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December 18, 2013

by Anneli Thomson, Managing Director

One of our favourite quotes at Sandler is “We Never Failed to Fail. It Was the Easiest Thing to Do”.  I’ve had a few people ask “where did that come from and what’s it mean?” It’s a good question and one I’m happy to expand on.

If you’re a Crosby, Stills, and Nash fan, you probably are familiar with it already. One of their songs (Southern Cross) has that line. We all take different things from songs but this one spoke to me about the world of selling among other human endeavors.

Sales is a high rejection business. Typically we fail more than we win. That’s true unless you happen to be a superstar who has a close ratio over 50%. The fact is it’s a career where you fail often. But it’s not the only career where you fail often. If you fail 70% of the time in baseball (strike out) you get to the Hall of Fame.

Failing in sales is normal and it’s easy to do. The tough thing is to lessen the losses and be able to handle the rejection. It’s tough to commit yourself to making a plan, sticking to the plan and being committed to your career and your goals even when you’re not up for it. The successful people have learned to do that. They have the support internally and externally to overcome their emotional risks and negative feelings (head trash) that turn into procrastination.

At Sandler our training includes ways to be mentally and emotionally tough. It’s imperative if we are to succeed.

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