Hello everyone!
Perfectionism can be defined as “a refusal to accept any standard short of perfection” (Oxford Dictionary). Many of us here are “Grover-achievers” that refuse to let themselves make mistakes. What we must understand, however, is that perfectionism leads us to ironically fail in the sales industry. Perfectionism usually leads to more mistakes, due to: increasing an individual’s stress, making an individual unable to pivot, and ultimately leading to a fear of taking risks. Perfectionism is the antithesis of good salesmanship.
Perfectionism increases a person’s stress because it makes them feel like they have to get everything right the first time. However, in the sales world, there is no such thing as perfection. Products will not always satisfy customers, so it is necessary to find the right ones. This means that in order to find the right customer, you have to eliminate the wrong customers first, thus it would be wrong and impossible to get it right the first time. In this way, perfectionism actually inhibits good salesmanship.
Perfectionism also inhibits a person from being able to pivot or adapt to a situation. To perfectionists, improvising is terrifying because “that’s where mistakes are made.” However, in sales, improvising is absolutely necessary. No two customers are the same, so the conversation will always be different and having a script will be useless. One customer may be the perfect early adopter, while another hates your product: both of these situations requires a different conversation. In this way, perfectionism prevents individuals from being good salespeople.
Finally, perfectionism leads to a fear of taking risks, with risk being a necessary trait in sales. With perfectionism, risk means likely failure, while in the sales world, risk means likely success. Think about this, every time it’s time to close a sale, you feel like you are taking a risk. A perfectionist would fear to take risks and to close sales, thus leading to an ironic failure at being a salesman.
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