Lightning Round: Top 10 Ways to Avoid Burnout
Question: Gina from Portland, ME asks, “I work in financial services and last year was a tough year—between interest rates, regulations and inflation—I lost a lot of deals. Here we are with a new year, things look brighter, but still I am not landing the deals. HELP.”
Book: Get Out of Your Own Way by Philp Goldberg and Mark Goulston
❖ Send your questions to Meridith and Mark at hello@saleslogicpodcast.com
The following episode was transcribed by AI. Semantic errors may occur.
[00:01] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Hey, this is Meredith Elliott Powell. You know what time it is, it is 8 am Eastern. Well, for some of us, saturday morning Time for a Sales Logic, hanging out here with my partner, mark Hunter.
[00:12] – Mark Hunter (Host)
Mark, you are in Seattle today right, Seattle, it’s 5 am here, but it’s still time for Sales. Logic right? We got a great show planned. We’re going to be talking about how do you get out of a sales slump. Let me tell you something. Everybody’s been there. Everybody’s been there. That’s the topic. And hey, the lightning round. We’re going to be talking about top 10 ways to avoid burnout. We’ve got a great show plan. It’s going to be fun.
[00:37] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
All right, let’s do it. All right, welcome back to A Sales Logic, the show where we dive into those strategies, everything that you need to know to sell more effectively. Now, before we get into the topic for today, I always like to remind you this show is about one person, you, the sales professional. So your questions we feature right here on saleslogicpodcastcom. If you’ve got a question, send it on to us. Mark, let’s dive into the topic of sales slumps.
[01:10] – Mark Hunter (Host)
Hey, and we need to celebrate you, the listener, because you, the listener, helped make us number one. We just received the gold medal from top sales world for the number one sales podcast. So thank you to you, the listeners, for all that you do. And, hey, continue to subscribe to the show and write your reviews and tell others about it. So, anyway, okay, the topic we’re talking about how do you avoid a sales slump? What are your thoughts on it? Because we’ve all been there. Well, no, I know you’ve never.
[01:39] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
you’ve never had a sales slump right, oh gosh, no, I mean, you know, to me, I think, the very first place you’ve got to get with a sales slump, I not only have them, I have them a couple of times a year. So, first of all, know that you’re not alone and, number two, expect them. But I think the biggest thing is to shift your perspective about a sales slump. A sales slump is actually a really big positive because it’s telling you that it’s time for your sales strategy to change and it’s something you know. You have to realize that you’re living in a marketplace that is moving so fast. So when sales stop coming in, something externally moved in the marketplace and you missed it. And now it’s time to go back and it’s time to evaluate.
[02:29] – Mark Hunter (Host)
So spot on with that, because it’s so true you use a sales slump as a positive to readjust, re-look at something, and you can. And this is what’s so key because things change, the marketplace is changing so fast. And here’s what I found the slump is never as deep as you think it is. It never lasts as long as you think it is. You know the sun’s still going to come up in the morning. And something amazing about sales. It’s amazing. All it takes is one phone call and suddenly life is really good. So that’s the key thing Reassess what you’re doing, but got to stay in the game. Stay in the game. Don’t think well, sales slump, it’s time to take a break. No, that’s the worst thing you can do, because I’ll tell you what momentum creates momentum. You got to keep going.
[03:16] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, natalie. We’re excited about about being noted number one, about being noted number one, and I love your comment here. Sales Hub is an opportunity to innovate and really listen to what your customers are telling you. I went through one of these around September of last year. Everything just stalled. I had this goal for how much I wanted in my pipeline. I just couldn’t get enough in my pipeline and what I realized was I needed to get a little bit more granular on my ideal prospect. I wasn’t as honed in Now. What I had been using for ideal prospect had been working up until September, but all of a sudden it wasn’t working and I needed to get a little bit more granular on that. So again, kind of reframing it in your mind that it is a warning sign that something needs to shift and something needs to change.
