Sales is now synonymous with crushing goals, hitting quotas, and conquering KPIs. The notoriously stress-ridden “hustle” culture often defines the industry. This view has weighed on salespeople for decades. Record-breaking turnover rates and the fact that 3 out of 5 salespeople struggle with their mental health all point to a looming crisis.
Salespeople are stressed
Sammie Bennette, a senior SDR at Open Systems Technology, Inc., recalls “astronomical” quotas and hiring and firing as part of her first stint in sales. In software sales, talks can take up to a year to bear fruit, but companies that don’t see immediate results usually take to firing.The stress of meeting insanely large quotas is all too common in sales. Ryan Zadrazil, the founder of Pause, says he suffered a manic episode early in his sales career and attributes one of the reasons to the nature of the job.“Sales is a results-driven industry. But if you’re not in a mentally healthy state of mind, it’s going to be really hard to achieve those results,” he states on the high-pressure nature of the job. Some people see sales as “the grind,” “the hustle,” and “overworking” as cool to reach your goals, Bennett adds. But this culture wreaks havoc on sales reps’ mentalhealth.
At least 60% of salespeople surveyed by The Uncrushed, a mental health awareness organization, said that their performance was poor because of mental health issues. Everyday stress shouldn’t be taken lightly because, if left unchecked, it can snowball into a range of mental illnesses, from anxiety to imposter syndrome and depression.To increase your sales reps’ productivity, stop selling the ‘grind’ and start prioritizing their happiness.
Long periods of stress can change your brain
Long periods of stress can lead to changes in your brain. Long-term stress affects the brain and can have a lasting impact on your behavior.
How are people in sales stressed?
Before we find out how stress can affect your everyday life, let’s look at the stress that salespeople deal with. From daily rejections, unrealistic quotas, and rude reactions to fear of approaching strangers, sales reps face many stressors on a daily basis.
Daily rejections and rude responses are painful
Sales reps handle objections, negotiate, are ignored, and face rude replies from prospects daily while remaining empathetic. And when they cold call, it’s another deal.They get hurt every day compared to, say, the person in marketing who tracks the blog CTR. Meanwhile, social media and the web are flooded with stories of salespeople who keep crushing it, killing it, and converting leads.Unrealistic quotas are a heavy burden. Almost every role in sales comes with quotas – some unrealistic, some achievable. These quotas can overwhelm many sales reps as being directly responsible for a company’s revenues isn’t quite easy.
Salespeople’s output is easily measurable
Some sales reps get burned out, resulting in underperformance and frustration. Stress can accumulate and lead to prolonged periods of anxiety and stress or worsen existing mental health problems.Being stressed for a long time without regular relaxation or rest means burnout is around the corner. This can even leave long-lasting changes in how your brain works.
How does stress affect you?
Prolonged periods of stress or chronic stress are bad for your brain. Chronic stress, as defined by Yale Medicine, is the persistent feeling of being pressured and overwhelmed for a long period.Some indicators of chronic stress are lack of sleep, headaches, alcohol or drug abuse, and emotional withdrawal. Stress is associated with macroscopic changes in certain areas of the brain. These changes can affect your memory and cognitive abilities such as decision-making, learning, attention, and judgment.
