I personally really enjoyed reading and learning about Mattson’s reasoning about “the real you” vs. “the role you.” I can related and totally agree with what he has to say here. Just as a refresher, Mattson defines “the real you” as who you are as a person, your identity and self worth. He defines “the role you” as your performance in a role, a function you deliver in a relational context. It is extremely important for not only salespeople to embrace this learning, but everyone who has some sort of “role.”
Mattson’s main point with this comparison is that “the real you” should not be effected by your failure as “the role you.” In sales, failure is an inevitable and everyone is going to fail often. So not defining “the real you” as that failure is a critical distinction to make in order to not only be successful at sales, but to have good mental health. Based off what Mattson is saying, the salesperson who has a horrible day and gets rejected the entire day has one thing to do. He or she needs to tune back into their real life once the work day is done and not carry that failure with them into their real life.
For me, I can relate to this distinction in my own way. Since I am not yet in the work force, a lot of my time and effort goes toward my sport. I play baseball. If you did not know this yet, baseball is a lot like sales. In both activities, you fail A LOT. I always tell people that once my baseball career is over, and I go into sales, I will be perfectly conditioned to deal with failure because of baseball. To be more specific, I am a pitcher. I throw in a game every 5 days, and I prepare everyday for 1 day of the week. I spend so much time preparing for this one game, and if it doesn’t go like I plan, I have to wait another 5 days to pitch again. Separating the “real me” and the role me” was the most important thing I did in my baseball career. If I have a bad performance I know that after the game, I can leave that failure on the field and improve on the things I need to improve on for next time. I am defined by my relationship with Jesus, not my performance on the field. That is “the real me”, a child of God that has been put on this earth to make a positive impact through whatever platform I am blessed to do it through.
BoweryJE22
Awesome stuff, Nick. I love how you made the connection to baseball. Being able to overcome mental hurdles in order to not let failures in your role get to you is key in so many areas of life. Learning to keep a level head and keep improving and putting in the work is key and sales but also in any aspect of life that we face.
I like the fact you acknowledge that you don’t just forget about failure. You still need to take the opportunity to learn from it, or else you’ll keep failing. The key, as you said, is to not internalize it and remember that our worth comes from our relationship with Christ, not what others think.
The real you versus the role you. I Love this topic but I think there is some serious confusion around it for college students. We can choose the role and what we desire to sell and do in this world. And who can forget interviews where we have to sell ourselves? The co-mingling between the real you and the role you can be healthy and extremely similar and genuine without coming across as superficial.
Understanding the difference between the real you and the role you is key in selling. You’re not going to sell everything and when you don’t, you dent blame the real you, but the role you. Understanding this different is key to being a great salesperson in the modern world.
I am deeply fascinated by the concept of real vs role you in sales. On the surface it seems rather simple but as you delve deeper into the matter, it becomes increasingly more complex and nuanced in good ways. It isn’t just putting on a mask, but understanding that who you are as a salesmen doesn’t define who you are as a person is very reassuring.