Fix Your Attitude to Fix Your Sales Rut (Money Monday)

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0:35This is Jeb Blunt and it's Money Monday on the Sales Gravy Podcast.

0:51Sooner or later, every salesperson gets into a rut. And on this episode, we're going to discuss what to do if you get into a rut. But first, I want to introduce you to SalesGravy.com. SalesGravy is an amazing resource for sales professionals and it's the go-to resource for salespeople from across the globe when they're looking for training, looking for advice, looking for sales tips, and looking for ways to advance their career. On SalesGravy, you'll find articles, videos, and podcasts from many of the top sales trainers and thought leaders on the globe, and most of it is absolutely free. So do yourself a favor today.

1:25Go to salesgravy.com. That's salesgravy.com and click on the articles icon in the header. I spent a week working with one of my clients inside sales teams. My objective was to map the sales process of their very best reps in preparation for writing a custom sales training curriculum designed to accelerate the performance of the entire team. To gain the information I needed, I listened to the calls of their best salespeople as well as reps that were not producing at optimum levels. Several of the underperforming reps I work with had once been top performers but were no longer at that level. And as I listened, it struck me that they did not sound enthusiastic, they were taking shortcuts on the calls, and they were not as likable as the top reps.

2:11When I questioned them about it, they defended themselves and made excuses. However, when I pointed out that they had once been performing at a much higher level than now, most of them came clean. The reps were aware that their performance had dropped and admitted that they were burned out, unhappy, and tired. That they were just going through the motions. They told me that they liked their company, the people they worked with, and that overall it was a great job. But they just couldn't seem to get out of their rut. In sales, it's easy to get stuck in a rut. And burnout is common. The reasons are pretty simple.

2:45First, sales is chock full of rejection. These salespeople heard no on average of 40 times a day, and that's a lot of rejection for anyone to endure. Over time, this rejection adds up and it begins to impact your attitude, your confidence, and your overall happiness. Next, sales can be incredibly repetitive. Same questions, same responses, same objections, same product or service over and over again. In this environment, it is no wonder that so many salespeople find themselves down in the dumps, bored, angry, tired, and sometimes depressed. And in this state, they whine and complain about the leads, the environment, the economy, prospects, peers, and the boss.

3:26Their attitude stinks, and they don't even know why. So they plot on and hope for the best. But nothing really changes, and usually just gets worse, because they fail to address the real issue, their attitude. The key to getting out of a rut is resetting your attitude because until that changes, nothing else will. What's important to understand is that you didn't get into the rut overnight and likewise, you won't upgrade your attitude overnight. Changing your attitude requires self-awareness and a commitment to change and, this is important, time. The first time I got into a sales rut, I was mad at the world.

4:01My attitude stunk and my performance, which was usually the best on my team, was going the wrong way. My sales manager told me that I was better than this, but his admonishment just put me into a deeper funk. I didn't know what to do, but I knew I had to make a change or I'd soon be an angry, depressed sales rep without a job. My attitude reset began with a copy of Hank Trizler's book, No Bull Selling. I decided to read it as a way to motivate myself. Each morning, I had to make outbound calls to set appointments with prospects. In my funk, I could barely dial the phone. I hated making those calls.

4:36So I made a pack with myself. Every time I made 15 dials, I could read five minutes of no bull selling. A little bit every day, my attitude improved. And even though I hated the dials, I looked forward to reading the book and the book inspired me to make the dials. And the more I read, the better I felt. Three months later, I was the sales rep of the quarter. I'd come out of my rut and outgunned the entire sales team. I learned a valuable lesson from that experience. If I wanted to change my negative attitude, I had to feed it positive food. I had to invest in myself and no one else was going to do that for me.

5:10This is the real secret of getting out of sales ruts. You have to minimize negative energy while maximizing positive energy. And a little bit at a time, over time, you will improve your attitude and you will emerge from your sales rut. Going into a follow-up call, I want every important note right at my fingertips. not buried somewhere in a scribbled stack of notes. And with Plod Notepin S, I always have them because it's a wearable, portable note taker that lets me stay present and focused on customers during every single meeting. Plod captures the conversation and turns it into organized summaries and action items so I can follow up faster.

5:47And if I need a specific detail, Plod's Recall has that ready for me. And that's why Jeb Sr. and I and all of Sales Gravy trust our Plod Notepin S. Try Plod and stay focused on the conversation while it handles all of your notes. Go to plod.ai forward slash jeb. That's plod.ai forward slash jeb and use code JEB to get 10 % off your purchase.

6:36It's fuck!