Can you breathe underwater?

CAN YOU BREATHE RUTA MISIUNAITE considers key strategies for coping with stress in sales UNDERWATER?

Sales is not a walk in a park kind of profession. gets you hooked in an instant. Without realising it, you It is super-fast paced, extremely high pressure, quickly forget about all of the blood, sweat and tears that and requires incredible levels of resilience to go into winning a new account and swiftly move on to carry on when things get tough. And things searching relentlessly for another fix. And then you do it get tough on a regular basis. again, and again, and again. Yes, winning new business is

Maybe that’s why the vast majority of sales a drug and it’s highly addictive. professionals, when asked about how they got into new Throughout my career, I’ve had the pleasure of business development, say that they simply fell into it. exploring various sales roles – ad hoc projects, mid-

Yours truly included. After all, no-one grows up dreaming market, key prospects and, most recently, sales about working in a highly stressful environment. management. Over 2,000 days in sales and there is one

And yet so many people dedicate their whole lifetime thing I know for sure: things will barely ever go your way. to sales. Personally, I’m not surprised. Once you’ve fallen, In a world where business challenges are changing more you fall hard. And fast. Pretty soon you find out if you’ve rapidly than ever before, there’s either going to be lack of got it in you to succeed in sales. The thrill of the chase and resource, ridiculous targets that feel so unachievable you the endorphin rush you get after landing your first deal can only laugh about them, or you’re so overwhelmed

with workload that you simply feel like you’re drowning. Sure, you could try to power through and hope that better days and easier targets are just around the corner – but that is not how the world works.

As I said , sales is not a walk in a park. Often, it seems like you need to have special superpowers just to get through the day. And one of those powers is the ability to breathe underwater.

BREATHING UNDERWATER A few months ago, I had a conversation with a new starter who was getting overwhelmed with everything that was going on in her new role. It was her first sales position and, naturally, she didn’t know how to manage all the incoming enquiries that flooded her inbox. A perfectly normal situation that can be fixed with a little bit of coaching and support, right? What made me pause, though, was my unexpected way of thinking. When she said that she was drowning in workload, and asked for my advice on how to manage it efficiently, the first thing that came to my mind was that in order to have a successful career in sales, you have to learn how to breathe underwater. Sink or swim – a perfect case of professional Darwinism at its best. Welcome to sales, kid!

Breathing underwater is, of course, humanly impossible. We humans are simply not built to survive without oxygen for more than 6 minutes. That’s why professional divers, rather than spending hours

practising how to hold their breath underwater development that it’s hard to keep up, but I am for as long as possible, invest in quality diving going to share the top tips that have helped me equipment instead. In sales, we often see people get to where I am right now. who are quite clearly drowning in workload but refuse to change their working habits, ask for 1. HAVE A PLAN help, or use new tools to become more efficient. One of the Founding Fathers of the US, Benjamin WORKING HABITS THAT fail. I love that quote (and I’ll be mentioning him NO LONGER WORK again later). It’s elementary that being in total We’ve all been there. You come into work on a control of your time and pipeline are key in Monday full of energy and motivation to finally having a successful career in sales. After all, time launch that proactive campaign you’ve been is money and yet we seem to be running out of it meaning to kick-start since last quarter. Who more and more these days. There are just not needs caffeine when you have a purpose? That’s enough hours in the day. right, nothing can stop you... In addition, if you don’t have a plan, you can’t

You just need to check your inbox quickly in track your progress against it and prioritise what case anything urgent that came in over the you do accordingly. If you’re not clear what your weekend needs your immediate attention this priorities are, you will instantly get sucked into morning. Without realising, you switch on the the “urgent” and “needs to get done now” to-do autopilot and start responding to one email after list vortex with no hope of getting out. Trust me, another. Instead of doing what you initially set as soon as you identify what’s important and out to do, you get stuck in the same old routine what will get you closer to your goals, your whole of battling the hydra-like inbox, and being pulled day and workload will easily fall into place. into last minute internal meetings – firefighting The tactic that has worked for me the best so until the end of time. far is called “reverse engineering”. In layman’s

Ten hours later, you’re the last one left in the terms, it means that you need to have the end office, chit-chatting with the goal in mind and then plan cleaners about collecting coins and how you’re both this close to winning the “if you spend your entire day reacting to incoming backwards. Make a list of key milestones you need to hit, write down all of the things lottery and moving to the queries and events, you will that need to happen in order Caribbean. Or maybe it’s just never get a head start” make progress against each me. Richard, if you’re reading goal and create a timeline this, I miss you and I really within which you need to hope you made it. achieve it all. Et voila! It’s as simple as that – you

Unsurprisingly, if you spend your entire day now have a plan. reacting to incoming queries and events, you will For example, when you’re thinking about never get a head start on anything you’re really landing that big account that’s been on your passionate about. To turn things around, you radar for years, here’s a simple checklist of all need to begin going about your day differently. things you need to have figured out: I know, it’s easier said than done. We all know that l When is their current contract due to expire? old habits die hard, and change in the way you l Who are the key stakeholders you need to work does not happen overnight. I’m not going ensure you impress? to pretend that I’ve got it all figured out either, l What is your client’s decision-making process? because sometimes I still find myself staying late l How long does it take to set up your solution? in the office, my inbox is not always empty, and I l Knowing that, when do you need to get the tend to procrastinate about some tasks until the signed contracts by? very last minute. We’re all human, after all. Taking into consideration all the above, when is

