What Does It Mean to Be a Resilient Sales Team?
When I speak to sales teams about resiliency, it’s not difficult to feel passionate about it. As the result of an accident that landed me in a wheelchair and quickly ended a successful sports career, I had to develop the mindset to climb back into the ring of life. I was forced to push through painful and often overwhelming physical circumstances with focus and resiliency, while at the same time reinvent my life and adjust my mindset to a new career in sales as an insurance and financial advisor.
You are more than words
Dr. Alia J. Crum is one of the world’s leading authorities on stress. In 2013, she co-wrote a brilliant article entitled “Rethinking Stress: The Role of Mindsets in Determining the Stress Response.” Her article focused on stress and negativity. To quote from her findings:
“Stress is [often] portrayed in a negative light…the intention of these depictions is to help prevent or stem the negative effects of stress: however, if the self-fulfilling nature of mindset exists, the result of such prophesy may be counter effective. Repetitive portrayals of stress in a negative light not increases the possibility that we form the mindset that stress-is-debilitating…”
This finding is important for sales teams who are facing challenges. What Dr. Crum is saying is that if a sales team wills itself to say, “We’re under so much stress to produce, we don’t know what to do. We might as well give up.” The team will come to believe that it can’t overcome the adversity it is facing; the team will lose its resiliency to find new solutions. It will, in fact, will itself to become crippled.
The American Psychological Association in its paper, “The Road to Resilience” gives 11 keys to overcoming major challenges. Among the more important keys to avoid seeing a crisis as an insurmountable problem is to develop resiliency, to accept that change is a part of living, to always be moving toward goals, and to not be afraid to take decisive action.
Your sales team may be confronted with major competitors, a shift in the economy, new technologies or even a shakeup in your organization. It doesn’t mean there aren’t solutions.
Resiliency is about finding a new way to take action. Your vision and mindset, combined with the determination to overcome the adversity of what is in front of the team will make you successful.
The sales professional website, Salesforce.com, sees resilience as the way to overcome negative messages. In order to overcome adversity, they advise that sales teams should build trust, build accountability, build commitment, and that you should build your team and most importantly work on building yourself.
I rose out of my bed because I trusted those around me, I made myself accountable for what I could do, I made a commitment to myself and to my therapists, I resolved to be a strong member of my sales team and I never let my mindset settle for anything less than my best. Sales people and sales teams can become more resilient.
Is your sales team ready to accept the task of becoming more resilient to the challenges you are facing? The best sales teams are the most resilient. Taking the first step may not be easy, but taking the first step never fails to lead to the next.
Contact Scott Burrows, World-Class Inspirational Speaker on Creating Resilient Sales Teams through this website or call us at: (520) 548-1169
