6 Tips on Self-motivation for Sales Professionals

Even the greatest printing salesmen sometimes struggle to remain productive and motivated in the face of a constant barrage of pessimism and business issues. We've seen marketers attempt every approach conceivable, from motivating literature to regular meditation. Whatever the technique, self-motivation is always more effective and long-lasting than external factors.

However, there is no secret elixir that will keep salesmen motivated. With advances in publishing and communicating in general, salespeople must remain motivated to accept change and move forward to success.

Perhaps you haven't recovered from a major setback. Or maybe you just can't concentrate. Perhaps the project you're working on isn't fascinating. Or you've struck a brick wall in terms of rejections. So let’s talk more about motivation and how to find it by yourself.

What is self-motivation?

In its most basic form, self-motivation is the power that propels you to accomplish things. However, the subject of self-motivation is far from straightforward. People can be inspired by a variety of factors, both internal and external, such as a desire to accomplish something, love for someone, or a financial need. Motivation is usually the consequence of a combination of many components.

Daniel Goleman, the author of numerous major works on Emotional Intelligence, recognized four components of motivation: 

• Personal drive to succeed, the will to improve or fulfill particular standards; 

• Dedication to the individual or organizational objectives; 

• Initiative, described as "readiness to act on chances"; and 

• Optimism, the capacity to persevere and follow goals from the result of failures. This is also referred to as resilience.

In this article, we will show you a couple of pieces of advice to help you to build up your self-motivational skills embracing the components of motivation.

1. Change your mindset

A personal urge to accomplish might be thought of as ambition or self-empowerment. However, it is also worthwhile to consider it in terms of mentality. There are two kinds of mindsets: fixed mindsets and growth mindsets. Those with a fixed mindset think that skill is innate and that we cannot improve our abilities. Those with a growth mindset think that with hard work and effort, they can enhance their talents.

According to research, people who feel they can improve—that is, those who have a growth mindset—are significantly more likely to succeed in any field they choose. As a result, a growth mentality is a crucial component of a personal motivation to achieve. 

Take sales for an example, a sales rep with a growth mindset will not step back after failures but take them as a lever to lift them to a higher success rate.

2. Grant yourself a reward for every fresh start

Most salesmen reward themselves only after successfully finishing a set of tasks. However, if the tasks are unlikely to be achievable, they have made themselves prone to be initially defeated as they know they have a chance of not having a “gifted time” at the end of the day. 

Therefore, it is advisable to reward yourself at the beginning of the job as the promise for the bigger price after your hard-working day. Instead of putting your motivation right at the finish line, divided it and place them into both of the lines-start and finish, to keep you motivated all day long.

It is not necessary to have a big initial reward. You can spare yourself some time to have better make-up before work or make a good coffee or read some pages of the book that you have downloaded for so long. If you are a sociable person, spending some time talking with your mentor, boss, or colleagues who could bring you some inspiration would be a great idea.

3. Fake your self-motivation

If you have not found your source of motivation yet or all of the tips above haven’t been strong enough for you, make yourself the source of your own motivation. Try to put inside your head all kinds of optimistic thoughts and motivational quotes like “I can do this”, “he is just a hesitating person, not a scary monster” or thinking of a good reward after you will have done your job.

It is also advisable to keep smiling for every situation that happened to you. You would make yourself feel less stressed and cool down the atmosphere inside your workplace. Your smile could also make an alternation to your customer’s decision when he or she feels that you are being friendly after they have refused to close a sale. 

This could sound a bit weird to think that you can scam yourself to be motivated from out of nowhere but as long as you are being scammed and you find yourself getting motivated without any effort, nothing is stopping you from scamming yourself once again. As for the explanation, there is a scientific and psychological effect behind all of this.

4. Eat and sleep healthier

Another good way to build up your self-motivation is through your lifestyle. A good lifestyle brings your days full of motivation while a bad lifestyle doesn’t.

First, comes the food you consume. In the sales business, you may likely have to go to many exotic parties with lots of fancy food and drinks and some might not healthy for you. Try your best to reduce the consumption of these foods as much as possible without ruining your reputation with the customers. 

The importance of your daily intake would come from your home-cooking. If you want to have a long-life sales career, take consideration taking some time preparing healthy food at home in compensation for all the unhealthy intakes at work, such as nuts, brown rice, salmon, green tea, etc.

Second, comes your sleeping schedule. As it is said, your working schedule may depend heavily on your customers and may involve many activities you have to join in order to closes sales. Therefore, you may not have a fully 8-hour of sleep to regain your motivation. 

However, unless you cannot reschedule your time and could not go to bed on time, apply some method to have an effective sleeping time. Sleeping method “3-2-1” is a good way to start: Do not have a big meal or caffein product 3 hours before sleep, do not involve in your job 2 hours before sleep and do not look at any electronics devices 1 hour before sleep. Another method is the breathing method to put yourself fully in the relaxation mode when lying down: Breath in for 4 seconds, hold for 5 seconds, breath out for 8 seconds, hold for 5 seconds, and then repeat.

5. Go outside and get some friends

Firstly, you need to tell the difference between your business friends, colleagues, and customers with your social friends. In order to bring yourself an all-good relationship without worrying about your job, take consideration in finding relationships that are job non-related. In that manner, you could have an enjoyable weekend with friends without worrying about any job scenario in which you have to deal if you get into any trouble with your working partners. 

Secondly, this is a good way to learn how to stay away from toxic relationships in the future since many people are likely to quit their jobs due to their problematic relationships and a good way to enrich yourself with optimism and good energy from your supportive one who can aid you a ton in your career development.

It is possible that you to run into many unwanted relationships and you may find yourself stuck in the middle of making friends and losing some. But it is a part of life and what you are doing is preparing for the worst scenarios while you are still young and energetic. Therefore, don’t be afraid to find more friends besides the workplace.

6. Follow up on your progress and look back on your success

If you have no idea how much you have come so far and how much you have achieved, you will also have no idea why you would take this job in the first place and gain no motivation. Therefore, make yourself a system to watch out for your progress: How many customers are currently on a good term you, how much time is left to go on the final meeting to close your sales, etc. and to look back on your achievement: How much money you have made this term, how many customers you have closed, how much have you progressed on your personal development goal, etc.

May you not have enough motivation to build the system, let Roamie do the job for you. Roamie is a web and mobile-based application optimized for sales professionals to supervise their selling progress and reduce your time, money, and effort by turning your workload into an automatic processing system.

Picture by: Team hands photo created by freepik - www.freepik.com