[04:08] – Mark Hunter (Host)
See, it wasn’t a radical change you had to make. It was just a small change that you had to make. And hey, here’s another change that you need to do. It’s in your own mindset. Your mindset drives so much because I’ll tell you what you can talk your way into a slump, and I see this happening so often. Salespeople say it’s just not working. No, look at the numbers. And this is why you need to be tracking your numbers. You need to be looking at it, and what I suggest is go back and look at your numbers during previous periods and you’re going to see ups and downs. Ups and downs, and you know what’s interesting Each time you weathered your way through it. Else, and you know what’s interesting Each time you weathered your way through it.
[04:47]
Don’t allow your mindset to take what is a slump and turn it into a depression. Turn it into something. No, and what does that mean? That means don’t go through a slump by yourself. I’ll tell you what. This is why you need people around you. You need people around you because we’ve said this before we become the sum of the five people you associate with the most spot-on. What does that mean? You hang out with people who are gonna help guide you through that slump yeah, such such great, such great points.
[05:19] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Thank you, oscar, so glad to have you here. I’ve not seen you on sales logic before, so thanks for tuning in. Bill Snow’s got great advice Review your numbers and be honest. Where your activity has been, that’s right, that’s the gold, right, bill? It’s all in your data. I mean, that’s what it’s telling you.
[05:37]
Here’s another thing too Sometimes when you’re in a slump, you need an easy win, and you need an easy win and an easy win will bring that momentum back into you. So anytime I am in a sales slump and, like I tell you, I go through about three a year where my pipeline just starts to dry a little bit more than I want it to dry up Number one thing I do I go back. I ask for referrals. You know I go to the people that I know are in my corner, love me, and when my life is busy I don’t pay as much attention to getting business from them. I go back to my existing customers with a different product or service. I just need a small win to get me through, you know, to get me through these slumps. And, like Bill here said, I’m looking deep and I’m looking into what is one small thing that I could adjust, because the biggest momentum to get you through motivator, to get you through a sales slump, is taking action. Movement is what is going to reframe your brain to find opportunity.
[06:39] – Mark Hunter (Host)
This is why momentum is so critical. You’ve got to keep yourself moving, and it is. It’s the actions, it’s the activities that you’re doing and this whole piece of what’s in your pipeline. This is why you always need to keep some easy wins in your pipeline Because, again, easy wins just have a way to motivate you. They really do.
[06:59]
If all you’ve been chasing is the big whales and the big whales aren’t responding, you can feel like you’re in a slump. Well, you’re in a slump because of the activity that you’ve been doing and where you’ve been focusing your time. You see, this is something very interesting. That doesn’t mean you’ve got a sales slump. What you’ve got is you’ve got an activity distortion. In other words, what you’ve done is you’ve shifted your activity to only going after whales, and they don’t close every day. They take a tremendous amount of time. So that’s why you’ve got to have a wide breadth and depth of opportunities in your pipeline just to do just what you said, mayor. It powers you through, it helps you through and it allows you to keep momentum going. But it all comes back to just. You got to look at your numbers. Look at your numbers and look at what’s happened and look at your previous year or two and you’ll see. You’ll see that it’s not nearly as severe as you think it is.
[07:57] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Yeah, I love what Dave Sanderson is saying here is I’ve always viewed being in a slump as I’m approaching a breakthrough by asking myself more empowering questions. Right, it’s just like. It’s just like telling you you’ve got to shake something up and do it a little bit different here. Thomas, I love that you put this in here, because I was wondering if we really needed to clarify that too. Thomas’s comment is a lot of times it depends on what your definition of a sales slump is. Different industries have different definitions. So, mark, that’s a great question, because I was saying, like in your mind, what is a sales slump?
[08:29] – Mark Hunter (Host)
Well, a sales slump can be just seasonality. In other words, like the industry that you’re selling in, they go through a little bit of a seasonality. In other words, they don’t buy in the fourth quarter, they don’t buy in the first quarter and you go through a sales slump. A sales slump could be the fact that customers you’re dealing with you may be dealing with accounts, you may be doing a lot of existing accounts and they’re going through a reset in their world. So that’s a sales slump. But here’s the thing all of those are self-driven. This is going to this is going to pop a few myths. This is going to pop a few myths.
