Every so often, it happens -- you have a bad month. You don’t meet your goals, or you struggle to get new sales. Maybe your team has a collectively bad month. But just because you didn’t meet the mark, doesn’t mean you can’t bounce back and come back stronger than ever. Here are our top suggestions for how you can respond to a tough month!
Revisit Your Reachout List
You may feel like you’ve reached out to everyone in your network or you keep coming back to the same prospects again and again, without results. Take some time to look at who you haven’t talked to -- ever. We’re betting that list is longer than you’d realize. It might be people who you don’t know well, or haven’t talked to in ages, or just feel uncomfortable about approaching. This is the perfect time to finally make that call or send that message. Not only will you get a positive boost from doing something challenging and intimidating, you never know how they might respond!
Traktivity’s got a tool to help with this. Did you know you can filter your contacts to display those you’ve never logged a reachout or engagement with? Try this out as a place to start, then take it from there!
Try Something New
Are you following the same rinse and repeat model in your business? Reaching out on Facebook, following up with a coffee meeting, checking in a few weeks later?
If that’s working, great! But if you’ve hit a roadblock, it’s time to try something new.
Why not hold a public pop-up at your local coffeeshop or cafe?
Or, look into events happening in your community to find one you can join with a table or booth to share about your products.
The great thing about trying something new is that you’re bound to learn something -- about yourself, your business, or your potential customers or partners. There’s really nothing to lose!
Give Yourself Grace
This is an important one. We’re betting that if you’ve had a down month, it doesn’t feel too good right now. Maybe you’re beating yourself up about it, or second guessing your decisions. You might even wonder if this is the job for you!
The truth is, this happens to everyone. And it’s not limited to just work! We all fail sometimes, we all have slumps, and we all get discouraged. This is when it’s important to remind yourself why you started this business in the first place, and what you have accomplished so far.
If you get stuck in the negative, it’s a perfect time to enlist your power partner or your coach to help you refocus on the positive and give yourself a break. After all, the more time you spend stuck in the disappointments of last month, the less time and energy you’ll have to focus on recovering!
Look At The Data
As humans, we’re notoriously bad at understanding actual statistics. We spend more time and energy thinking about bad things than good, so we tend to overestimate the importance or existence of bad experiences. A good way to self-correct is to look at your monthly performance data. Now, go back a year -- or six months -- and look at your history over time. We’re guessing that your bad month isn’t as bad as you might think, and over the history of your business, it’s only a blip on the radar.
Refocus On What You Can Control
Ultimately, in the business of direct sales, you have control over only one thing -- your personal activity. You can’t control who decides to buy from you, who decides to join your team, what people think about your prospecting. So, let go of your concerns about all of these things. Just refocus your energy and intention on your own activity. Set a goal that you have full control over, and then crush it. No matter the results in actual business sales or partnerships, you can walk away from this month knowing you met your goals, and we’re guessing you’ll see some greater success along the way, too!
How do you bounce back from a bad month, #TRAKstar? Share your techniques and tips with us!
