Looking to hire a psychopath?

Do you want your salespeople to be upset if they lose a big deal, but feel nothing to be constantly rejected while prospecting? If you do, you might be looking to hire a psychopath.

Here is a fundamental sales conundrum; you want your salespeople emotionally invested in the outcome, you want them to feel deeply. But, you also expect that same person to feel nothing in the face of constant rejection.

Indeed, you want rejection to have so little effect on them that they barely pause to sip their water (or whisky) between calls.

The truth is, when prospecting, you do need to be able to emotionally detach yourself from the outcome. This ability comes with a high Emotional Intelligence.

There is a lot of rejection in looking for new business. If being hung up on and told to stop bothering people makes you feel bad, prospecting for business can be a truly demoralising experience.

People are primarily motivated to avoid pain. We are simply programmed that way. (unless you happen to be either a psychopath or a masochist.)

Because of this, your salespeople (especially full-cycle salespeople) might be avoiding the important prospecting they need to be doing or they might, subconsciously even, be using less painful albeit less effective methods of doing so.

So how does one overcome this without hiring from the FBI's most-wanted list?

Well, I am no expert in resilience. I have had the benefit of being trained by some of the best in the industry (tagged below).

??But here is what I do. Daily.

1. I eat my frog. I break my calling and other difficult tasks into small, time blocked sessions. Usually, 45m to an hour.
2. I do some thinking (might even call it meditation) to emotionally prepare for the call session and remind myself that a "No" is a reflection of their needs, and not of me.
3. I think about what success looks like and remind myself why I am doing this (my goals, family etc.. )
4. I remind myself that I am a problem solver. I am offering a solution and in doing so, I am adding value to their work lives.

?? Then I smash through my list like I'm on a mission to win!

After 45 minutes, I make a coffee ?, call colleagues ??, celebrate wins ??, shake off the no's ??, do admin ??, refuel ??, recharge mentally ?? and prep for another session ??.

?? PS If you know of excellent people in the industry who specialise in helping staff get better at this. (sales-training, mindset or resilience) ??? Please tag them or their organisation below.

???? PPS Psychopathic traits commonly include:

• Superficial charm
• Narcissism
• Impulsivity
• Callous, unemotional traits
• Lack of guilt
• Lack of empathy
• Nickelback fan?