[09:03]
Sales slumps are all self-driven. They are all self-driven because something hasn’t happened in your process that has allowed you to stay out of that sales slump. So it might be the fact that you’ve got to have a couple different industries. It might be that you’ve got to have more accounts. It might be that you’ve got to be continuously modified. But go back to Dave Sanderson’s comment. You look at a sales slump as an optimist. It is an opportunity for you to reset and re-guide. So never, never, look at a sales slump as a death star. It’s not. It’s not at all.
[09:42] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Yeah, so I look at a sales slump anytime my sales slow down and as an entrepreneur who’s had her own business for 20 years, it still blows me away that I still completely freak out Whenever my leads are not in what I’m expecting them to come through the pipeline. I completely get nervous. My husband and I laugh about this all the time because back when he was in practice, we would go from the glasses completely full to the glasses completely empty and seem to have no you know no middle ground. So I don’t know about all of you, but I have to. I understand intellectually that a sales slump is giving me a gift, but emotionally I fight it.
[10:23]
I mean it is, um, it is a sales slump in my definition, um, I hope this isn’t your definition of it, but my definition is when my sales slow down and I feel like I’m working my tail off to keep everything going and my sales slow down and emotionally that impacts me and that’s when I have to work really, really, really hard to pull myself out of it. I have to double the action that I’m taking. I need to go back and read my visions and my mission and my values. I got to listen to the right podcast. I got to be around the right community because I’m kind of faking it until I make it to come out of that sales slump, because when I’m in it, at no point does that sales slump feel good. That’s how I experience it.
[11:13] – Mark Hunter (Host)
But see, what’s interesting is that whole sales slump you described is mentally driven. It is all mentally driven. This is so key. You’ve got to very much check your mind. And this is what you’ve got to very much check your mind. And this one you’ve got to associate. You hang out with positive people. You got to hang out with other successful people because they will help lift you up and guess what. They will go into slumps and and, and you know you help them and they help you. But this is what’s so key. Again, if you allow yourself to dwell on the present time and this is the other thing about a sales slump look long term. You’ve got to look long term. We’ve all had dips. I mean what you’ve described, mayor. I go through, we go through, everybody goes through and there is and there’s dips. But you know what you look at long term, everything works out, everything balances out.
[12:05]
It’s a great time to bring up our question. They come from gina in portland, maine. She says I’m working financial services and it’s been a really tough year between interest rates, regulation, inflation, etc. A lot of deals just have not happened. Hey, what am I supposed to do in a new year? And I’ll tell you what I put that question into the brain came back with a number of things and it really challenged us on a couple of things that we’ve been talking about build partnerships, build partnerships.
[12:35]
Another thing that I looked at is look at other solutions. Are there other products? Are there other services? It’s kind of what you described, mary. You said you’re in a sales slump, so maybe there’s a different product, a different service I can offer. There’s always ways to power your way out of a sales slump. The worst thing you can do is to sit there and say that I’m going to accept it and I’m not going to get out of the sales slump until the world around me changes. Let me tell you something If that’s your view of the world, go get a different job.
[13:07] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Yeah, and I think the worst thing you can do in a sales slump is blame somebody else, or blame the economy, or blame the customer, or blame the competition, because that’s worthless. Mike, you are always adding something to this conversation. Mike Black chimes in and says if you know your numbers and sales cycle, you can focus on activity now that will deliver results later. Right, I mean, it’s like the activity is the part of it. It’s kind of like you know, I liken a lot of things to your health and you know, you like, we just came off the holiday season and maybe you ate too much over the holiday season, maybe you drank too much over the holiday season, maybe you drank too much over the holiday season. There’s not anything you can do about that right now, but what you can do is control the activity you have going forward and that’s kind of the way, um, you know, that’s kind of the way the uh, the way it works and I love that you added the roller coaster of business is hard for sure, exactly, mike, and that’s why I wanted to say it. It is is hard, right, like I think we’re kidding ourselves if we don’t think like, mentally and emotionally, a sales slump is difficult. We think we have done something wrong and understand that that’s part of the process.
