Toughen up!

One of the activities I've done in the past is the Tough Mudder obstacle course. If you haven't heard of it, it's an endurance event in which participants attempt an obstacle course that's about ten or twelve miles long.

As you may imagine from the name, you have to be pretty tough to endure it. Both physically and mentally!

That reminds me of a question I frequently ask groups: 'When you think of respected professions, what comes to mind?'

Generally, I get responses like doctors, firefighters, athletes, and even astronauts. Not surprisingly, salespeople are not typically in that list.

Then I follow up with the question, 'What do all those have in common?'

The responses to that question are a bit more varied, but the topic of continually working on improving themselves comes up more often than not.

To have a truly successful career in sales, you need to continually work on improving yourself! You need to make yourself tough!

Think about those other professions. Their training conditions them to act in certain ways when presented with certain conditions. It becomes a way of life for them based on rules, principles, and systems that are designed to help them be successful.

What if you trained the same way to be a salesperson?

One of the concepts we talk about a lot in Sandler is that you need to have a healthy self-esteem. That can be a challenge when you constantly engage in activities where you hear 'no' more often than you hear 'yes.'

That's where ongoing training comes into play. If you condition yourself not to take rejection personally, it does wonders for your self-esteem! After all, the prospect you're talking to likely isn't rejecting you personally. It's your company, your industry, your product, or your service.

They may have been having a bad day before they even met you!

Just like people that participate in the Tough Mudder, you have to condition yourself to be physically and mentally tough. You have to accept a 'no' even when you thought you would get a 'yes' and then move on!