Actionable tips:
- Before each quarter or project, outline your main objectives. Use them to guide your decisions so you don’t get lost in conflicting goals.
- When you feel pulled in different directions, take a moment to reassess if the opportunity aligns with your bigger goals.
“Circumstances mislead us—you have to see through them. We chase what's harmful before we seek what's good. We crave today what we rejected yesterday.” - Seneca
Salespeople face the challenge of closing deals fast vs. building lasting trust. The key? Stay true to your goals but flexible in your approach.
Our desires often contradict each other. One moment, we chase quick wins; the next, we focus on long-term growth.
Life and sales pull us in different directions, making it easy to lose sight of what truly matters.
If one path isn't working, adjust. Your goal isn’t out of reach, but your method might need a rethink.
Remember you will die.
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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
Co-Founder at We Have a Meeting
Zac Thompson
Co-Founder at We Have a Meeting
That's my goal. Shane Ward, 2005 X Factor winner. It's 3rd of April. looked like him only a month ago. don't know what's happened. 3rd of April, stay true to your goals. Circumstances are what deceive us. You must be discerning in them. We embrace evil before good. We desire the opposite of what we once desired.
Our prayers are at war with our prayers, our plans with our plans. Stay true to your goals. Hmm, right. 3rd of April. No, don't laugh actually. I'm feeling very disturbed. 3rd of April. So what I am predicting, if people have been watching this since the start of the year, they came in hard and strong. They were ready to be motivated and disciplined and they set targets and goals and things that they were going to achieve. And by the 3rd of April,
I it's slipping away, okay? And what will happen for a lot of people is they'll have to wait a whole eight months to start again. But people forget, you are in control of your mind. Time is a manmade concept. You can start whenever you want. You don't need to start till Monday. You don't need to wait until the next start of the month. You can start today and you can start putting your goals in place again. So if you've fallen off the wagon with whatever it may be,
I think it's really important to maybe do an audit on the first quarter of the year. Did you hit your targets? Did you hit your KPIs? Did you hit your metrics that you wanted to do? Did you stick to the goals that you wanted to do? If not, why not? What could you have done better? What got in the way? What systems or processes let you down? How do you adapt? How do you make sure that the next quarter is going to be so much more stronger and so much more powerful? Nice. Nice.
What about an audit of patterns that have emerged over the last quarter that you actually think maybe don't serve you? Go on. So pattern might be I come in on a Monday and I actually treat it as like a half a day. Yeah. You get kind of 50 % of me on a Monday and deep down you know that and you kind of lying to yourself a bit about it. 50 % on a Monday and 50 % on a Friday. really you've got three days that you actually try hard, probably. And I bet if you, and I know this from my own personal experience,
If you try and smash Monday as hard as you can and you get up early and you go, I really don't want to get up early on a Monday, but I actually have to get up a little bit earlier to have the time to get woken up and do a journal and do whatever you want to do. I bet the rest of your week will be amazing because it's a domino. It's a domino effect. Yeah, exactly. I think little patterns are like, are the typical part of the sales angle that the deal falls out? What's the call that you avoid? What's the conversation that you avoid?
What's the most common reason why a deal doesn't go through? What's the most common objection? Look at these little patterns that emerge because throughout your sales career, they will change. Just as your approach changes, as you change, as your comfort levels change, it will change. So these little audits on the patterns that are emerging will really help. But also, think, give yourself a pat on the back for the good patterns that emerge. Smell the roses. Smell the roses. Exactly. I've actually stuck to that amount of calls that I need a week or that amount of proposals that I need to get out of the week.
look at the things that are positive as well as the things that are negative and constantly in that state of self-reflection and self-improvement. definitely. after the first quarter, it's probably the best time to do a pre-mortem. you kind of, post-mortem, so you look back and a pre-mortem where you look forward and you go, right, okay, April, May and June, what do I want to get done in this quarter? You don't need to focus on like the year. It doesn't need to be about the year yet.
break it down so you know what you want to do in the year, but then do that in the quarter and then in the months and then in the days. So that actually I just need to win the day 123 times. Wow. 123. 31 times three is 93. I've been Jack Frimston. I've been Zach Thompson. Remember you would die. What is happening?