[14:12]
I love what Thomas is saying here. If you’re in a sales slump, ask your coworkers if you’re heading to tell you some of their stories. Coworkers, if you had to tell you some of their stories. That is why I listen to podcasts. If you listen to any successful people who are being authentic with their rise to success, they’re going to tell you times when it looked like all of the odds were sacked against them. So Bill Snow says focus on the base hits, absolutely. You’re not looking for a series of home runs.
[14:44] – Mark Hunter (Host)
And you got to remember that. What’s the length of your sales cycle? If you’re in a sales cycle that normally takes four to five months to close deals, then you can’t expect to get out of a sales slump in one week or two weeks. See, this comes back to the activities and the actions that you’re going to have to play, and you’ve got to look at a longer term perspective because, again, things just aren’t going to change because you do one well, one small thing. Well, it could be, because if you redefine your questions, redefine your product and so forth. But here’s what I come back to You’ve got to stay in the game. It is amazing at what we’re capable of doing with the right mindset. So please focus long term. As I always tell salespeople hey, the valleys are never as low as you think they are, and guess what, the mountaintops are never as high as you think they are. You’ll power through this and you’re going to look back sometime in the future and say that wasn’t much of a slump at all.
[15:45] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Yeah, I think the other thing to keep mindful of too is that when you’re not in a sales slump, the best way to avoid a sales slump is to sell really, really hard, even though you have plenty of business in the pipeline and plenty of work on the books. Probably the biggest reason for a sales slump is your fault. So I’m going to retract. What I said before is that you took your foot off the gas, understandably, because you’re so busy serving the client. You know this is especially challenging for people who sell, like Mark and I do, and many of you are in the same situation. You sell the product or service and you deliver the product and service. And when you sell the product and service and deliver it, sometimes it can be difficult because you get so caught up in delivering. But if you take the foot off the gas in the hot times, you’re going to certainly position yourself for a sales slump up the gas in the hot times, you’re going to certainly position yourself for a sales slump.
[16:47] – Mark Hunter (Host)
Well, that brings up this whole key thing that you got to stay balanced. You got to stay routine, focused and yes, I’m guilty of that. I get absolutely critical, absolutely busy delivering and the pipeline is full, so you take your foot off the prospecting piece. You take your foot off the other thing. This is why consistency is so critical in sales, regardless of how full your pipeline is. This is why I tell people, if you have 80% of your business coming from established accounts, only 20% comes from prospecting.
[17:18]
Don’t think for a moment that you can take your foot off the gas of prospecting, because one day you may wake up and one of those big accounts they could have a head cold and they get a head cold and you get pneumonia. It’s not pretty. You’ve got to stay balanced. You’ve got to stay focused. Prospecting has to be part of each salesperson’s day, every day, and if you are only focused on existing customers, that prospecting might be new relationships in that existing account. It might be talking to other divisions, but you’ve got to be constantly looking for new business. Remember, sales is about incremental business, it’s not about existing business.
[18:00] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Yeah, I think one of the most important things when it really comes to a sales slump is to think about what’s one or two different activities you could do adding to this consistent routine. Think of it like working out Anybody who’s trying to get in shape, whether it’s build muscle, lose weight, you know, increase your energy you always plateau and a sales slump is nothing more than a plateau. It is a plateau that says everything that you’ve been doing good job. But now you’ve got to throw a little different mud at the wall, and I think you know that’s why when Bill Snow had said, do such a great job of really tracking those activities, really asking you know what activities have I done? And then add what Dave Sanderson said what are some deeper questions you could ask.
[18:49]
I think we are living in a time where the market is so overwhelmed. I mean, the very fact that anybody ever chooses you is really pretty incredible. The very fact that you ever get a sale is really amazing. I was thinking of it like you know, fly fishing that you basically throw a fly on the water and the very fact that it’s going to bite and you’re going to pull it in all at the same time it’s really kind of amazing. So wouldn’t it make sense that you need to try something a little bit different?
