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The Sales Stoic

April 19th - Control your impulses and reactions

5 min

Actionable tips:

  • Before reacting to client objections or demands, take a breath and assess whether your response is beneficial and aligned with the relationship you’re building.
  • Ask yourself if an action benefits the client as well as your goals. This helps keep your impulses in check and ensures you’re acting with integrity.

“Epictetus teaches us to rediscover the essential skill of making thoughtful choices and to be mindful of our impulses, ensuring they align with what’s best for the greater good and are proportional to true value.” - Marcus Aurelius

Impulses can lead us astray, so creating non-negotiable rules for ourselves and holding ourselves accountable is key.

Every move you make should be made with patience, focus, and alignment with the bigger picture. Epictetus reminds us of the vital skill of making thoughtful choices, especially in moments of impulse.

Instead of reacting on instinct, we should practice "the art of assent" - checking whether our responses align with what truly matters and the greater good.

Control your impulses, and you’ll build trust and stay on course for long-term success.

Remember you will die.

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Follow Jack & Zac: Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-frimston-5010177b/ Zac: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-thompson-33a9a39b/

Connect with We Have a Meeting: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/we-have-a-meeting/ Website: https://www.wehaveameeting.com/

Disclaimer:

The Sales Stoic draws inspiration from the profound wisdom of Stoicism as presented in Ryan Holiday's "The Daily Stoic." As avid readers & fans, we deeply respect the work of Ryan Holiday, and acknowledge the significant impact of Stoic philosophy on our own approach to sales and life.

While The Sales Stoic applies the core principles of Stoicism to the unique challenges and opportunities faced by salespeople, it is an original work with its own distinct voice and focus. We aim to build upon the timeless wisdom of Stoicism to empower sales professionals with practical guidance and actionable insights for success in their careers and personal lives.

  • Jack Frimston

    Jack Frimston

    Co-Founder at We Have a Meeting

  • Zac Thompson

    Zac Thompson

    Co-Founder at We Have a Meeting

Have you ever read the book Animal Farm? Yeah. Enough about you. 19th of April, Impulse Control. Epic Titas says we must discover the missing art of ascent and pay special attention to the sphere of our impulses, that they are subject to reservation to the common good and that they are in proportion to actual worth. that's hilarious.

So this is all about impulse. Okay. And I know you've got some impulses, but keep them to yourself. for the next six minutes. Please don't look at me like a dog with a bone. So impulses, it makes me think about like clients or customers, or maybe someone, a potential customer, a prospect, and things don't go your way. And the impulse is to get upset, to get up.

like frustrated, get annoyed and let that kind of your actions kind of lead the way. One of the big pieces of advice that we've given to our team is we obviously work on renewals and I think our renewal rate, no bragging, is around 80%. So it's good, but you're never going to win every client over. So we'll have a conversation and a client will say, you know what, we don't want to continue. Thank you for your time, but actually...

it maybe wasn't what we were hoping for, expectations weren't managed maybe on our side, or we're going to try and solve it in-house or we've solved it, whatever. Many different paths to take. And the advice is, even though they're not continuing to work with us, well actually we're still going to continue the work to the highest of standards. Because the impulse would be, well actually it's not continuing, there's not more money coming, let's just let that slip. But I'm a big believer of actually like not ruining those relationships and we can probably

count on both our hands, opportunities where it's not gone our way, like a conversation that we thought might close but then didn't, or a prospect that's gone away, but then come back. I to say eight, yeah, thanks. And I've got 12, so how about that together? Yeah, something like that, Blackburn. But it's a case of like...

Remembering that you don't want to burn your bridges the impulse is to be annoyed and frustrated and maybe do things that you wouldn't normally do but so many people burn bridges and We know you might disagree with me is that Thompson but sales a part of sales is having those relationships Yes, I agree. There's actually both of us had a thing yesterday Where we had an email from someone we spoke to before and we said I don't actually remember who this person was

Can we revisit this conversation again? year ago, but both of us and it was conversations where we'd disqualified nurturingly, not being horrible, but nurturingly been like, I don't think this is right for you. Here's some things I'd try first. Here's some things you could fix in the business first. And then they've gone away and done that. The younger me, the traditional selling, whatever it may be, might have been a bit more.

Well, there's probably a way we can is let me discount it just to get it out of the line. me chasing them, chasing them. Let me, let me be needy and desperate. But actually the taste we've left in their mouth is one of like, have as much time as you need to come back to us when you're ready. Actually they did come back to us when we ready. anxiety for, think sales people comes from not having the choice. You know what I mean? You want enough opportunity that there's choice. Yeah. Cause then it feels like, okay, it's fine. Like I can say no to people. can say yes to people.

But actually the anxiety comes from not having that and everyone you speak to like, need to get them in. I've not had a discovery call in about four weeks. I need to get this one in. The feeling has got to be with or without you. Like, I'd love to have you on board. With or without you. It's like, I'd love to have you on board, but actually have you got that BDE? Sing it. Do you know BDE? Sing it. Big desk energy. I don't know how you say that. Big desk energy. And that is just about...

Like this is it. This is a solution. If you want to have it, have it. And if you don't, that's also okay. It's not being needy, but it's also like, I think there's definitely like passion that you can show people when you know you can help them. Like this would be exciting to work on this campaign because I'd probably got this idea or that idea, but it's not kind of begging you to work with me. No. How big is your desk? My desk is bigger than yours.

I've been Jack Frimston. I've been Zack Thompson. Remember you will die. Maximus Decimus Virilius.

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