If the occasional sales slump was simply a matter of spreadsheets, reports, and projections, it would be bad enough. But sales results is also a deeply personal matter and repeated rejections can drag down even an experienced and accomplished agent’s confidence.
So if you’re experiencing a season of difficult results and the discouragement, frustration, and depression that come with it, here are a few strategies to help you get back in the game.
1. Change your environment. Your physical location and surroundings have a profound effect on your state of mind and imagination. If you get stuck in a in a rut, changing offices, rearranging your workspace, or even just cleaning up can be enough to reset your mood and reenergize you for the future. Even a small change can help break a stubborn mental block.
2. Remember past successes and stay confident! When your sales struggle it’s easy for stress and despondency to push the good memories aside, leading to self-doubt and self-sabotage. Take time to remember your past accomplishments, the ‘highlight reel’ moments that you are most proud of, and use that energy and positivity instead. Can’t think of any? Ask your friends, co-workers, and loved ones. They’ll remember, even if you can’t.
3. Make more attempts. It’s always tempting to give up and cut back at lead generation when things aren’t going well, especially after a long string of rejections. But reducing your number of attempts also reduces the likely hood of future successes. Keep trying.
4. Explore new channels. While keeping up with past customers is important, it can leave you vulnerable if you don’t have new business coming in. Keep prospecting for new clients and explore new channels like social media or partnership deals.
5. Focus on real prospects. It’s easy to waste time on polite customers who, despite their willingness to continue sharing information and conversation, won’t ever put in any orders. Refocus your efforts on leads with more promise and don’t waste your energy on a host of dead-end options.
6. Perform a damage assessment. Why are you losing business? Why aren’t new customers interested? Often times there are no good answers but if you do come across problems like poor customer service, prices, communication, or coverage, take steps to correct these problems.
7. Take some time. Negative emotions can color future sales attempts and may turn off new clients. Take a breather and get your emotions in a better place, and then approach your work from a position of calm and optimism rather than aggressive desperation.
8. Reset your goals. Falling short of sales goals is a stressful experience that can poison your attitude and dramatically compound your stress. Taking your goals down to a realistic level reduces a stress source and makes it possible for you to exceed those goals in the future, when things turn around.
Imeriti Financial Network hosts a large number of free training sessions for agents covering modern, cutting-edge sales strategies, products, and techniques. If you would like to attend one of these unique events and maximize you or your team’s sales potential, contact us by emailing [email protected].
Imeriti Financial Network (“IFN”) is a Field Marketing Organization business that recruits and/or recommends insurance agents to insurance carriers. IFN does not engage in the solicitation or sale of insurance products to end clients. The information contained within this blog is for general information purposes only and should not be construed as provide tax or legal advice or a recommendation or inducement to purchase an insurance product.
Any information, statistics, and opinions reported within this blog were obtained from sources believed to be reliable. However, IFN and/or the blog author do not guarantee or claim responsibility for the truth, accuracy, and reliability of any source, fact and/or statistic cited and may not necessarily agree with any opinions expressed by such sources.
