• November 21, 2017

8 Things That Keep Salespeople Up at Night

If you ever ask a salesperson to come up with adjectives to describe their job, the one that’s likely to come up over and over again is “stressful.” You can make a lot of money in sales, but they don’t just give it to you for nothing. Sales is a job that can wear you down if you let it, and also has a tendency to keep people up at night.

Of course, there are ways you can reduce your stress level in sales; through exercise, taking time off to recharge, and using tools like Spiro’s AI-Powered CRM to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. But there is a base level of stress that’s baked into every relatively demanding sales position.

Here are the eight things that keep most salespeople up at night:

1. The ever-looming quota

A salesperson’s quota hovers over us at all times. The only way to escape it is by exceeding it. Almost all sales stress can be traced back to monthly, quarterly, or annual sales goals. You have to achieve those goals if you want to make a living, satisfy management, and keep things moving.

2. Post-closing issues

Just because a sale has been made doesn’t mean the salesperson’s job is over. In fact, the first person a customer thinks to call when they’re experiencing any issues with their product or service is usually the salesperson who closed the deal. Post-closing issues can be time consuming and stressful for salespeople. But they can also put commission checks and referral business on the line, so can’t be ignored.

3. Comp plan changes

The only thing that’s constant when it comes to the comp plan is that it will always change. This causes lots of stress for salespeople.  They may be used to focusing on certain goals and metrics that were favored by the existing comp plan. And then suddenly those metrics may be meaningless or take a backseat to new demands. This can throw the entire sales process out of whack. And unfortunately, in the majority of cases changes to the comp plan probably mean less money for the sales rep.

4. Worrying about automation

There’s a lot of hysteria about technology eliminating entire segments of the workforce. And salespeople tend to be mentioned towards the top of the chopping block. Sure, some industries will be disrupted or eliminated as AI is able to handle transactions that once required a live person. But salespeople will thrive in other areas. Learn to work with AI technology (like Spiro) to become more effective sellers, not against it.

5. Difficult deals can keep salespeople up at night

The problem with really difficult deals is that even if they’re not keeping a salesperson up at night, they’ll haunt us in our dreams. There is so much time and energy invested into making sure a complex or challenging deal gets closed. It’s almost impossible to forget about it when we go home for the night. But it’s pushing through those difficult deals instead of giving up that separates top performers from everyone else.

6. Late night client calls

Most sales jobs aren’t nine-to-five ones. Busy customers need to be reached at times that are convenient for them, not for the salesperson. You may have to stay up to call a prospect in Australia. Or perhaps one of your prospects only has availability outside of normal working hours. Late night business calls can literally keep salespeople up at night.

7. Too much caffeine can keep salespeople up at night

Salespeople love their coffee and energy drinks. In fact, it’s surprising that there hasn’t been a line of caffeinated beverages designed exclusively for salespeople. But those same energy drinks that make afternoon prospecting blocks more fun and exciting can keep salespeople up well past their bedtime. It’s hard to shut off a brain that’s been working overtime all day. But, huge doses of caffeine certainly don’t help either.

8. Forgetting to enter something into their CRM

There’s nothing worse than being out for the night, or laying in bed and realizing that you forgot to update an important piece of information into your CRM. Even worse is when you work for a big company where someone else is now able to possibly poach your client because your contact hasn’t been documented. Thankfully there’s now a way to avoid having this keep you up at night. To solve this problem, try using Spiro, the only CRM on the market that automatically updates itself and allows you to finally get a good night’s sleep.