One of the most challenging aspects of sales is staying motivated – especially in the face of objections or rejection. A lot of salespeople engage in distraction or busy work instead of productive activities. Remaining motivated is essential to sales success.

You have to keep moving forward no matter what you encounter.

What Drives You?

In sales, the most successful people are those who can set goals and then establish systems for achieving those goals. They treat every step of the process as an appointment. They even put these steps on the calendar. These salespeople use CRM systems that provide reminder tools so they aren’t leaving anything to chance.

There is more to goal setting than just deciding what you want to achieve. You then have to put the plan in place to make it happen. Staying motivated is easier when you commit to that plan.

Being a team player is also key to staying motivated and successful. Imagine selling something that your operations team can’t follow through on. The frustration alone would be enough to demotivate you. You need other people to carry out what you sell in most situations. Working well with them, listening, collaborating, and considering other viewpoints makes your sales job easier.

At the same time, you should be able to initiate programs and plans. Successful salespeople don’t wait for others to get things done. They initiate. An example of this is making sure you have next steps with your prospect. Some sales people tend to let the prospect lead next steps. They’ve effectively given the power to the prospect and are no longer in control of the process.

So what happens when the prospect doesn’t follow through? You’re stuck.

Stay in control. Initiate the meetings and contacts during the sales process.

All of This Starts With Focus

There are a lot of parts to a sales job. Focus helps you manage those moving parts effectively. Ensuring that you make your sales calls, attend events, create and deliver proposals are critical. Creating proposals requires true focus as each prospect is different. The proposals require individuality so the prospect believes you are really thinking about them in particular.

Now let’s talk about optimism. Nowhere is optimism more important that in sales. You have to believe that you are going to succeed. You have to believe in your product or service and how it really helps your clients solve their problems. Can you imagine making cold calls if you aren’t optimistic? Right! That’s one of the reasons people struggle with cold calling.

To stay optimistic focus on your successes – no matter how small. Accomplishing even the simplest thing in sales and acknowledging that achievement will increase your optimism and your results.

If I were to pull all of this together, I would say that the way to stay motivated in sales is to be optimistically focused on your collaborations, initiatives, goals and plans.

This motivation will be instrumental in making sales over and over again.

Optimistic Photo via Shutterstock

[“source-smallbiztrends”]