Simply surviving change was good enough.

Now, however, we aren’t so lucky – there is no period of quiet pre or post storm, we are right in the eye of a change tornado and that’s just the reality of the business world – nowhere is this more evident than in sales.

If you were working in sales even 10 years ago you were the gate keeper of all the knowledge around your product, and your consumer put their faith in you to guide them. Now, they are 80% of the way to making a decision before they ever give you the chance to sell to them.

Todays buyer, whether b2b or commercial, has done the research, they’ve read the online reviews and they looking for any excuse not to purchase through you.

If you are going to thrive in this harsher business environment then you need to LOVE the fight.

You have to love the challenge and the turmoil and the change – one of the things I instill in sales teams across Australia is this idea of ‘mastery’.

If your major motivator is an ‘I win therefore you lose’ mindset then it’s harder for you to come back from inevitable setbacks because your value system is wired to see not winning as losing.

Sales people that demonstrate the greatest level of tenacity and GRIT are those that love the struggle because it gives them the opportunity to master a new skill or improve on themselves.

Their drive to be a better communicator, negotiator and business person will see them love the ‘failure’ as much as the success meaning that they can face rejection and jump right back on the horse.

A company that acknowledges these ‘set backs’ as learning opportunities and that builds this feedback system into their sales meetings and training will facilitate this mindset in it’s team.

Congratulate great work for great work’s sake – if a colleague didn’t close the deal but their presentation was world class then tell them. Because in sales, we can’t control the buyers decision but we can control the quality of service and work we provide.