The fact is that everyone fails. It's a fact that Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, went home, locked himself in his room, and cried. As a child, Albert Einstein’s grades were so poor that his teacher encouraged him to leave school, telling him he would never amount to anything. If you can believe, even the great Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper in his early career for lacking creativity! Could you believe that The Beatles were initially turned down by a recording label who said “we don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.”
When we fail it’s critical that we view it as a learning experience. It’s natural to feel disbelief, fear and anger. But eventually acceptance will take over and we deal with the despair we are feeling. Jordan, Einstein, Disney, and The Beatles – all struggled through failure, but they also never let that failure overcome their path to success.
How do we overcome failure in sales? And how do we use that in order to reach success? If a sales call doesn’t go well, take the time to debrief the call in your head and analyze the failure. It takes a lot of courage to take responsibility for what went wrong.
- Did you ask all the in depth qualifying questions?
- How well did you listen?
- Where you well prepared?
- Did you miss a step in the selling process?
- What would you do differently next time?
Gaining professional stature in any career is not a flawless exercise. Whether you're an athlete, producer or a sales professional, those who overcome failure’s emotional turmoil are those who eventually achieve success.
To make a difference in your life and the lives around you it demands you try and fail, and fix it, and move on and try again.
Just remember:
We’re pulling for you.
Dave Fischer, President, Chartwell Seventeen Advisory Group
Sandler Training NYC
