11 years ago, my life changed forever.
In July 2013, my tenure as Head of School was already over.
But my new career was very much an unknown.
And, if I'm being honest, I was scared.
Call reluctance is a common challenge that plagues many salespeople, from novices to seasoned professionals. It's the hesitation or fear that creeps in when it's time to pick up the phone and reach out to potential customers. This reluctance can significantly impact a salesperson's performance, career progression, and overall success in the field.
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When I talk with professionals about sales training, I often get a response like “Yeah, but I’m not in sales!” My response is that while they don't have an explicit sales-related title, most professionals engage in some form of sales. This concept is often referred to as "non-sales selling" or "invisible selling."
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I'm currently listening to Jia Jiang's Rejection Proof.
It's a powerful story about how the author's personal fear of rejection and desire to please others created an unintentional international movement to help people overcome rejection and get more out of life and their careers.
Which is one of the areas that I will be focusing on in my upcoming webinar training, "Overcoming Call Reluctance."
I recently talked to a staffing agency about the importance of being gritty.
Grit is about tenacity, resilience, and a willingness to keep pushing through despite obstacles and our own natural inclination to take the easy way out.
Staffing recruiters, like most salespeople (and who isn't in sales?) need to be gritty in the face of rejection, radio silence, ghosting, and, even worse, angry clients.
It's what allows them to meet more people, make more referrals, and close more deals.
And live up to their mission of improving the lives of employers and employees by making the connections that grow businesses and provide opportunities (not their exact mission, but my take)
New sales leaders face a unique challenge. They rise from the ranks of top salespeople — the ones making the sales — to then be the one who must coach others to close more sales. They also pivot from being part of a group — often having five to 50 peers — to a more rarified air with fewer peers and no same-level colleagues to lean on.
Often, this shift occurs with little-to-no formal training, with the only insight on proper protocol being that which the previous leader did or failed to do. From metrics to staffing to accountability, the upwards move to sales leader is unlike anything these sales professionals have ever done.
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New sales leaders face a unique challenge. They rise from the ranks of top salespeople — the ones making the sales — to then be the one who must coach others to close more sales. They also pivot from being part of a group — often having five to 50 peers — to a more rarified air with fewer peers and no same-level colleagues to lean on.
Often, this shift occurs with little-to-no formal training, with the only insight on proper protocol being that which the previous leader did or failed to do. From metrics to staffing to accountability, the upwards move to sales leader is unlike anything these sales professionals have ever done.
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Recently, I needed to have a service performed on my car, so I reached out to some providers. I had used one of them, who I’ll call Jake, in the past and was leaning towards doing so again. At the end, however, I decided to go with someone else and communicated my decision to Jake.
Unfortunately, Jake was not all too happy and would not leave me alone afterwards. Instead of accepting my decision, he continued to text and call me to try to discuss. I made clear that my decision had been made, but it took some time until the “harassment” ended.
Suffice it to say that Jake did not earn any credit towards future work with his choice of response.
After thinking about it, I started to realize that I have more Jake in me than I may care to admit.
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