Alejandra is an inspiring woman whose positivity and sense of identity have led to her success. She explains how she survives the inevitable lows and details her strategy for professional growth.
Surviving “Sales Depression”
Everyone in sales understands that no matter how hard you work, you’re going to hit a bump in the road at some point. You’re doing great, and then suddenly you’re underperforming, you’re not meeting your target, you’re not selling…. You feel that no matter what you do you just can’t get out of your slump!
January was that kind of month for me. I’d been having a great run, I felt on top of the world, I was beating my targets… Then January came, and I sold nothing.
Being in sales is an emotional roller coaster. As soon as you have a bad month, no matter how fantastic you’ve been doing, you start doubting yourself, you go down a rabbit hole, and you settle into a “sales depression.”
The way you manage the hard times will impact on your ability to recover.
Retrospection was my saving grace. I took a day to reflect on my previous good months when I had surpassed myself. I took a moment to remember the reasons for the success I had had before January. What were my prospecting activities? How had I used what I learned from PRIMA to improve my selling techniques? I focused on my confidence, how much better I had gotten.
I got myself into a better emotional state of mind.
You can’t let your emotions get the best of you.
Adopting a rational approach to your emotional lows influences how fast you recover. What I learned from my coach at Prima was, you have to force yourself to recover rapidly from a bad call or a bad month. Only then can you get back on your feet and start selling again.
Do You Want to Be Mediocre, or Become Part of the Elite Salespeople?
The first time I hit a low, at the start of my career, I didn’t know how to recover. It was frustrating because I’d never experienced the feeling before.
What I did was start observing my colleagues. Who were the best sellers, who were the worst? What distinguished one from the other? Why were some succeeding while others remained mediocre? I copied the behaviours of the people whom I aspired to beat.
By relying on coworkers and engaging in “secret” competition, you can surpass their sales within a year.
I met with peers, I met with Sales Managers and even met with VPs – anyone I could learn from. I realized that if I tried to improve, that if I was proactive and pushing the limits of my curiosity, at the end of the day, even if I was having a bad month, I would be proud of myself.
How I chose the people I met with is very important! Whom did I want to get advice from? Getting advice from low performers could mean I would be getting advice on how to cheat the system, how to get by with minimum effort…
I created an Excel chart with every rep at the company. I noted, and still do, the number of meetings they were having, the number of phone calls they were making, and all the details that would allow me to identify the top sellers.
Those are the ones I interviewed.
I was open to whatever they chose to share with me.
The Sky Is the Limit
I haven’t always been in sales. After graduation, I worked in marketing. There’s no other way to put it; I became bored with it. I’d always been curious about sales, and so in 2010, I interviewed and got a position at a company where my friend worked.
The thing about sales is, it’s a unique profession because you have total control over your income. The effort you put in correlates with the revenue you get. If you put minimal effort, you’ll remain part of the mediocre majority of the sales force. However, there’s nothing to stop you from joining the sales elite, just as long as YOU don’t let any obstacle prevent you from attaining your goals and reaching new heights.
My collaboration with PRIMA has been an integral part of my success. The sales techniques and strategies I learned from Louis Larochelle and Frederic Lucas, my coaches at PR, have been a real eye-opener and was a huge game changer for me.
Keep in mind, the people you surround yourself with and those whom you choose to emulate must be absolute experts in their fields. Discovering and identifying who these people are is the key to your success!
