When Times Are Tough...get a hobby

Get a hobby. This might be the most 'out of left field' advice you've heard, but I swear by it. In sales you try your hardest to maintain a steady flow of activity. Consistent prospecting, a routine meeting cadence followed by proposals and a generous churn of signed deals. That flow is always the goal, but you should expect the occasional dip in signed deals if the market calls for that. Prospecting and engaging in meetings and proposals should not necessarily slow, but wins can and will from time to time. 

The normal advice would be to make more calls, revisit lost deals and see where you might need a tweak in your mechanics and that's sound advice, but let's consider you a pretty badass seller in normal times and that there's a lull in action going on for some outside reason. For that I say, 'get a hobby.' What I mean by that is to find something distracting that you enjoy. Get some exercise, grab a surf, read a book outside your industry, write a blog, bake a cake, whatever. You need something extracurricular to get your mind off the slump. When the mind starts swirling and whirling about another week without a closed deal the dreaded 'desperation' presents itself. When that happens it oozes into your customer interaction and you're toast.

Customers smell desperation a mile away. It deviates us from our sales process and forces us to rush missing steps and delivering poor service. Desperation is why most associates never make it past the first performance improvement plan because they're so caught up in breaking their losing cycle. 

So...have that hobby ready to go when you're starting to get antsy. Don't forget to keep your strong work rhythms that brought you success before and don't sweat a slow season. Your uplifted mental space from your hobby will carry you through. 

Stoked!