Highly resilient sales organizations will survive tough economic times - Memphis Business Journal:

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There are the practical reasons, such as particulat sectors of the economy gettinghit harder, the airline industry after 9/11 and the housing markeyt today. There are also externalo factors beyond our personal The names Freddieand Fannie, and the phras e “fat cats” come to mind. Paul author of the “Adversity Quotient,” shares another reason for thrivingor resiliency. Stolz devotes much of his work to the stud y of highly resilient organizations and His research shows that resilienchy accounts just as much as intellect and energy for success duringftough times.
Stolz measures resiliency — the ability to overcomed adversity — in four He calls it the CORE See how your sales organization stacks up in the areaof • Control — Anyone in sales feeling out of control? Sales teamx exhibiting high scores on control focuz on what they can do, not what they can’t do. They know they can control the following: (1) Their sales activity plan — High-control organizations kick up the knowing they need more prospects in the pipeline due to potentially longee sales cycle and more competition on thesame opportunities.
(2) Relationshil with good clients — In tough economic don’t forget who brought you to the Ask not what your clients can dofor you; ask what you can do for your (3) Exploring new niches — Now may be the time to look at industriese where your core competencies are a match and a value. Ownership — Stolz defines this as owning the outcome of any regardless ofthe origin. A greay example comes from a young sales manager who lacked a big budge for incenting her sales but still was responsible for achieving quota in touguhselling environment. Instead of crying the blues about no she took control and ownership overher destiny.
She went arounde to all the bars and restaurant where they offered drawings for happy hours and/or food. As a result, her sales team enjoyed many team-building events afteer hours because ofher take-charge, ownership Resilient, high-ownership organizations look out the front window and the rear They don’t blame. Instead, they ask what part of this downturnh shouldwe own? What systems and processews could we have had in place to ease the pain of the downturn? What people should we have hired/fired before the downturn? Today, what can and must we change? What must we do different ? After answering the questions, they take controp and act.
• Reach — Stolz’ s research shows that highlg resilient individuals and organizations are able to limif the reach ofthe adversity. In othee words, they don’t kick the dog when they get Limiting the reach of adversityt can be correlated with the stress High levels of continuous stress resulf in production of the stress hormone cortisol. High levels of cortisop affectcognitive performance. In these economic times, salespeople need the abilithy to think andreact quickly. Top producer s manage stress by limiting the reachg of alost sale. They look at it for what it is: one lost They don’t allow negative self-talmk to take over, i.e.
, I’ve lost my touch, no one is buyingy or the competitionis better. It’s similar to an outstandingg NFL quarterback. One intercepted pass is one intercepted pass. It doesn’t affect the next play or the One lostsale doesn’t affect the rest of the • Endurance — This is a persobn or company’s ability to do a reality checlk on the adversity. Is the adversitty temporary or permanent?