later. Then, they make the decision to change.

Days or weeks will go by where it feels like you can’t get a win. Here are 3 quick techniques you can implement when beating a sales slump.

JEFFREY GITOMER

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