[19:22] – Mark Hunter (Host)
That brings up this whole thing that you’ve got to. It’s activities. It’s activities. You’ve got to keep the activities going and if you’re in the sales slump, it might be something as basic as just tracking the number of phone calls you’re making, the number of emails you’re sending, the number of conversations you’re having, but it comes down. I was speaking to a group of salespeople yesterday and I was challenging them on their metrics, developing their daily metrics, and you’ve got to be measuring those every single day and you’ve got to stay consistent. And again this comes back to sales slumps are self-induced. The only exception might be is if you were on one industry and it’s very cyclical or something like that, and then I got to ask yourself why? Why did you do that? You got to find a different industry. Again. You can power your way out of anything Because, again, in the words of Zig Ziglar, if you don’t like your position, move. You’re not a tree.
[20:22] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Mike, you are not putting in too much information. Really really valuable tips. I love this tip If a single client is over five or 10 percent of your business, you have to grow until that’s no longer true. So so, key God, I made this mistake early in my career. I landed a whopping client and I didn’t do anything wrong. It was in the financial services industry and 2008 hit and the bottom fell out of that contract and I was not prepared. I didn’t have enough business coming in from other areas. I think probably the biggest message of today is that don’t get complacent about what you’re doing. To grow a business, to serve your clients, to find new opportunities. Constantly be questioning is this the highest and best use of my time? Is this the best we could be doing? Are there other activities we need to be engaging in?
[21:15] – Mark Hunter (Host)
Remember, we got into sales because we wanted to control our time. We wanted to control what we do. Because we wanted to control our time, we wanted to control what we do. So, hello folks, if you’re in a sales slump, it’s up to you to get out of it, and this is why I say everything we’ve been talking about. You can power your way past it. It’s absolutely hey. Time is burning. We need to get to the book and the book. I had not heard of this book. Thank you for suggesting it, mare. Get out of your own way. I love that. I love that. I just purchased it last night. I haven’t had a chance to read it, but I’m going to. Wow, what a cool book, yeah.
[21:53]
Because, we are our own worst enemies, right.
[21:56] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Absolutely. I also think that what I loved about the book is that I believe that when you take responsibility, it’s your greatest opportunity for freedom, and what this book is about Get Out of your Own Way is guess who the biggest problem is to get out of a sales slump. Guess who? The biggest problem, biggest person standing in your way to achieve your goals, whether they be personal and professional? And the truth is it’s you. And so this book really not only hits you kind of right upside the head with the fact that you need to get out of your own way, but it gives you the strategies and stuff to do it, because it really isn’t easy.
[22:33]
I don’t want anybody to leave this show today feeling like Mark or me, just breezed through a sales slump or worse. Think that we do not experience them. I mean you could talk to my husband and see I run around the house completely freaked out when enough business is not coming in, Sure that we’re going to lose the home, we’re going to go completely broke and not have enough food to eat. I mean, you know, being an entrepreneur, you got to be a little bit crazy. But the most important thing that you can do is to take action, and this book really helps you do that.
[23:01] – Mark Hunter (Host)
I think of the book by Andy Grove, the ex-CEO of Intel Corporation. Only the paranoid survive.
[23:11] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
That is exactly right. Rob asked to say to me Mayor, we go through this time every single year, you know. And of course I think he’s crazy and in two weeks I’ll be complaining because I’ll have too much business to do.
[23:23] – Mark Hunter (Host)
You’re right, and my wife says the same thing. So anyway, hey, let’s get to the lightning round, lightning round. Little bit of a yin and yang here. Top 10 ways to avoid burnout.
[23:35] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Yeah, I think the number one way to avoid burnout is to be consistent. You know, I kind of liken it to studying in college. If I’d studied every single day rather than cramming before a test, I wouldn’t have been burned out and overwhelmed.
