Six Steps to Sales Resilience

As global uncertainty continues to play out, many sales leaders are facing a tough choice. That is, to drive as many sales as possible today or prepare for the future? Most sales leaders are trying to do both, of course. But the intense pressures many of us are feeling as economies around the world pull back, is creating an urgency to focus on the short term.

But sales is a long term game. One of strategy and resilience.

What does a Resilient Sales Team Look Like?

When you think about a resilient sales team, what comes to mind?

Strength in adaptability. Fast-moving parts. Salespeople and managers with a pulse on how their clients are feeling? Leaders keeping in touch with industry changes? Marketers constantly evaluating trends and culture.

As a business leader, you’re often asked to be all of these at the same time. Beyond the day-to-day operations, a resilient business is fundamentally – prepared. 

A successful business that navigates to through to the other side of adversity (like a pandemic, floods and bushfires) does not simply happen in reaction to the event. It happens as a result of effective advanced planning.

Does your team have a Sales Resilience Plan?

Resilience in Sales

From our years of experience in Sales Training, we have found successful salespeople all have one thing in common. They are resilient.

They all have the skill, the stamina, and drive to stay in the game no matter the odds. Or the number of times they fall. They all have learned to get back up again. 

Now the key to developing your Sales Resilience Plan is directly related to the speed from which you get back up again. That is, how long it takes you to recover from losing a deal or missing your goals.

The great thing about resilience is, that it is a sales skill that can be built.

Here are 6 Steps for Sales Resilience to incorporate into your plan.

6 Steps for Sales Resilience

1. Adjust Expectation

The first important step in the process to build resilience is to expect defeat, failure, and disappointment. Understand they are a vital part of the process and something that goes with the territory. Too often, we have an expectation of instant gratification or instant success. Expecting to always win takes the vital energy you need to get back up and try again.

2. Fail Fast, Learn, and Adapt

Great sales leaders:

• Fail fast
• Learn from their mistakes
• Adapt quickly

A resilient sales leader is someone at any level of the organisation that practices a “growth mindset”, builds trust and relationships, and champions change and innovation.

Instead of viewing a setback as a stopping point, they not only get back up and try again, but they also apply what they’ve learned to fuel their sales growth for future opportunities. And fundamentally, they learn the information they need to grow both themselves and their business.

3. Build Community

To strengthen your resilience muscle then you need to strengthen your community. The more you surround yourself with people who are driven to succeed and don’t sweat the small stuff, the more of that person you will become.

Find people who understand the importance of resilience and are working hard to strengthen their resilience muscles. The stronger your community the stronger your resilience.

Resilience is as much about your character as it is about the people and the environment in which you surround yourself. If your collaborators, your network, and your environment are fragile, then your community is weak. Invest in strengthening this community. The stronger your community, the stronger your resilience.

To Book Your Team’s Tailored Mastering Resilience Workshop

4. Acknowledge and Let Go

Acknowledge what is going on and then let go of what is out of your control.

Focus on what you can learn from the feedback, what action you can take and what you want to change and how you choose to think and behave.

Letting go of these stress-inducing thought patterns and lifestyle features isn’t easy, but it may be easier than you think. And it can be addictive. That is, once you start letting go of some of the stressors in your life, it becomes easier to let go of more.

5. Nourish A Growth Mindset

A growth mindset expands your possibilities and opportunities. Looking at rejection or failure as feedback and learning opportunities encapsulates why being resilient requires a growth mindset.

A growth mindset means that you thrive on challenges, and don’t see failure as a way to describe yourself but as a springboard for growth. Ultimately, your intelligence and talents are all susceptible to growth.

6. Feed Your Motivation

Work out what is your Reason Why and then feed it.

Feeding your motivation with positive examples that inspire you personally by reading or observing other people’s stories of resilience. You learn more from failure than from success.

It is beneficial if you stimulate your vision of success with motivational examples of how other successful people bounce back from a challenge. Successful people are successful because they feed their minds every day. They feed their mind with success. Just like a strong body needs the right nutrients to achieve peak conditions, we need the right information to achieve maximum success in any area of life, including sales.

Gather the team and we will take care of the rest – learning and laughs included.

Call us at KONA on 1300 611 288 for a conversation, or email info@kona.com.au anytime.