Here it is, Wednesday morning. On Tuesday I received confirmation of a large software approval with a well-known US Government Agency. Last Friday, I received an Enterprise purchase order from a top Credit Card company. I had worked both these deals for many months and they were both consistent with the sales cycle.
Yet here I am on Wednesday in a detox state without another purchase order, today. The high of booking the deal has given way to the backdraft of no deal at the moment. I am not necessarily down, I get it – as I will not be able to book an enterprise deal every day. I have many other mapped out over the next several months. They are all progressing. Yet, I am feeling a little down. A bit out of sorts. The waiting, propositioning, next stages, and similar activity will need to progress, before I get that emotional good again.
With sales people, this is a natural state. We get “high” on the deal chase, the about to be delivered PO, the final award. The thrill is amazing for us. Sure there are commissions, recognition, and potential “club” trips. All satisfactory in and of themselves. However, nothing compares to the actual “win.” We crave that feeling every day. If we are not selling high turn-over items, then the valleys and peaks are more expressed as we battle with endless rejection, no’s, and meeting postponements.
Emotion does play a big part in this career. As well it should as we pour emotion, logic, facts and custom positioning to win over the targets to our way of thinking. Thus, no surprise then the highs are really good and the lows more poignant than we would like. To be even reasonably good in revenue generation, you must have an emotional stake in the outcome. Belief in your “product,” convinced the solution is valuable for the prospect, and internal bulk work to withstand the series of deal defections that will occur.
Would be very nice for one of my open pipeline deals to suddenly appear, most unexpectantly, perhaps even Friday and give me that spring like feeling again … I really miss the high from closing the difficult deal.