Curing The "I Feel Sorry for Myself" Syndrome

I had breakfast one morning with a top sales executive of a major land development company. The conversation opened up on a discussion of the economy, the weather and the illness of a good friend. The gentleman I was having breakfast with has had a lot of success in his career but I've noticed recently he doesn't seem to have the same enthusiasm about his work as he did a few months ago. He had asked me to have breakfast with him to just chat a little but it occurred to me he had something he wanted to share. Later in our conversation, he told me it was hard to be enthusiastic about his job because of his boss. He said his superior didn't seem to understand selling and wasn't supportive of his people. My friend suggested that his boss was both negative and aloof.

But my friend's assessment of his boss didn't stop there. He said his boss lacked "fire in his belly" and spent most of his time in his office and didn't seem to want to get out in the field with his people and see customers. My friend made it clear he needed more support and encouragement from his boss but he was afraid to go into his superior's office and ask for those things. My friend went on to say he felt a real boss should be a cheerleader and someone who enjoys the role of being a leader. My friend said his boss had all kinds of outside interests and "I believe spends more time on them than he does on company business".

I told my friend he sounded like he had a good case of "I feel sorry for myself" and that he should stop doing so and get off his behind and start calling on customers and prospects. I also told him he should stop taking his boss's inventory because there was really nothing he could do about it. Instead, I told him the greatest way to get out of a funk was to get away from the office and get out in the field and make sales calls. It's tempting for sales people to get into the "I feel sorry for myself" syndrome when they spend too much time in the office. If your down and out and want to feel better quickly the best thing to do is to swing into action as soon as you can and do what you do best, make a sales call! The action for any sales person is not in the office because nobody can buy from you there. You want to be on the outside where there are people you can see and who can buy from you.

So my advice to any salesperson is to make sales calls anytime you feel you're beginning to get down. In short, don't wait for things to happen TO you, go out and make things happen FOR you. That is what selling is all about. Making quality sales calls, having fun doing it and making money.

Get going, team!

Chuck