The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Four months are remaining in 2023.

Yes, you read that correctly. And with only a few months left in the year, boosting sales motivation is crucial for achieving your annual targets and ending the year on a high note.

These past few years have been incredibly challenging for leaders worldwide.  As you take a look around your organization, have you noticed any of the following for your leadership team or your employees: 

• Exhaustion: Physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion that doesn't go away after time off.
• Decreased job satisfaction: A feeling of disillusionment and negative attitude towards work.
• Decreased motivation: Loss of drive, energy, and motivation to perform tasks.
• Increased absenteeism: Taking more time off work, frequently calling in sick.
• Decreased productivity: Decline in quality and quantity of work being produced.
• Decreased engagement: Lack of enthusiasm and investment in one's job and responsibilities.
• Increased cynicism: Negative outlook and mistrust towards one's employer, coworkers, and/or job duties.
• Health problems: Physical symptoms such as headaches, sleep disturbances, and digestive issues.

If so, you are not alone.  These are all symptoms of burnout.

If you’ve ever been in sales, you know first-hand that one of the most powerful ways to go from good to great is having a strong sales manager. The best sales managers are active listeners and innovative thinkers. They know how to inspire and motivate their teams.

So, is there a secret that only these superstar managers know?

Of course not. But what we know for certain is that they are the ones who give just as much attention to managing their own talents as they do to managing their teams.

And how do they do that?

They begin with themselves and their own self-awareness. It sounds simple, but you truly can’t know and lead others if you don’t know yourself.

If we think about the metaphor of flying a plane, we can all agree that there are some major headwinds tossing and shaking the plane around at the altitude of business right now. And yet, as Peter Drucker said, “The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is acting with yesterday’s logic.”

Often the best solution in severe turbulence is not to ground the plane or fly around in repetitive circles but instead shift the course to rise above it.

The word for 'crisis' in Japanese, 危機 (Kiki) is written with the words 'danger' and 'opportunity,' meaning that a crisis can be seen as a dangerous time but equally as a time for opportunity.

And this is certainly an unprecedented and historical time of opportunity for innovating, trying new things, thinking outside the box, and driving the growth of your organization.

Talk with any manager or leader, regardless of their company, industry, or size, and without a doubt, you will find one thing they all have in common – the struggle to find great talent. Building, and maintaining, a talent bank is not for the faint of heart.

Now imagine the added stress that occurs when you’ve made a heroic effort to build a great talent bank, and it runs dry.

When we think of leadership, we often think of qualities or characteristics such as courage, inspiration, or perseverance. These qualities or traits are actually one of several ingredients in a powerful recipe for success and winning. That recipe is mindset.

Unprecedented headwinds over the past few years have created immense challenges and uncertainty. Leaders of companies big and small have faced a global pandemic; supply chain issues; inflation; and talent shortages just to name a few.

What could be more complicated than dating?

Just look at the ever-growing array of dating apps and social media stories, not to mention the adventures recounted by our single friends, family members, and colleagues, if you need any confirmation. The search for “the one” is a journey that countless people have experienced -- and many with less success than others.

Sales can feel like a similar process to dating. At The Center for Sales Strategy, we've often drawn parallels between the two. As you are out there making connections and building lasting business relationships, here are a few pitfalls we have learned to avoid.

When was the last time you heard someone use the words “artificial intelligence”? A decade ago, it might have been sparingly, but today we hear the term daily.

As the tech industry continues to expand, engaging with other sectors such as automotive, biomedical science, data science, healthcare, and entertainment, it is increasingly likely that tech will come to play a role in all of our corporate lives.

It might seem that the tech industry is quite distant from Human Resources, but, in fact, the two fields are already working closely together.

We have all heard the expression, “As impossible as trying to fit a round peg into a square hole.” A simple statement yet one that perfectly captures the challenge of making a match where there isn’t one.

Ask the leader of any organization about what keeps them up at night, and one answer is certain to be, “How can I make sure I have the right people in the right roles for the success of our business?”

One of the most difficult things in leadership, and in life, is to recognize and admit when we have made mistakes or might have done things differently.

As we develop more skills in leadership, we begin to see mistakes as opportunities for growth, improvement, and innovation when we can look at them through a lens without judgment or blame.