seth

SDR

Quota: how do you take on the pressure?

lets be honest: sales isn't for the feignt of heart. lots of good days and more hard ones to get you to the good ones.

how do you take on the burden of what's asked of you and still live a balanced life, especially in the harder selling times?

🧠 Advice

🤗 Self-care

26 comments

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braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Relentless time management. I break down each day into: create, advance, close. What can I do every day to add more to the funnel, progress deals in the funnel, and win efficiently.

Anything that isn't revenue generating should be avoided or delegated.

Asking tough questions early and often.

Live below your means and keep a safety net (6 months of living expenses) so that lean times don't hit hard.

Also, therapy helps. I started therapy to deal with some temper/anger management issues but it's progressed to also having a safe place to express feelings about work and get coached on how to deal with anxiety.

CatMom

Politicker

Account Executive

Therapy is such a great suggestion. Love how this is slowly becoming more normal and less taboo. So important to take care of yourself mentally!

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Agreed. Only wish I'd started sooner. I've also learned that a lot of my colleagues also go. I feel like for people my age (late 30s) and younger it's viewed like going to the gym or doing yoga.

CatMom

Politicker

Account Executive

Yes!!! Literally half my colleagues have it blocked off on their calendar for therapy once a week. Company is even looking into ways to offer reimbursements/stipends for it too. Love this for us so much 💜

StringerBell

Politicker

Account Executive

Focusing only on revenue generating is smart…it’s advice I need to hear. I sometimes procrastinate by helping out in other departments or doing stuff that aren’t my job

ithinkyoushouldclose

Contributor

Account Executive

Can't agree more. I started therapy last year when I was having a tough quarter and it helps immensely having a healthy place to talk through challenges, anxiety, process improvement, pressure, etc. Also helps that my therapist also used to be in sales...

Gasty

Notable Contributor

War Room Community Manager

Selling is hard. Theatre is hard. Bricklaying is heard. Performing surgery is hard. Cutting onions is hard.

I take a step back and remind myself the world doesn't revolve around me and what I do.

Almost everything is equally hard.
Except B2B Marketing, of course.

ThatNewAE

Big Shot

Account Executive - Mid enterprise

Trying to find the right response to your comment is hard.

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

I just focus on doing the job and all the details involved in it. I find that when I do, things work out.

LordBusiness

Politicker

Chief Revenue Officer

Don’t ride the rollercoaster, which means don’t allow yourself to get too emotionally high or low. ESPECIALLY HIGH. It takes time, but the core here is to focus on the process and not the outcome - because in selling there are hundreds of factors that we don’t have control over. Remain neutral emotionally, focus on building and executing good processes and the “stress” will start to dissipate

CatMom

Politicker

Account Executive

This can definitely be tough! Sales is like being on a rollercoaster. Lots of highs and lows. I try to stay focused on what I have control over, try not to spend too much time doing non revenue generating activity, especially when things are slow…I want to end the day knowing I did everything I possibly could. And just try to end the day at a normal time and not let work bleed too much into your personal life. Set some boundaries. It’s hard but it’s worth it!

FoodForSales

Politicker

I am more relationship-based in my sales and approach so for me there's not that much pressure. But I don't sell SaaS in a start-up environment so I'm sure that's much different.

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

You can only prospect so much, and it’s much more about closing. If there isn’t a funnel, there is nothing you can really do. The product needs to do what the customer wants, so you can sell it just as that. Don’t worry if you miss out based on not having the features needed. You can only talk the customer out of so much.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

*faint

If it wasn't for the "thrill of victory", none of us would probably stay in sales. There's a great feeling when you bring a deal across the line that is tough to replicate in other careers. It does also mean that it's balanced by losses, so you have to be prepared to manage that, and the cyclical nature of the job as well as the inevitable dry spells and days you just don't want to work.

For me, balance is key. Also, as braintank says, live below your means, so in any dry spell, you are at least somewhat insulated, which should help with any stress. This also means not going overboard when you do land that whale, IMO.

CaneWolf

Politicker

Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract

Crippling anxiety and intoxicants?

WenWest15

Valued Contributor

Principal Business Development Manager

Be relentless about your systems and processes> Consistency is crucial in hard times, and often come back with massive rewards.

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

Rolling 20's all day

Boil your quota down to the basics of prospecting and understand your deal cycles. If you can play the numbers game and figure out what number of deals will get you where you need to be, you can focus on the small stuff like generating pipe.
At the end of the day, if you can say you put your effort behind it and did your best, then even if you fail to hit quota I don't think you truly failed.
Even if you do everything right, you can still lose. Just control what you can control (your actions, reactions, and mindset).

GDO

Politicker

BDM

I still don’t know how 😞

LordOfWar

Tycoon

Blow it up

Drugs, alcohol, spending sprees, living in the past, and hoping for the future.

"This too shall pass"

NotCreativeEnough

Big Shot

Professional Day Ruiner

I take on the pressure of it by crushing it.

I know what I need to do to hit quota and have my method and strategies in place to do so. Its literally just a blueprint I have to execute on. Do the work = hit quota = big paychecks.

If you don't have the math worked out to know exactly how much activity you need to hit your numbers based on your current strategies, figure it out. If it will take too much activity to hit it, reevaluate your strategy.

Its all about building a repeatable, scalable process that works for you. And knowing your numbers is the first and most important step to doing that.

SirAlex

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

Can you break down those 3 a bit? Create is pretty straightforward so what specifically are you doing to advance and close oops? Like is it as simple as moving from discovery to demo to pricing to negotiation and close?

jOrkinsO

COO

for me you need to have right mindset before going to the office or before shift starts. you need to have 3 factors for you to be able to succeed in everything that you do.
First of all, you need that DISCIPLINE, ACCOUNTABILITY and the last one is CONSISTENCY.
Meditate before starting your week, Manifest what you want to achieve and apply that 3 factors and you're good.

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

You already have great suggestions here. I have al ate found the approach of taking a step back and analyzing how I can do a few things in a different way. I like to get on a call with my Manager and other colleagues to see how can we help each other. You might not get a result immediately, patience is the key.

ThatNewAE

Big Shot

Account Executive - Mid enterprise

Look at the bigger picture every monday: How many deals can come through. How many calls I have lined up for the month.
Then I take it one day at a time. It's very easy to get overwhelmed.
I also take it - nothing personal. It's all business, get going and don't cry over lost deals for long.

PaperTigerFighter

Good Citizen

AE (Account Executive)

For day to day pressure, I find exercise, spending time with non-work friends/family, practicing mindfulness, going to therapy, and saving time for lots of sleep top notch stress managers. When it's a harder time, or I'm feeling especially down, taking anxiety medication, going for walks, and finding small "mental health" days when I don't look at screens and do something I enjoy like reading is nice too. Healthy coping mechanisms are harder to start, but also once you can make it a pattern, you can still do it even when you don't really want to.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

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seth

Quota: how do you take on the pressure?

26 comments

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