How to Let Go and Move on
Becoming impervious to failure
Arianna Huffington, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Walt Disney. All of these people “failed” at some point in their careers. Part of being human is learning from our mistakes. We can’t navigate life expecting things to go perfectly. Besides, most successful people would argue that failing provides an advantageous opportunity for personal growth.
Deals can fall through for any number of reasons, many of which have nothing to do with the salesperson assigned to the account. Creating a personalized system for handling failure will train your mentality and resolve you to overcome the inevitable obstacles that life brings. Here are a few valuable tips that will help you learn and move on quickly from rejection and prioritize becoming a better sales professional.
Learn from the experience
Not all missteps come with lessons, but it’s important to take what you can from every sales interaction. Create your own system for self-assessment that allows you to quickly and comprehensively learn from both positive and negative experiences.
Here are some great questions to ask to start this process:
Was I fully prepared to nurture this lead from the initial engagement through conversion?
When exactly did the relationship take a turn?
Who were the gatekeepers that impacted my sale?
At what stage of the sales funnel was the lead?
What tools, tactics, or resources would have helped?
Could I improve in any area to avoid this situation in the future?
The answers to these questions will provide the necessary clarity to allow you to process missed opportunities. Doubt and uncertainty will keep you inert while clarity will propel you to the next sale with renewed confidence.
Focus on progress
Another way to train your brain to better handle failure is to focus your thoughts on progress and how each situation will impact the future. You still need to take accountability and sit with negative emotions, but you can’t let them dominate your mindset around work.
Once you’ve taken every lesson you can from a lost lead, shift your attention. The only way you can truly lose from a missed sale is if you give up. Instead, grow your skills, ask for feedback, and/or demand more resources from your marketing department. Do everything you can to boost your confidence in converting your next customer.
Adopt an abundance mindset
Strategic sales isn’t a numbers game, but it can be immeasurably valuable to (truly) believe that the next opportunity is right around the corner. Having an abundance mindset means believing that there are enough resources and successes for all to share.
Whether you have to say it out loud before every sales call or write it in a journal, take an active approach to acquire an abundance mindset. This fresh way of viewing prospecting and sales helps you choose sustained practices over falling back on old habits or cutting corners.
Recognize failure’s impact on your career and life
It’s easy to get sucked into “hustle culture” and convince yourself that grinding through your problems is better than just stepping back and giving yourself a break. If you don’t take a holistic view of your career and, more importantly, your life, you may never realize how disruptive failure can be.
Of course, failing is stressful and disheartening, but it’s also temporary. Allowing a sales rut to become an enigmatic cloud over your life will only place additional strain on your energy, confidence, and satisfaction.
Remember to look at your life as a whole and that you’re more than just your career. Failure is never as binary as it feels in the moment. By learning from the experience, focusing on progress, and adopting an abundance mindset you can start to define your own version of success.
Failure is always just another beginning!