Building Resilience

A sales or marketing job is at least 90% rejection, right? Rejection sucks (if you let it!)

Resilience has long been recognized as a key trait in sales and marketing people, and rightly so. The quicker a person bounces back, the quicker they make the next call/blog etc. with the right mindset.

Some managers will tell you to just get on with it, you’ll find a way. And while that is true for some people, it doesn’t work for most.

So if it’s not that easy, are there behaviors and practices we can put in place to make it easier? Absolutely. One of the key processes is to remember to control what you can, and let go of what you cannot. Let’s use the example of an outbound call. You can control when you make it, your tone when speaking, the expertise you bring, your posture and all sorts of other elements. You cannot control the behavior of the other person, the situation they find themselves in, or if they’ll even pick up. (We may have been heard whispering "Please pick up pleeeease pick up" on the phone before. It didn't seem to have any effect!!)

So, a conscious effort beforehand to understand what you control, and remember to let go of what you cannot absolutely helps, and takes practice to make habit. Don’t beat yourself up because you struggle with this at first, just reset and try again!

Our good friend Greg Wells, Ph.D. has some great advice on resetting, he even wrote a book on it. Check that out here Books We Love.  2 behaviors he highlights are learning to Act – Feel – Think and Belly Breathing.

Let’s take the easiest one first. If you need to calm yourself or just lose some negative energy quickly, then belly breathing can help your mind and body calm down. Here is what to do;

1.      Sit in a relaxed position or lie face-up, with your hand on your belly button
2.      Breathe in slowly (around a count of 4) and expand your belly as you do
3.      Hold for the same amount of time
4.      Breathe out a little more slowly (around a count of 6)
5.      Repeat for 2-6 cycles

SOAR has taught this technique to many teams, because we know they handle stressful interactions almost every day. This helps you refocus, reduce stress and anxiety and prepare you for the next task.

Dr. Wells wrote that we naturally Feel – Think – Act. https://rb.gy/gt5gwp  If we can practice Act – Think – Feel, we can become more calm and relaxed (and therefore more ready for the next challenge.)

Let’s take that outbound call we don’t really want to make because the last person hung up on us. Act – Think - Feel can look something like this;

1.      Stand up, stretch your back and hold your head high, smile at the world - Act
2.      Focus on efforts you can control, like the tone of your voice – Think
3.      Experience the negative energy reducing – Feel

And now you are ready to go again.

Sales and Marketing can be tough. But if we focus on what we control, have processes to deal with the toughest parts and learn to build our resilience, we can stay at the top of our game longer, be more productive and close more sales! And who doesn't want that?