When ‘high stress’ is mentioned in the workplace, a brain surgeon or an FBI agent might be professions that come to mind. Have you ever considered a sales account manager being high stress, though? According to the article by Ryan Hadfield, “12 Ways to Handle Sales Pressure,” a recent survey “ranked ‘sales account manager’ as one of the most stressful jobs in the US, with 73 percent of respondents rating the role as ‘highly stressful.'”
Most of the stress that comes from people in sales are due to job stress and money, which is a result of most sales positions being commission-based. In many ways, stress is then arguably necessary to drive sales, but also sometimes physically and psychologically unhealthy when not mitigated appropriately. The article, “12 Ways to Handle Sales Pressure,” provides 12 simple ways (surprise!) to appropriately mitigate the stress that can come from a sales position:
- Incentivize
- Take it one day at a time
- Get the resources you need
- Communicate
- Manage your expectations
- Learn to say no
- Leverage sales analytics
- Take a break
- Keep your calendar full
- Invest in contact data
- Always follow up
- Make preparation a priority
Stress in sales certainly looks drastically different from the stress a police officer might handle in any given day, but it comes as no surprise that the constant pressure “to convert prospects to customers, keep approval ratings high, and meet a quota” is high stress. Too much stress is a problem, but not enough stress is too, and finding that balance can be difficult. For anybody considering sales, I hope that these 12 tips can be of good use for you in the future!
For further details on the 12 Ways to Handle Sales Pressure, check out the link below:
https://blog.zoominfo.com/four-instant-ways-to-relieve-sales-pressure/
testacr22
This article seems to make some valid points about stress is a salesperson position and it totally makes sense why the statistics are the way they are. On point out of the 12 points given that stood out the most was “learning to say no.” So many sales people get caught up in being the nice guy and saying yes to every sale situation they can get themselves in to. This creates a slippery slope of having too much on their plate and, in turn, causing way more stress. Super insightful article.
Yes, I love this! In class it is easy to talk about the high stress that we put potential buyers in, but it is also critical to understand the stress that we place upon ourselves when entering sale and how to manage that. It is important to work through this and as you say have the right level of stress so that you are motivated to do well, but then also not too much stress that you are discouraged and aren’t able to do anything. Great post!
This is a wonderful article and brings up a wonderful point about the stress that is placed on individuals as they enter the sales-force in addition to the customers who are coming into the store in order to buy the product you are selling. These are wonderfully made points and good tips to help individuals inside the stressful world of selling. Communication is a big one and I think it is very important to do this when problems show up or you can be left carrying a lot of different things on your plate that you did not intend.
In the last class, Professor Sweet talked about how in prospecting we aren’t going to find people to marry/ be our customer. We are trying to find people who can potentially be our friends/ form a relationship with them. This takes a lot of pressure and stress off of us for prospecting. Just focus on if their needs meet our ability to solve them, and then go for the appointment not the sale.