You’re a hard-charging sales rep — cold-calling, booking meetings and hitting your number. Then sales job burnout strikes. Now what?
Know the Sales Job Burnout Symptoms
It might start slow. You begin to get apathetic about leads and booking meetings.
After spending half of your day prospecting and researching companies, the last thing you want to do is hop on the phone and pitch to potential customers.
You’d rather do just about anything than make another cold call. You start to dread Sunday nights, knowing you must hit full speed the next morning.
But, the end of the quarter is right around the corner. And you still need to perform and close deals.
Sales Burnout: It Happens to the Best of Us
The World Health Organization describes burnout as “resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”
The unmanaged stress can cause energy depletion, negative feelings about work, and decreased productivity.
There’s no doubt that Sales can be a stressful career with a lot of demands. How you overcome these periods of frustration is key to staying on your game.
How to Prevent Sales Job Burnout
Here are a few ways to fix or minimize burnout, so you keep closing deals and hitting your quota.
1. Switch up Your Pitch
It’s easy to lose interest in getting on the phone and closing that next big deal when you’re merely going through the motions.
Look for ways to mix up your sales calls. Try new narratives and anticipate questions that potential customers might have about your product.
And if cold calling office numbers is your thing, try calling prospects’ mobile phones instead.
Also, using storytelling in sales pitches makes the selling process engaging for you and your prospects.
Organizing your pitch into a simple story framework will create a more personalized experience for your prospects.
The storytelling approach might reduce your stress level and put you in a better position to close more deals.
2. Prioritize Sales Tasks
Salespeople have a lot on their plate, from keeping pipelines full to cold calling. If you take on new work, make sure you have the time to see it through.
It’s also important to decline meetings and projects that aren’t worth your time.
Before you head down the rabbit hole of ill-fitting prospects, tap into your intent data to determine which contacts qualify for your product or service.
And, don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. Your team wants you to succeed!
3. Take Time for Yourself
When you feel like a sales zombie, it’s your mind telling you that you need to slow down.
Whether it’s a weekend hike, reading a book, or spending time with family, make sure you are doing something outside of sales from time to time.
Consider this: The American Psychological Association (APA) recommends practicing mindfulness and relaxation techniques for dealing with anxiety.
Activities like meditation, yoga, and focused breathing might offset the burnout that comes with sales.
4. Go After Quality Accounts
How many times have you been excited about a potential high-fit customer, only to discover you were way off-base and have to go back to the drawing board?
Wasting time on poor prospects is a significant contributor to sales burnout.
Half of the sales burnout battle is knowing who the right prospects are — in this case, quality trumps quantity.
Finding the right leads from the get-go is critical which brings us to the final tip.
5. Simplify Your Prospecting
You have a great CRM. But if it’s running on dirty data, your prospecting will feel like you’re wading through sludge.
One thing is for sure: You shouldn’t be wasting your time on old school prospecting.
Offset burnout with customer insights that get you to the right person, armed with the most accurate information.
Identify and Manage Your Sales Job Burnout
Sales burnout can happen to anyone — from new reps to seasoned account executives. The key is to identify the burnout creep and take action to get it under control.
A few simple adjustments to how you prospect can reduce the daily stress, improve your sales process, and keep you motivated so you can hit your number.