Where Has Your Motivation Gone?
As a former sales advisor with 20 years of experience as a motivational sales speaker, I have an important question:
What do you do, when all your motivation has gone?
For any salesperson, no matter the field, a lack of motivation is not a luxury. It was never an “indulgence” before the pandemic, and now the lack of motivation appears to have gotten worse.
Amy Morin LCSW writing for Very Well Mind (May 22, 2022) lists several ideas on why the lack of motivation topic. Psychologists list several reasons. For the sake of this discussion, I’d like to expand the conversation in regard to four of those motivation-destroyers.
1. Avoidance of discomfort. Sales is a risk-reward proposition. It is why good sales people are hard to find and why the rewards of making an important sale can be so high; both psychologically and on a financial basis. Whether your organization employs a team approach or sets you off on an individual journey, sales can be fraught with struggle, rejection and disappointment or optimism, acceptance and triumph. The difference in those paths narrows down to one factor and that is attitude. If your day sees failure as the only option, chances are great you will fail. If your mindset is to succeed no matter the temporary setbacks, you will have a greater likelihood of success
2. Self-doubt. In my career as a motivational sales speaker and motivational sales consultant, I have never met a salesperson who did not have some self-doubt. However, there is the choice to allow self-doubt to cripple you or to use it to learn more, study more, ask more questions from others who have been successful. Be determined not to erase all self-doubt, but to use that energy as a channel become greater and better. Understand that “winning” in sales doesn’t mean to triumph over your customers but in forging a positive partnership where you’re using that determination to ultimately help someone, be it your customer or someone your customer must assist.
3. Being over-extended. Is your vision limited only to helping others, or to creating a satisfying and rewarding career for yourself in the process? It is a matter of vision. “You” are allowed to envision yourself in a successful light, but bright light also encourages focus. Focus on what you can do to find success but do not get side-tracked into activities that detract from that focus. I have known far too many promising sales people who felt over-extended because they allowed themselves to be detracted by negativity, judgment of others, pettiness of team members, product or service criticism or corporate gossip. It is one thing to be legitimately over-extended versus allowing others to drain your focus.
4. Lack of commitment to a goal. My favorite antidote for a lack of commitment to a goal is old-fashioned resolve or, if you’d like, “grit.” Whether you like to watch professional football, or have an idol who is a neurosurgeon, novelist, opera singer or chef, no one has climbed onto that stage without committing to a goal. Sales is no exception. There are no guarantees in life, no one will assure any salesperson of automatic success. However, if there is no commitment to a goal, failure is virtually guaranteed.
Motivation may come and go, but what keeps it close and brings it back, is you. You are the “X” factor. You are capable of being great and ultimately, you can overcome any lack of enthusiasm that may come your way.
Scott Burrows, Motivational Sales Speaker. For more information, please contact Scott today or through this website or for more immediate attention at: 520 – 548 – 1169
