Strength Does Not Come From Winning

Originally posted on LinkedIn Nov 6, 2017:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/strength-does-come-from-winning-rich-stone "Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength." -Arnold Schwarzenegger

Hate to break it to you but you are going to lose sometimes.  Losing is inevitable in sales.  That said, how successful you are depends on your ability to bounce back from losses. It is imperative that you remain positive despite those losses and more importantly learn from them to avoid similar pitfalls moving forward.

How do you do this?  It's simple and really all about your mindset and attitude towards your work and life.  Don't let the setbacks and adversity derail your focus. If a prospect hangs up on you, it is because they are having a bad day and not you. If you lose a deal to a competitor who dropped their price, GOOD. Your competitor diminished their value and you upheld yours to fight and win another day. 

It all starts with the little wins. Getting out of bed in the morning despite a long night. Making one more phone call before heading home for the day. Getting your ass in the gym despite a hectic schedule.  Having a difficult conversation with an angry customer. Saying "no thanks" to cookies that one of your colleagues brought into the office even though they look unreal. Isn't it funny how when you are willing to do the hard things that goodness tends to follow?  All of the sudden that prospect you have been reaching out to with a thoughtful, personalized outreach via email, phone and social for months finally gets back to you.  As they say, "better lucky than good" but there is typically more to it than chance alone. Only you can dictate your "sales karma". 

The hardships you endure and the triumphs you achieve are all connected and have a domino effect on one another.  This is how life works, it's not that complicated. 

Iron isn't forged in a box of fluffy pillows, it is forged in the fire. Adversity creates strength.  As Mark Bell would say, strength is never a weakness and weakness is never a strength. 

Have you ever gotten knocked down only to get back up again stronger than ever? Feel free to comment below or connect with me on linkedin.com/in/rstone57 or @rstone57.