Why Gross sales Confidence Disappears (And What Really Brings It Again) [Ask Jeb]

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Right here’s a state of affairs that’ll hit near dwelling: What do you do while you have been crushing your numbers simply months in the past, however now you possibly can’t appear to shut something and your confidence is within the gutter?

That’s precisely what occurred to Dhruv, a enterprise improvement rep from Saint Louis. After determining his rhythm in Q1 and hitting robust efficiency numbers, he discovered himself in a two-month stoop with low attainment and shattered confidence.

If you happen to’re nodding your head proper now, you’re not alone. Each gross sales skilled faces these valleys, and the way you reply determines whether or not you bounce again stronger or spiral additional down.

The Confidence Disaster: When Success Breeds Complacency

Dhruv’s story reveals a sample I see continually in gross sales organizations. After a robust Q1, he bought snug. His dials dropped. He thought he had all of it found out. Sound acquainted?

Right here’s the brutal fact: Success with out self-discipline is non permanent. The second you cease following the method that bought you there, you’re setting your self up for a fall.

When issues began going sideways in April, Dhruv did what most salespeople do—he panicked. He began questioning every part, in search of new scripts on LinkedIn, utilizing AI to seek out the “excellent” method. All the things besides the one factor that will truly assist: going again to fundamentals.

The Fundamentals By no means Go Out of Fashion

I advised Dhruv about John Smoltz, the Cy Younger Award-winning pitcher who spoke at an occasion I attended. Smoltz defined that when baseball gamers get right into a stoop, they begin altering every part—in search of magic capsules, new methods, secret options.

However right here’s what champions do in another way: They return to the basics.

Take Kobe Bryant. Each morning at 4 AM, he’d spend three to 4 hours engaged on the identical primary abilities he discovered as a child. The basics that made him nice within the first place.

The identical precept applies to fanatical prospecting. If you’re in a stoop, you don’t want new methods—you should execute the confirmed course of with precision and self-discipline.

Course of Objectives vs. Final result Objectives: The Confidence Builder

When your confidence is shaken, end result objectives grow to be your enemy. Specializing in “I would like to shut three offers this week” while you’re struggling simply provides strain and anxiousness.

As a substitute, shift to course of objectives:

• What number of calls will you make immediately?
• Are you utilizing your five-step framework constantly?
• Are you delivering your ledge statements with conviction?
• Are you following up with self-discipline?

I shared with Dhruv my very own expertise from after I was 24 and going by a horrible quarter. I used to be so down I didn’t wish to come to work. Right here’s how I climbed out:

I began with 10-minute name blocks. Name for 10 minutes, then learn three pages of an inspirational gross sales e book as a reward. Rinse and repeat.

Inside 30 days, I used to be performing nicely. Inside 90 days, I used to be the primary rep in my area.

The important thing wasn’t discovering a secret method. It was trusting the course of in shorter, manageable increments.

The Financial Actuality: When Markets Tighten, Double Down

Dhruv’s stoop coincided with corporations pulling again on spending. However right here’s what most reps get mistaken: When markets tighten, you should make extra calls, not fewer.

The prospects with price range and urgency are nonetheless on the market, they’re simply tougher to seek out. Meaning extra exercise, not much less. Extra self-discipline, not shortcuts.

That is precisely what I cowl in Promoting in a Disaster—when financial situations get powerful, the basics grow to be much more essential.

Your Confidence Comeback Motion Plan

If you happen to’re in a confidence stoop proper now, right here’s your roadmap again:

Cease On the lookout for Magic Options Get off LinkedIn. Cease asking AI for the right script. The reply isn’t on the market—it’s within the course of you already know works.

Break It Down When confidence is low, work in shorter blocks. Fifteen-minute name periods with fast wins and self-recognition for executing the method accurately.

Concentrate on the Course of Observe your actions, not simply your outcomes. What number of dials? What number of conversations? What number of discovery questions requested? Have fun the method execution.

Get Again to Your Routine Identical to my golf restoration story, when issues go sideways, don’t change every part—get again to your confirmed routine and rhythm.

Double Down on Exercise If the market is tighter, you want extra exercise to seek out the identical alternatives. Extra calls, extra emails, extra touchpoints.

The Psychological Recreation: Confidence Comes From Inside

Right here’s what I advised Dhruv, and what I’m telling you: I can’t offer you confidence. Confidence comes from the within, not from the surface.

Sure, success builds confidence. However while you’re not getting exterior validation, the one place confidence comes from is your dedication to the method.

Each time you make that decision while you don’t really feel prefer it, each time you observe the script while you wish to wing it, each time you push by the discomfort—that’s the place actual confidence is constructed.

The Backside Line

Your stoop isn’t everlasting. Your confidence disaster isn’t career-ending. However your response determines every part.

Cease in search of shortcuts. Cease altering what already labored. Belief the method that bought you there within the first place, and execute it with the self-discipline of a champion.

Keep in mind: The basics by no means fail—we simply fail to execute them constantly.

Get again to fundamentals. Belief the method. Make the calls.

That’s the way you construct lasting confidence. That’s the way you flip slumps into comebacks. And that’s the way you grow to be an elite gross sales skilled who can climate any storm.

Able to grasp the basics that construct unshakeable confidence? Try our complete prospecting and pipeline administration coaching to develop the talents and mindset of elite performers.