We Never Failed to Fail – It Was the Easiest Thing to Do

August 30, 2017

– John Glennon is the owner of Insight Sales Consulting Inc, an authorized Sandler Training Licensee. He can be reached at jglennon@sandler.com, toll free at 866.645.2047 or visit www.glennon.sandler.com. Copyright 2013 Sandler Training and Insight Sales Consulting Inc. All rights reserved.

SALES – You may recall this great quote. “We never failed to fail. It was easiest thing to do.” I’ve had a few people ask where did that come from and what’s it mean? It’s a good question and one I’m happy to expand on.

If you are old enough to remember the band Crosby Stills and Nash, it is a line from their song Southern Cross. We all take different things from songs but this one spoke to me about the world of selling among other human endeavors.

Sales is a high rejection business. Typically, we fail more than we win. That’s true unless you happen to be a superstar who has a close ratio over 50 per cent. The fact is it’s a career where you fail often. But it’s not the only career where you fail often. If you fail 70 per cent of the time in baseball (strike out) you get to the Hall of Fame.

Failing in sales is normal and it’s easy to do. The tough thing is to lessen the losses and be able to handle the rejection. It’s tough to commit yourself to making a plan, sticking to the plan and being committed to your career and your goals even when you’re not up for it. The successful people have learned to do that. They have the support internally and externally to overcome their emotional risks and negative feelings (head trash) that turn into procrastination.

At Sandler our training includes ways to be mentally and emotionally tough, to stay focused and disciplined and to learn from failure. It’s imperative if we are to succeed.

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