I have, however, invested a lot of time and the latest you must engage with your client by? effort in figuring out how to develop the right This sounds like basic information you probably habits and mindset that help me get closer to my already have in your head, but unless you use goals. By implementing them, I have not only got that intel to build a solid win plan, those business my workload under control but also achieved insights you have been collecting for years might almost every single one of my personal be effectively useless. development objectives over the past 3 years Franklin, said that failing to plan is planning to (speaking of which, if anyone can hook me up 2. CELEBRATE FAILURE with a TED talk gig before the end of 2020, hit There are very few books I’ve read in my whole me up). In this day and age, there are so many life that I could honestly say changed the way I resources you can access to aid your personal look at the world. But Black Box Thinking by

Matthew Syed is definitely one of them. If you 3. ASK FOR HELP haven’t read it, I urge you to do so as soon as you Salespeople can be real control freaks when it can, because the wisdom carefully packed into its comes to managing a pitch. They want to be in pages will undoubtedly help you become a charge of everything from start to finish. better salesperson. If I were to write a one- I can’t stress this enough: ask for help. The trick sentence summary of the book it would be here is to delegate and draw on your experts and something like this – “Don’t be afraid of failure, their skills as much as you can, because just like but learn from it.” raising a child, it takes a village to win a new

Throughout my career in sales, I learnt quickly account. Marketing, business insights, operations, that the more I try new things and the more I finance, legal counsel and senior management learn from my mistakes, the more successful I get. – these are just some of the functions within your Whether it’s different cold- business that would be more calling tactics, LinkedIn connection request wording, “The more I try new things than happy to offer support. After all, salespeople should or proposal templates, if you and the more I learn from only be selling. Some might want to keep growing in this my mistakes, the more argue that we’re not very day and age, you simply can’t successful I get” good at other things anyway. afford to stick to the old- If you’re the sales superstar fashioned way of selling that in your company, asking for might have worked in the past. Trying new things help can feel rather embarrassing and countercan feel awkward and sometimes downright intuitive. After all, you’ve been doing the job for cringey, but if you never try, you never know years, so surely you’re the one that should be what works best. If you’re not employing the best helping everyone out, not the other way round. tactics, you’re already behind the competition. If you’re the newbie, you might feel awkward to

These days, companies are very quick to be the one constantly bothering your colleagues celebrate successes, but often shy away from with a million questions on a daily basis. I get it, publicising (even if internally) their losses and, because I used to have the exact same thoughts most importantly, the main reasons behind them. running through my mind. What a shame and lost opportunity for collective Things changed when I found out about a learning. I am sure a lot of salespeople will be phenomenon called “the Benjamin Franklin nodding in agreement when I say that some of effect”. The great man used to ask his adversaries my best and most rewarding pitches were those I for help in order to turn them into his biggest did not actually win. fans. The science behind this is simple. Our brains

Of course, it’s great to say that you have just cannot hate someone after doing them a favour, brought on a brand new account, but personally, so they default to liking that person instead. hand-on-heart, my best pitch was the one Keeping this in mind, it makes sense that asking after which I was able to say that I turned a for support at work will only help you build closer procurement-led price check into a client who relationships and, in return, accelerate your truly believed that our service was the future. personal and career development. Remember, Sure, it did not result in a new revenue stream for your colleagues and your boss want you to do my company in the short term, but it was an well. When people want you to succeed, they are invaluable sales masterclass that helped always happy to help. If that’s not the case, then accelerate my learning and development, which you probably need to stop thinking about certainly would not have happened if I had changing your working habits and start thinking scored an easy win instead. Sometimes, we lose about changing your employer... pitches because of things that are out of our control, but nothing can replace that feeling of MINDSET MATTERS confidence that you’ve done everything you So, here you go, these are the three key elements could to win a client. that will help you master your first sales

For the young sales professionals out there superpower – breathing underwater. Having a who have just started out on their journey in this plan, celebrating failure, and asking for help seem roller coaster of a profession, I have a piece of like simple things you can easily implement into advice. Listen closely. Sales is a marathon, not a your day-today life, but as I always say, if it was sprint. Things will not always come easy but easy, it wouldn’t be fun. please do not give up after your first failure. Be To make sure that the new habits stick for excited about it. In fact, celebrate your failures longer than a week, you need to have the right because the more you fail, the more you learn – mindset. Mind over matter, as they say. But that’s and that relentless passion for improvement is a story for another time – make sure you read the key to being a successful salesperson. next Winning Edge to find out more.

RUTA MISIUNAITE (LISM) is senior business development manager, mid-market, at IRI, which provides integrated big data, predictive analytics and forward-looking insights on technology platform IRI Liquid Data. In less than 6 years, she has progressed from junior salesperson at IRI to leading her own team. She is dedicated to continuous personal development, and to helping fellow sales professionals by sharing her knowledge and experience in blogs, webinars and, from now on, Winning Edge articles. Visit: linkedin.com/in/ ruta-misiunaite