How to Build Sales Confidence | #9.3 Maintaining Success Sustainably

Wellbeing Team

I believe we should all have a ‘wellbeing team’; an inner circle of experts and individuals who know our psyche. I have my own wellbeing team, including a psychologist, a psychiatrist, a personal trainer, a mentor, and a coach. These are individuals that I can pull on throughout the week or month and ask how I’m doing and use that opportunity to speak freely without being judged. So I invest in that team – I pay for a private psychologist, private psychiatrist and a

private personal trainer. They’re guiding me along my journey to ensure I’m optimising my health and wellbeing. Having a wellbeing team means a group of people are holding you accountable for your wellbeing and success.

Accountability

Of course, not everybody has the financial freedom to build a wellbeing team. Instead, you can find accountability partners that will have a similar effect. You will need to find a peer—or a group of peers—at your level who you can work with to hold each other accountable.

Also, there are mentors out there who don’t charge. Usually, you can go to your mentor for anything you need to gain extra insight, so choose wisely. Anyone can be a mentor to you, but I would look for mentors with two to five years’ experience ahead of you. Identify the skills and knowledge you don’t yet have, and you can lean on them for advice and expertise throughout your journey. In return, you can help them in other ways.

Mentorship

People are often fearful or unknowledgeable about approaching a mentor and thus have trouble gaining one. It doesn’t have to be daunting, however. Start with LinkedIn—run a search on LinkedIn and identify people that have got, as I said, three to five years more experience than you. Then you need to message them. Point out that you’ve identified something interesting in their profile, that you like the look of their experience, that you’re looking for a mentor and would love to have a conversation with them to understand if they’re willing to share some of their expertise and advice. That is the most effective way to do it. Another way is going out to your network and asking other people if they know someone that could be helpful to you. Your immediate network might not be the potential people you want as mentors, but they might know others with the right experience. Draw up a list of a hundred people, and I can guarantee that if you spoke to all those hundred, you would find the right person.

Therapy

Therapy has been a huge competitive advantage for me because it gives you a safe space. I have talked about safe spaces before, but it’s even more effective with an expert who allows you to share all your woes and talk about your hardships without being judged. Workplace-related annoyances might not seem like they are affecting you emotionally, but everything has an emotional impact on us. It’s helpful to have a therapist who can guide us, give us positive, reaffirming feedback, and let us talk freely without judging us. I would recommend therapy to everybody because it’s a unique environment where you can say anything, and you will not be judged for it. Whereas if you seek guidance from people who aren’t professionals in therapy, you might find they have too much baggage and history associated with the topic and want to influence you in a certain way. A therapist lets you be and bring your entire self to the environment, enables you to speak to your inner child and allows that inner child to express themselves comfortably. This means that any challenges or upsets that rise to the surface can be acknowledged without you feeling uncomfortable about them.

Of course, finances can mean that therapy appears off limits to many. Still, you’d be surprised to learn that therapy can be pretty cheap these days, especially with online therapists, et cetera. There is also free therapy, but there is often a waiting list. Many starting out in their careers might not have the financial freedom to gain immediate therapy. To that, I would say that if you’re looking to become employed, you should look for companies investing in those services. A lot of companies provide employee assistance programs or additional wellbeing services. I think it’s a good measure of a company if they’re invested in the wellbeing of their staff. That should measure what you are looking at when you’re looking for companies.

Nutrition

Did you know that what you eat can significantly impact your confidence and performance? Eating a healthy, well-balanced diet can give you the energy and focus you need to be at your best daily. When you fuel your body with the proper nutrients, you’ll have more power throughout the day, which can help you stay alert and focused during sales calls and meetings. In addition, eating healthy can also help you feel more confident in your role. When you care for your body, you send a message to yourself and others that you value your health and well-being. This can translate to increased confidence and a more positive attitude, which as we know is incredibly beneficial in sales.

So, what should you be eating to support your performance in a sales role? Aim for a balanced diet with plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, lean protein sources like chicken and fish, whole grains, and healthy fats like avocado and nuts, and remember to stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water throughout the day!

By prioritising your nutrition and caring for your body, you’ll set yourself up for success in your sales career. So, fuel up with some healthy, nutritious foods—your body (and your career!) will thank you for it.

I find it imperative to be aware of what I put into my body and understand what energy is gained or suppressed from what I consume. It’s not always about avoiding anything, there are times in the day when I need a sugar rush, mornings when I’m thinking about lunch already, and days when I think, “I need to be moving a lot today”. I might decide that I want a bit of a sugar rush, but I also must be aware of the impact that what I’m putting in my body is going to have. For example, if I’ve got an important meeting in the afternoon, I may not have such a large lunch. A large lunch will suppress my feelings, dampen my energy levels, and make me tired.

We must be aware that what we consume affects our energy levels. Think about being sustained throughout the day—are you missing breakfast or having too large a breakfast? Are you having a heavy lunch causing you to slump too much in the afternoon? If so, that’s a natural part of your digestive system, and you shouldn’t book your most important meetings in the afternoon. Next, think about snacking. How do you snack throughout the day? Do you nibble on chocolate bars or crisps or chew on nuts and fruit? No judgement on yourself, but become aware of your eating habits, as so many of our habits are subconscious.?

I’ve recently started to use a company called Gusto. They make home delivery boxes, which are meals that you cook yourself but are prepared. They are not takeaway or ready-made meals, but they come in an organised way, which helps me control my calorie intake and what I’m putting into my body. One of the challenges I have with having three children is that there are a lot of bad snacks around that I have to do my best to avoid. Having the self-discipline not to eat the crisps or snacks in front of me and choosing to eat the fruit, salad or nuts is a small battle that I fight every day. The good news is that I am now conscious of it, whereas, before, I wasn’t. Of course, as with anything, good nutrition takes baby steps, but just making small adjustments here and there.

Route Out of Sales

I think it’s fair to say at some point in your career, you might discover that sales simply isn’t the career for you, and you may have sought this book because you’re lacking confidence and success in sales. It’s okay to realise that sales is not for you, and you would like to find a different route into another career. There are a lot of areas you can go into once you have developed sales skills. In addition, sales skills will often put you in a stronger position when it comes to hiring.

Realising that sales isn’t for you isn’t a failure. Perhaps you can’t cope with the monthly targets, the back and forth, the rejection, and the stress that comes with that. Despite taking all the guidance from the available books, sales may not suit you as a career. If you’re feeling that way, it’s worthwhile thinking about what else you could be doing.

I wanted to leave a message here. It’s okay not to be okay. It’s okay to discover that sales isn’t for you and want to move away from it. If you’re reading this book thinking, “do you know what—this is too much. This isn’t for me”—that’s all good – awareness is critical. There are plenty of other possible business routes for you to follow.

Make a list of your interests and what excites you in a potential career move. We only get one shot at this life, so if sales is getting you down, don’t worry that you have wasted time; you have a considerable head start in your future career with the transferable skill set.

James Ski is CEO & Founder of Sales Confidence, a company dedicated to the professional advancement of sales professionals, & author of the debut professional development book How to Build Sales Confidence.?        

This is an excerpt from How to Build Sales Confidence by James Ski, the full version of which you can purchase here .