Mental Toughness

Double down when the wind is at your back

Chicks Dig The Long Ball 💋💋

You cannot play good baseball by thinking about it. Thinking causes you to tense up; it gets you trying too hard. In baseball, trying too hard is a game of diminishing returns. That is, the harder you try, the worse you play. To be at your best, you have to be relaxed and on automatic. You have to let it happen—to trust your skills, your knowledge, and your abilities. Think back to the 1998 season when Mark McGuire Mac and Sammy Sosa were racing toward Roger Maris’s single-season record for home runs. Steroids or not, talk about an incredible display of mental toughness and concentration. McGuire and Sosa were in a fishbowl with the whole world hanging on every one of their at-bats. But they did not step up to the plate thinking about hitting home runs, beating one another, or passing Maris. They stepped up to the plate with an empty mind. They stayed loose and they focused on making good contact one pitch at a time. Nothing more

In sales, when your day, week, or month is soft, your instincts tell you to press. You are anxious about your numbers and concerned about your productivity, so you try to compensate. You think, “Crap, things aren’t good, I better work my way out of this mess.” The problem is, your anxiety and concern are not hidden in your mind—they are reflected in your actions, which means they are felt by your contacts. Instead of being calm, you rush the conversation. Instead of being empathetic and helpful, you optimize for your needs. You go tense in a game that favors the opposite.

Pressing when things aren’t going your way is the wrong instinct, because it makes it even harder to hit the ball.

When your days, weeks, or months are going well is when you should be staying in the office, making six extra calls, crafting that next great cadence, and following up with the people who may be going lukewarm on you.

A lot of great things happen when the wind is at your back: Your tone is better, your psyche is strong, and you are in winning mode. When you are in a good groove as a person or a team, that is when you do the extra work. That is when you turn it up to eleven.

When confidence is down, when your tone is off, that’s the time to take a walk, to find an encouraging voice, to exercise, to get yourself a massage, to take some R&R. Make time for activities that help you re-center, so you can come back strong the next day.

We are here to talk you through the times that feel the toughest. There is no shame in facing a challenge and losing. Just don’t let the loss follow you into your next interaction. Get up, dust off, talk it through, and try again.

You are not going to close every opportunity. You won't close 75% of them. This reality is true for every great salesperson at every great company. But if you have the right activity, if you do the work and double down when the wind is at your back, you will win. We will win together.

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