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About This Episode
Anxiety. Worry. Procrastination. Hopelessness.
Unfortunately, many salespeople use those decidedly negative words when describing their jobs.
Sales can definitely be a grind. With the pressure of hitting your number and the uncertainty of whether your high-value deals will close, it’s no wonder sales is one of the top 10 careers with high rates of depression.
It’s not just the individual seller who is suffering; when reps are unhappy and stressed, their performance and sales productivity suffer dramatically.
And that’s not good for anybody.
The Sales Engagement Podcast host and Outreach Senior Content Managing Editor, Joe Vignolo, knows a thing or two about dreading his job. For a decade, he was a television news producer dealing with high-stress deadlines, long hours, and a constant barrage of sad stories.
He found the work rewarding, but at the end of the day, he was drained and depressed. His work and home life suffered. With no end to sight, Joe decided to make a drastic career change.
With that change, he discovered how gratitude and happiness can be rocket fuel to one’s job performance and career trajectory.
How Being Unhappy Can Hinder Sales Productivity
First, some statistics: According to Shawn Achor, Harvard professor and author of The Happiness Advantage, “…the single greatest advantage in the modern economy is a happy and engaged workforce.”
In fact, after more than a decade of research, Achor discovered that happiness raises “sales by 37%, productivity by 31%, and accuracy on tasks by 19%.”
Think about it—anxiety and worry are mentally taxing. You literally have less mental bandwidth to focus on selling, and your productivity takes a hit. It’s like running too many programs on your laptop, the whole computer starts to slow down.
Furthermore, additional research has shown gratitude and thankfulness can elevate your IQ, enhance creativity, increase resilience, deepen relationships, and make you better at your job.
Plus—no one wants to work with, or buy from, someone who is unhappy. No matter how well they hide it, anxiety, worry, and negativity show through.
Ask yourself if you’d rather buy from someone who sounds stressed or anxious on a call or from a seller who seems genuinely happy and enthusiastic. All things being equal, most buyers would choose the happy rep.
Gratitude Exercises to Boost Sales Productivity and Engagement
So what are some things you can do to show more gratitude and feel happier?
Joe has tips for people who want to practice gratitude and boost their sales productivity:
- Meditate
- Keep a daily gratitude journal
- Write down 3 positive experiences you’ve had in the last 24 hours
- Exercise
- Give a shout out to a coworker
- Celebrate wins (big and small)
- Hit a gong, ring a bell, or play a song when deals come in
- Thank a mentor or someone who has helped you achieve a goal
- Most important—have fun!
This post is based on a podcast interview with Joe Vignolo from Outreach. To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to The Sales Engagement Podcast.
If you don’t use iTunes, you can listen to every episode here.
About The Podcast
The Sales Engagement podcast is the #1 podcast focused on engaging your customers and prospects in the modern sales era. This show features real-life stories and best practices from revenue leaders doing the job day in and day out, in a casual, radio-like talk show.
Each episode features modern tactics, strategies, hacks, and tips to get the most out of your sales engagement strategy and help you navigate the next generation of sales. You’ll find energetic talks that will provide you with real actionable value around building meaningful connections and creating a better selling experience through authentic conversations that you can measure.
The Sales Engagement podcast is here to help B2B sales leaders, customer success leaders, and marketing leaders innovate and usher in the next era of modern sales by building pipeline, up-selling customers, and ultimately generating more revenue with more efficiency.
Hosted by Joe Vignolo, Senior Content Managing Editor at Outreach, and Mark Kosoglow, Vice President of Sales at Outreach.
