Sales Fear Series – Fear of Being Replaced

I am big football fan. I absolutely love the sport. I am intrigued by the strategy that goes into both offensive and defensive play. I find the thought process that goes into building a team of top performers eerily like the sales function I have worked in for decades. Each season I guess about the player selection process. From the post collegiate season NFL draft to pre – season camp, what must the players be thinking as they jockey to be a part of the 53-person roster. Let’s face it, they are all top-notch performers. They have spent their early formative years studying the sport that they have come to love. And every person around them has the same goal in mind --- to be considered the best in the game.

How do they keep a level head and stay the course since they may be cut before the season even starts?

Keep in mind that even if they are already on the team from the prior season, there is no guarantee that they will make the team for the next.

This idea brings us to the topic of this post. Many salespeople fear being replaced if they don’t achieve the prescribed targets. And let me hit you with another little chestnut, even if the hit their ‘number’ there is still a possibility that they may be traded away if someone else with better skills joins the team.

The profession of sales is hard enough. But having to worry about being replaced…sheesh!

In my experience salespeople can get into a certain headspace that either helps drive their performance or inhibit it. The former find consistency in their performance. The latter struggle because they work out of that fear. They don’t allow themselves to build on losses. They consider each loss as one step closer to being benched or traded.

I have been told by numerous people over my career that they couldn’t do what I do. They have told me that they think sales is too challenging and unstable. That to be successful you must compromise your beliefs. And on and on.

After undergoing that barrage of doubt, why would a person want to be a salesperson at all?

The finish line is always moving for a sales professional. And because of this variable, salespeople are constantly scrutinized. The fear of replacement can be quite profound. A salesperson can be top of the lot one moment, and as that sold pipeline dries up, they become more focused with what other players on the team are doing than their own new opportunity seed planting.

At the end of 2021, Paul Petrone wrote a sales management blog post on LinkedIn called ‘Sales Turnover is Exploding.’ In this article he shared interesting statistics on the sales function and the challenges sales managers are facing. Petrone shared a stat from a study conducted by DePaul University that the cost for losing a salesperson is about $115,000.00. If companies are replacing multiple key sales performers, this can put an organization in a precarious position. The time it takes to find a suitable candidate, get them onboarded, trained on product, and acclimated to a company’s sales processes just worsens the problem.

As a sales professional if you need inspiration to keep you in the right state of mind to remain a top performer, remember that to lose you it will cost your company quite a bit. And, they’d rather keep you in spite of those few losses, because your wins mean so much more.

I’ll leave you with this quote from one of the greatest coaches in football history – Vince Lombardi, "Winning isn’t everything; but wanting to win is."