Drum roll please…
It is conscientiousness.
According to Psychology Today, “conscientiousness is a fundamental personality trait that reflects the tendency to be responsible, organized, and hard-working; to be goal-directed; and to adhere to norms and rules. Like the other basic personality traits, it has multiple facets; conscientiousness comprises self-control, industriousness, responsibility, and reliability.
Considered an outgrowth of self-regulation processes, conscientiousness is related to impulse control. It influences whether people set and keep long-range goals, deliberate over choices, behave cautiously or impulsively, and take obligations to others seriously.”
What exactly does this mean for those of us in sales?
Quite a bit!
Many of us are now working from home and need to be more organized than ever before. We need to own our time, stick to our new routine, and adapt to a “new’ environment.
Setting goals has always been a critical component of those who are top performers, but they’re even more important now with so many distractions entering our lives.
Facet one is self-control. Do we really even need to discuss this one and why it’s of the utmost importance? We’re all within 30 feet of the fridge on an hourly basis now, which makes sticking to your meal plan and dietary guidelines next to impossible.
We’ve got to adopt the same discipline we had when we weren’t within site of every morsel of food in our houses, and that means continuing to do meal prep and portion control. Yes, meal prep and portion control, even though you’re in your house 24/7!
Facet two is industriousness. This means we need to take advantage of each and every opportunity that presents itself to us. Adopting Zoom and other forms of web tools would be a great start. Utilizing what’s available to us and readily accessible in our environment is key to maintaining success and survival in business. Think “Naked and Afraid” or “Survivor”.
Facet three is responsibility. You need to take responsibility for your actions and stop blaming the situation for your results. Can you still make prospecting calls from your home? Ummm, yep. Can you still conduct meetings from your living room? Ummm, yep. Can you still make sales and generate new accounts, even though you’re not face-to-face? Ummm, yep. You owe it to yourself and to your family to continue giving 100%, every day, even though it’s not the ideal situation you would prefer.
Facet four is reliability. Not only are salespeople displaced all around the country, their leaders aren’t quite as able to have the impact they would like. If you’re working for a company, now’s the time you need to be more reliable than ever. Answer your calls, be available for meetings, show your leaders you’re committed to giving it your all.
If you’re self-employed, being reliable and accountable to yourself is critically important in a time like this. If you keep giving yourself opportunities for excuses, if you keep allowing yourself to take shortcuts, the damage that’s caused will be massive. You won’t see it or feel it right now, but I can promise you the results you won’t be getting three months from now will be caused by what you’re doing (or not doing) on a daily basis.
I’m encouraging you to take a look at your personal situation through the lens of someone else. Would you hire you based on the activity you’re seeing? Would you give yourself a raise, based on the results you’re generating? Would you give yourself a promotion, based on the attitude and effort you’re giving?
If not, it’s time to look in the mirror, regroup, and become the conscientious sales professional you know you can be.Steve is the CEO & Founder of Victory Selling and he can also be reached at steve@victoryselling.com or simply connect with him on LinkedIn!
