Resilience is the ability to bounce back swiftly from failure and adversity, not just returning to the status quo but also making use of the opportunity to learn and grow.

A high-performing salesperson understands how to accept “no.” They recognize that sales is all about setbacks, the inability to close deals, and missing revenue targets. They have the determination to keep playing regardless of the odds or the number of failures. Any salesperson’s success hinges on their ability to recover quickly after losing a contract and move on.

The pandemic taught us that we had no choice but to demonstrate resilience in times of sheer unpredictability.

Why is resilience important in the workplace?

According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 25% of all employees consider their employment to be the most stressful issue in their life. We’ve all heard that sales is a high-stress job with a significant chance of burnout. Burnout, as we all know, leads to higher absenteeism and lower productivity as a result of the negative influence on employees.

Being resilient allows you to improve your mental health, enabling you to develop a more positive mindset and gain more control over the difficulties you face. Resilient salespeople are seen to be capable of not just surviving, but even thriving, in the face of adversity. As a result, employers reap the benefits of increased productivity. It’s a win-win situation.

How do sales professionals become resilient?

One good thing is that resilience can be learnt and enhanced over time by anyone. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. Similarly, practising resilient behaviours, ideas, and actions can equip you to meet any crisis and emerge even stronger

1. Anticipate failures

One of the most important and basic steps to building resilience in the workplace is to anticipate failures. As a salesperson, you must be willing to take a chance and accept the fact that not every deal will be successful.

2. Manage your Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence is the ability to understand and manage one’s emotions and that of others. Often, we hear that sales is a stressful job especially when salespeople are not able to meet their monthly targets. This whole sales process triggers an emotional experience for both the salesman and customers.

Become more self-aware and consider what you may have done better to prevent the difficulties. After all, failure isn’t a state that lasts forever. Make the mental shift to believe that tomorrow is a new day and that failures are opportunities to perform better the following time. “Every no brings you closer to a yes,” stated billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban.

The customers shouldn’t feel pressured into making a purchase instead as a sales professional, you need to build a solid relationship by actively listening to the client’s needs and giving them time to process and make a decision.

3. Be persistent

Statistics from HubSpot and Forbes show that 50% of sales happen after the 5th call. And on average, it takes between 7 and 10 contacts before a potential buyer becomes a solid lead. Building resilience in the workplace means preparing yourself to make these many contacts.

You need to believe in the power of small steps like reaching the decision-maker, setting up meetings with potential clients and doing presentations. A skilled seller understands that striking gold requires a lot of effort.

4. Ask more strategic questions

Do not let one sales rejection affect your ability to perform on the next. By asking the right questions, you prepare for future scenarios, and you open your mind to different approaches and new opportunities for future sales.

·  Who are the decision-makers?

·  Was my content/presentation relevant to the needs of the clients?

·  When is the best day to prospect?

·  What are the right communication channels?

·  Have I built trust with the prospects?

·  What are the external factors affecting the clients’ decisions?

Here are some valuable sales questions to help you better understand your prospect and shape your solutions to avoid failure:  

https://sendoso.com/sales-prospecting/sale-prospecting-questions/

It is important to note that there isn’t just one right answer but having these pieces of data-driven evidence can help you sell smarter and be better than you were yesterday.

Final takeaway

More than ever before, being resilient has become one of the most critical abilities in today’s world. Without it, your sales approach will fail. It’s all about learning to grow through adversity. Salespeople must learn how to bounce back after being knocked down. One advantage is that resiliency can be developed and strengthened over time. Through our Bootcamp workshop, business developers will learn more about managing uncertainty, emotional agility and emotional intelligence.

Written by Karishma Pattoo, Content Specialist at Proactive Talent

March 20, 2022. Proactive Talent Solutions and Aetheis have partnered with Rocket School, a digital school in France, to strengthen the digital skills of salespeople to help companies boost their sales.

Together, they are launching Business Developer 3.0, a year-long training program aimed at equipping any salesperson, regardless of their professional background, with the means to generate results quickly. A presentation of the project was made to the directors of the main groups in the country, at the Labourdonnais hotel on March 17, 2022, by Jennifer De Comarmond, founder and general manager of Proactive Solutions, Marc Israel, founder of Aetheis, and Cyril Pierre de Geyer, co-founder of Rocket School.

Business Developer 3.0

“In a few years, everything related to commercial prospecting has evolved enormously. Digital has changed the game. And it’s a chance. By mastering it, salespeople can increase their salesexplains Cyril Pierre de Geyer. Business Developer 3.0 relies on the “Rocket methodology”, developed by the school itself. It consists of three parts: a personality test; a three-month “bootcamp” focused on the practical methods, tools and techniques for generating leads; and follow-up for nine months in the company, on the principle of an alternation. At the end of this intensive program, the sales teams become real “hunters”, who know how to take full advantage of digital tools to identify customers, establish contact and convert them into “leads” for business growth.

At the start of the Business Developer 3.0 program, Proactive Talent Solutions will carry out personality tests, thanks to its psychometric tools. “It is not the CV that determines access to this training, but the personality, what we call “soft skills”. Regardless of their background, their age, a good salesperson is one who goes to people, is persevering and curious, likes challenges. Our tests will identify the right persons for the job, regardless of their level of training,” explains Jennifer Webb De Comarmond. Trainers from the recruitment agency as well as Aetheis coaches will then lead the “bootcamp”, based on the proven Rocket School program.