[23:51] – Mark Hunter (Host)
Two you’ve got to have some outside interests. You’ve got to have something outside of what it is that you’re getting burned out from, to take away your attention and your focus.
[24:03] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Yeah, number three. I would say you need to learn to manage your energy rather than than your time. I work no more in two hour spurts. I don’t have the attention span to sit at my desk all day. That works for me. Other people it works for them to work from 8 to 5, and they have free time after 5 o’clock. So really manage your energy rather than your time.
[24:25] – Mark Hunter (Host)
Four accept your health is your most important asset. Chill out, relax and you’ve got to make time to take care of your health, whether it be exercise, whatever, but you got to do it.
[24:38] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Yeah, Number five, you need to set goals in every area of your life, Like Mark just said your health, your relationships, your finances, those types of things. But not spending time with the people that you love is going to cause more stress and more burnout and more overwhelm. It isn’t about getting everything done. It is about making sure that you are focused on what you say your priorities are on a daily basis.
[25:10] – Mark Hunter (Host)
Number six I’m going to add to that. Somebody in there has to hold you accountable. It might be a spouse, it might be a significant other, it might be somebody. But somebody has to have tough love on you and hold you accountable, to put the brakes on what it is that you’re doing.
[25:25] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Yeah, number seven really focus on what is a priority and what is urgent and what isn’t. I mean every single day that you know. My priorities include, you know, spending time with my husband, my family, my friends, making sure I do my health and making my sales calls. Sales calls are the lifeblood of my business, so they have to happen every day. Nothing happens, like Mark said, if my health doesn’t happen and if I don’t have good relationships with my husband and my family. What the heck am I doing this for? So get really clear on your priorities and set those first.
[25:57] – Mark Hunter (Host)
Number eight remember nothing you hear you do here today is going to change the course of mankind tomorrow Nothing. It’s not that important what you’re working on.
[26:08] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
That is true. Number nine celebrate. Take time to reward yourself for the things that you do. I think we get so caught up in producing we forget all that we’ve accomplished. We’ve only focused on what we haven’t done. We need to celebrate the things that we have.
[26:27] – Mark Hunter (Host)
And number 10, shut off your devices. Come on, if it might only be for six or eight hours, shut them off. Not just six or eight hours when you’re sleeping, but six or eight hours during daylight. You’ve got to take a complete break away from your business, away from what it is, and you know what You’ll get through it. It works, hey. With that, we want to say thank you for listening to SalesLogic this week. If you like what you hear, subscribe, rate and review the show on your favorite podcast app. If something we’ve said has earned you a single dollar, consider telling a friend about our show, because it’s how we grow when you grow. I’m Mark.
[27:04] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Hunter and I’m Meredith Elliott Powell. Remember when you sell with confidence and integrity all of this uncertainty suddenly becomes your competitive advantage.
[27:14] – Mark Hunter (Host)
And the sale becomes logical. Thank you for making this number one rated by top sales world. Received the gold medal award for podcast. Thank you so much.
[27:24] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Yeah. So a couple of things. Number one if you’re looking for a community, a group of people who can help you and support you from getting burned out, overwhelmed, and pull you right out of a sales slump, think about joining the sales logic mastermind. Just go to sales logic podcast dot com. You’ll find it there. The other is Mark. We’ve got another sales expert exchange um coming up. Who’s on tap for? It’s always the fourth monday of the month at four eastern yes, the yes.
[27:53] – Mark Hunter (Host)
Uh, sherry levitan is this month. She’s going to be talking about storytelling. Powerful because, again, if you in sales can craft the story that emotionally brings the customer into the situation, it’s amazing how much more successful you’ll be, sherry, thank you.
[28:11] – Meridith Elliott Powell (Host)
Mark those, mark those down, remember, if you’ve got a question, if you’d like to be here featured here on SalesLogic, just go to saleslogicpodcastcom or email Mark. Email me, we’ll feature you. For now we’ll have a fantastic rest of your weekend. We’ll see you right back here next week. Thanks for being the amazing audience that you are.