Love the Game

Jay Shetty was a monk. Now he’s a motivational speaker and an inspirational leader with a massive worldwide following. One of his key messages is that you have to love the process of what you are doing, as much as the result.

He gives the example of meditation. A lot of people want the benefits of meditation (greater awareness, clarity and calm), yet they do not love the process of meditation. That is, getting up everyday at 4am to sit in silence for hours on end on a cold wooden floor trying to fruitlessly calm their busy minds. The difference with Jay, is he learnt to love the process.

I think we need to take the same approach in sales. You need to love the game as much as the results. You need to love meeting people, pitching your ideas, challenging their thinking, solving their problems and closing deals. You need to love the countless calls, emails, meetings and follow ups that you have to do as part of your role.

You need to love the post deal analysis of what went wrong, what went right and what you are going to change next time. You need to love the whole sales journey... the persistence, rejection, defeat and victory.

If you don’t love the sales game, either learn to love it, or find a game that you do love. If you are just in it for the results, you will never put in the blood, sweat and tears that’s required to reach your potential.

As one of my clients put it, sales is a dance. You need to love the dance.

Mark Windust is an influential Thought Leader in the areas of Sales Strategy, Sales Leadership and Sales Performance. Since launching his consulting practice in 2007, Mark has worked with 1000's of business leaders, salespeople and entrepreneurs’ to help them transform their sales results.