Our Pedagogical approach

Cyril Pierre de Geyer, co-founder of Rocket School explained the originality of the school. “Our original goal was to bridge the gap between those who had the personality to be good salespeople and a labour market that lacked these essential resources,” he commented. “Like France, this is a challenge facing Mauritius. Our training is aimed at sales teams who are already in business but also at unemployed people or entrepreneurs who wish to learn how to develop their sales skills. Today, too many sales professionals still follow an outdated classic pattern. The sales techniques of American start-ups that manage to achieve double-three-digit growth every year are based on digital technology. Our pedagogical approach has been developed from these successes”

For Proactive Talent Solutions and Aetheis, who share the same analysis of the challenges posed by the future of work, this project comes at the right time for Mauritius. According to Jennifer Webb, Business Development be the rebound lever for our companies and digital sales is one of the jobs of tomorrow. “Our goal is to offer accelerated qualifying training that will allow the rapid deployment of competent people. The development of talents will pass in the coming years through training in trades.

The World Economic Forum has declared that 50% of the working population will have to “reskill or upskill”, she says. Marc Israël, information technology expert and founder of Aetheis, has often advocated for more attention to be given to IT training in Mauritius. “The Business Developer 3.0 program, which consists in training the salesperson of the 21st century, fills a gap and meets the current needs of organizations. Embracing new technologies and exploring the possibilities they offer to improve our skills is the future of work,” he says.

The Proactive-Aetheis-Rocket School Partnership

Each partner brings to this project different and complementary know-how. Their collaboration will start with the Business Developer 3.0 program and will evolve over the next three years with new training courses:

  • 2022 – Launch of the Rocket School in Mauritius and the first cohort of Business Developers
  • 2023 – Launch of the Rocket School campus in Mauritius and the first cohort of Growth Hacker (growth developers)
  • 2024 – Launch of the first cohort of Customer Success Manager, Bachelor and Reunion Campus.

The Program

Business Developer 3.0 starts in April 2022, with a cohort of 20 participants. This “bootcamp” will last three months, in hybrid mode (online and face-to-face), with a total of 155 hours of intensive courses. The price of this program is 145,000 MUR (43,500 MUR after reimbursement by the HRDC or 65,000 MUR via the GTES).

The Efficient Sales Organization 3.0; to familiarize CEOs and sales managers with the digital skills needed today in terms of lead generation, prospecting, sales conversion and sales organization, a program is specifically intended for them. It will take place over two half-days, from March 31 to April 1, 2022, in hybrid mode, at a cost of MUR 23,000 (MUR 6,900 after reimbursement by the HRDC).

More details on our programs: https://www.proactive.mu/services/training/

About Rocket School & Aetheis

Rocket School was co-founded by Cyril Pierre de Geyer, who is also a professor of marketing and innovation at HEC Paris. This renowned digital school in France trains students in the new generation of commerce and marketing. Its philosophy: give everyone a chance, train the right person for the right job, super-accelerate careers. It prepares students for the license (Bac +3) and masters (Bac +5). It is labeled GEN (Grande école du Numérique, label issued by the French government to schools of excellence). Rocket School has more than 400 partner companies that it supports in strengthening their business skills. It has six campuses established throughout France.

Aetheis is a consulting firm founded by Marc Israel. An engineer by training in industrial robotics and automatic systems, Marc made a career at Microsoft, where he was Chief Technology Officer. Today as a start-up coach, in Mauritius and Africa, he advises organizations on their digital transformation and the implementation of cloud, blockchain and artificial intelligence technologies. He has conducted hundreds of training and public presentations for his own clients as well as for private and public organizations such as Microsoft, The Himalaya Times and the government of Côte d’Ivoire.

Read more on: https://rocket-school.com/

What companies think of this project?

The presentation of the training proposal was made in front of an audience of business managers and COOs. They share their views on this project:

Shashi Puddoo, Group Head of Human Resources and Organization Development at Poivre Corporate Services Ltd:

“Today there is a lack of skills in all commercial professions. This partnership will therefore be of great advantage because it will allow us to better professionalize this profession. We need to improve the skills of our current sales representatives, which will help us identify and recruit the necessary profiles of potential candidates for this profession. The partnership with Rocket School will greatly benefit our businesses as well as Mauritius.”

Vincent Bourelly, Chief Operating Officer at Elytis:

“This collaboration is something new and currently rare in the local market while it is common in other countries. Such initiatives will help make new sales strategies that are data-driven and heavily technology-driven accessible to as many people as possible. The contemporary tools that are offered are essential for anyone looking to build a career in sales. Access to these technically sophisticated solutions opens up positive prospects for the future workforce of Mauritius”.

1. In anticipation of the end of the lockdown, what are your 30-60-90 days’ priorities as the HR Leader of your organization?

Our main priorities are saving jobs and keeping the company alive as it is the case for a lot of companies, within different sectors. The Tourism industry is amongst those which will take off at the end and this may alter the way we do business significantly.

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