Does it look like I am having fun? If you said yes, you’re WRONG. There is a bit of humor here, and I’ll relate it to sales. But first, as a displaced Cajun, I’ll tell you I detest dealing with the snow. Here is my favorite part of dealing with the snow.
When I’m done clearing the driveway, the sidewalk, the back patio, the pool concrete apron walkway to the pool shed, I go back and do the end of the driveway after the plow rolls in another foot of ice-filled with some of my lawn. I then cut several trails into the backyard. One to my forge and a few more lanes so the dog has a few lanes to run around and eventually do their business. The next time it snows, it proves the dog got a little lazy and stopped short of the ‘do your business’ section in the back of the backyard and did their business on the trail. Of course, when it snows next, the frozen business is picked up by the snow blower, sent through the augers, crystalized into tiny dog business particles, shot up into the air, and blown back all over my snow coveralls. Remember, that is my favorite part of snow-blowing. Imagine how much I hate the rest of it.
It’s just like sales. There are some parts of the job we hate more than others. For example, ‘they’ (whoever they are) say Cold calling is dead. Not true. Paperwork and admin duties suck for a lot of salespeople. Attending boring meetings to hear the same old thing sucks too. Pressure to schedule x number of meetings daily can be a grind. Chasing the big deal that will make your quota for the quarter or year get old. Leadership transitions with new marching orders and business strategy of the day is frustrating. Increased quotas from banner years based on market conditions cause unrealistic expectations and are demotivating. Leadership focuses on the quarterly numbers to show the board is short-sighted and only serves to accomplish short-term gains with long-term negative consequences. The lack of quality products and services delivered after the sale because some nitwit had an unproven idea creates many lost opportunities. Weak sales coaching with strong accountability cause turnover. Immature managers parachuted in causes desertion. The list goes on and on and on.
If I may quote the infamous Richard Makino, Seal Team Six leader: We don’t have to like it. We have to do it.
What is your most significant sales function hate?