Resilience + Grit - The 2 things we don't talk about enough

Helping elevate the people and profession of Sales by sharing authentic conversations, practical tips, expert advice, relevant tech and real-world lessons from my experience selling every day. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday. 

Do you believe in what you sell?

That’s an important question to ask yourself if you want to be successful in Sales long term.  

Someone told me earlier in my career that Sales is the “transfer of enthusiasm.”  

People still buy on emotion and back it up with facts.

If you don’t believe in what you’re selling, and you’re just in it for the commissions, then please go find something else to sell because you’re the one who gives the rest of us a bad name. Also, I promise you will burn out a lot faster when you’re selling something you don’t believe in.  

If you truly believe in what you sell and that it makes a real difference for the right client then it’s about transferring that enthusiasm to them. 

Sales isn’t an easy job by any stretch of the imagination but when you believe in what you sell it’s a lot easier.  

That said, no matter how much you believe in what you sell you inevitably have your low points and question everything about what you’re doing.

This is what today’s newsletter is all about - dealing with the lows and finding belief.

SALES FROM THE STREETS:  A simple “Thank You” goes a long way

TACTICAL TIPS: Knowing Your Why and Values 

SALES TECH AND TOOLS: Greenlights 

SALES FROM THE STREETS 

A simple “thank you” goes a long way

I’m not going to lie, it’s been a rough 16 months.  

For those of you who don’t know, I built JB Sales, which evolved to SellBetter by JB Sales, to a multi-million dollar business with 15 employees and then the beginning of 2023 hit and the SaaS industry crashed.

95% of our clients were in SaaS and almost all of them had money with Silicon Valley Bank so when the shit hit the fan, the contracts stopped on a dime. 

I’m not a VC-backed company nor am I a multi-millionaire (yet ;) so I ultimately had to split the company in half and go back out on my own to rebuild my entire business. 

I’ve always considered myself more of a sales rep than a business owner or CEO so I’ve never stopped selling. With that, I was able to sell my way through this and get back on my feet without dipping into savings or needing funding.

Along the way, I’ve questioned a lot of things about my leadership skills, decision-making, business acumen, abilities, and much more.  

It’s easy to let those questions pile up and eventually get you to question everything about what you’re doing, who you are, and your belief in what you do. 

But then, every once in a while, you get a reminder of why you do what you do and that happened to me this week.  

I was going through some old testimonials and I came across one from a rep who had left one a while back that I never saw.  It was such a great testimonial that I reached out to him to give him a long-overdue thank you.  

His email back to me literally brought me to tears and reinvigorated my belief in what I do. 

I’m not sharing this to brag. I’m sharing this because whether he knew it or not, this simple message from him helped me more than he could possibly imagine. 

The actionable takeaway from this is to take a minute to say thank you every once in a while without being prompted to. Leave a review on a website for a local business that you like. Send a text to a friend to let them know you’re thinking of them. Call your mom or dad out of the blue to tell them you love them.  

As I say at the end of all my podcast episodes, go out there and make someone smile today because no matter how bad your day is or think it’s going, if you make someone smile, you know you had a good day and the world needs a lot more of that right now.

TACTICAL TIPS  

Knowing Your “Why” and Your Core Values

Have you read Simon Sinek’s book Find Your Why?  If you haven’t, you should.  You should also go through the exercise to figure out your own Why. (by the way, his podcast A Bit of Optimism is fantastic)

This is what keeps me going and reminds me why I do what I do when I’m getting down or questioning what I’m doing. Emails like the one I highlighted above are also reminders of my Why and keep me going.

I didn’t really figure out my true “Why” until recently.

After my Dad passed away a few years ago I was in a weird space mentally and had to reset and figure out some stuff.  I decided to sign up with a business coach who brought me through the “Why” and “Core Values” exercises. 

Here’s what we came up with for my “Why”:

“To elevate the people and profession of Sales by sharing my earned evolving experience with anyone willing to put in the work so they can achieve whatever level of freedom and success they want to live a meaningful life and make a positive impact on their world”

More importantly thank your “Why,” I think Core Values are critical to identify because they should drive everything you do.  You can check mine out on my website here. 

For instance, I advise reps who are looking for jobs to go through the Core Value exercise and then look for companies and opportunities that align with their core values. 

If your core values are aligned with the people and companies you associate with then you can do incredible things together.  If your core values are not aligned then your relationships will eventually become toxic and fall apart.  

You can easily google the “find my Why” exercise and/or the “Core Value” exercise to find different options. 

If you want a copy of the worksheets I used with my business coach or an introduction to him, send me a direct email and I’ll forward them to you.  

SALES TECH/TOOLS - 

Greenlights

This isn’t a technology or tool but it aligns with the theme of this week’s newsletter. 

If you haven’t listened to Matthew McConaughey’s Book Greenlights then stop what you’re doing and download it from Audible now.  

I highly recommend you LISTEN to it, not read it.  

He tells the stories of his life the way only Matthew McConaughey can.

The main takeaway is how when bad things happen to a lot of us, we see them as “red lights” but eventually, everything that happens to us could be seen as a greenlight since it’s what allowed us to be where we are today.  

I used to say “Everything happens for a reason” and now I know how insensitive that is to say.

Tell people who have lost a loved one that and see how it feels and how they react.

BUT, I do believe that if you look hard enough, there is a silver lining (greenlight) to almost everything that happens to us.  

It’s all about perspective

I know this week got personal but sometimes we need to know what’s happening on the inside before we make the outside work. 

This is the key on how I Make it Happen each and every day. 

Thanks for reading and see you next week

JB

ADDITIONAL WAYS YOU CAN LEVEL UP YOUR SALES GAME 

• The JB Sales Membership is where you’ll get access to my live training, workshops, AMAs and OnDemand content so you can level up your sales skills every day!  Join 3000+ sales pros today.

• The industry-leading Make it Happen Monday Podcast where you’ll get insights and inspiration from some of the most interesting and influential people in the world of Sales and business.

• The JB Sales YouTube channel with practical tips that you can apply immediately to drive results along with interviews and content that is guaranteed to get you to think differently. 

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