Life can be a wild roller coaster ride working in sales. After achieving your sales quota, you are now at the zenith of your success. After losing an account, you’d feel tomorrow like nothing was working. Holidays and overtime are not included in a salesperson’s schedule. Potential clients may only be accessible for meetings on the weekends or after business hours.
Salespeople are constantly on the move, especially when they are off schedule. Many people feel stress, anxiety, and burnout.
Today, success in sales is equated with exceeding targets, meeting quotas, and topping KPIs. Thus, a crisis is on the horizon as evidenced by record-breaking turnover rates and the fact that 3 out of 5 salesmen experience mental health issues. In fact, a discussion of mental health in sales is long overdue.
How Are Mental Health Issues a Part of Sales?
If you work in sales, you are probably familiar with the anxiety that seems to surround not reaching your quota. You are concerned that a client you have been working with for several weeks or months may withdraw from the talks. You consider how to balance your personal and professional lives because, in essence, you are constantly pursuing prospects and attempting to close agreements. Your performance and general health may suffer if you can’t control your daily stress.
The high demand and competitive atmosphere in the sales business contribute to the prevalence of anxiety and sadness.
Fatigue, stress, and burnout are brought on by a persistent sense of incompetence and the ongoing struggle with the insecurity of not being able to deliver. It is well known that sales are a very emotional profession because most employees are required to be always self-assured, lively, expressive, and active. This isn’t always the case, though.
Closing a sale can be exhilarating, but losing a prospect you’ve been working on for weeks or even months might make you depressed, which subsequently influences your disposition and mood right now.
The majority of these mental health problems necessitate skilled medical assistance. In order to ensure the well-being of your employees, you must have devoted support and medical staff who are equipped to handle such circumstances. It also helps to foster a culture where work-life balance is valued.
How to Ensure Mental Health in Sales?
According to the World Economic Forum, improving the mental health of all sorts of employees begins with raising knowledge of the workplace environment and how it may be improved. The company should then take notice of lessons learned from executives and workers who have taken initiative as well as from other businesses that have put policies in place to support greater mental health. To assist in creating sensible mental health policies, the company should comprehend each employee’s opportunities and requirements.
Finally, the organization needs to inform its members of the support services and mental health professionals they can contact or visit. Never forget that your staff is more important than your tasks or goals.
A productive workplace is the result of effective management and leadership. Salespeople’s and other employees’ perceptions of themselves and their work are greatly influenced by how their supervisors treat them.
To keep the mental health of your sales representatives in check one must look after and strictly avoid the following practices:
- Ineffective Communication Practices
- Unclear Assignments Or Complex Instructions
- Limited Decision-Making Participation of sales representatives
- Lack of Support to the employees of the team
There are a few steps that an organization should take to rejuvenate their sales representatives:
- Organize workshops on mental health awareness for employees
- Healthy culture training
- Setting boundaries to promote work-life balance
- Set realistic sales targets
- Keep lines of communication open
- Availability of in-house counseling for employees
- Provide time off when required by sales reps
Also read: Must Read Books that Boost Sales Rep’s Productivity
Employees should have access to adequate support and mental health programs from their employer. Your people should be aware that they may always access qualified assistance as well as other resources. Make sure you can get expert assistance. To set a good example as a leader one should put in a lot of mindful efforts. Recognize the presence of mental health problems. Communicate openly with your team. Listen to them, particularly those who need assistance.
Also, take note of the following advice as a team leader to assist in managing mental health in sales teams:
- Be understanding and sympathetic to the difficulties that your people face. Recognize the presence of mental health problems.
- Be transparent with your team in your communication. Listen to them, particularly those who require assistance. The WHO states that open, honest, and supportive communication with management can aid those who are struggling with mental health challenges in remaining employed or finding new employment.
- Ensure that each salesman is conscious of their obligations. Clarify their work tasks if there is any ambiguity.
- Comment on how you can support your team in achieving their goals more effectively. Share insightful advice.
- Investigate exercises that deal with discrimination at work.
An Ending note toward Building a Healthy Workplace
Sales professionals should consider their mental as well as their physical wellness. In fact, these are physical problems that demand the care of medical specialists. A company needs to look after the mental health of its employees if it wants to succeed so that they can work to the best of their abilities.
Similar to physical health issues, mental health issues in sales restrict people from performing to their full potential. These problems could end up costing your company a lot of money if they are not resolved. Create a healthy work environment for the benefit of your sales force as well as the financial stability of your company.