6 Principles From Stoicism To Guide You To A Stellar Year In Sales

️ ️⚡ Today’s level up ⚡

Let’s zoom out a bit before we zoom in by analyzing and implementing these six key principles from Stoicism. Use them as a framework to ensure you stay calm and focus on what’s truly important in the year ahead.

Let’s go!

Know thyself

If you’ve been reading my work for a while, you’ve probably noticed my interest in Buddhism and Stoicism and the immense influence both have had on my life and career.

Today, I’d like to share six key Stoic principles I try to embody daily.

Stoicism is an ancient Greek philosophy that emphasizes self-control and resilience in the face of adversity.

It teaches that by understanding the nature of the universe and our place in it, we can learn to detach ourselves from our emotions and desires (such as obsessing about that lost deal), and instead, focus on living a virtuous and rational life.

The Stoics believed that this approach would lead to inner peace and freedom from the suffering caused by our attempts to control the uncontrollable.

Today, Stoicism is popular because it offers practical guidance on dealing with stress and uncertainty and provides an ethical framework for leading a good life.

It can be useful for those in performance-based fields, like strategic tech sales. It helps us maintain a clear and rational mindset when facing challenges and approach work with a sense of purpose and integrity.

Here are six key Stoic principles that can elevate your work and life (with cool visuals from my friends @6posters).

1. Focus on what you can control

“Sh*t! Did I just do that?”

That’s what I was thinking after I hit send on an email I thought would kill a $3.6M deal I had worked on for over a year.

I share this story occasionally because it reminds others (and me) that we can only focus on what we can control in every situation.

Rather than hiding from Stacy, I admitted to labeling her a detractor, and we forged a more substantial relationship because of it. The deal was not lost; in fact, we received an additional $500K from the deal.

The best thing you can center yourself on is understanding what’s in your control and spending your time + energy + attention on that.

Spinning your wheels on wishful thinking with prospects, getting angry at negative feedback from your manager, or worrying about why someone you don’t respect is on top of the leaderboard leads to frustration, not progress.

It’s better to keep moving forward on things you can take care of.

2. “Is this essential?”

Speaking of time, energy, and attention, we need to guard and manage these precious resources by constantly asking, “Is this essential?”

• “Do I need to be in this meeting?”

• “Should I be wasting my energy on this quote?”

• “What’s essential for me to know before this discovery call?”

A Diamond Program member I work with has done a fantastic job using his calendar every week to eliminate all non-essentials (including most internal-facing meetings). He’s made a game out of it, ensuring all of the “essentials” turn dark green (his indicator that they’ve been completed).

Get purposeful with transforming your calendar into a game console. This will force you to load up more revenue-generating and high-value activities and will be a systematic way to push out the non-essential. This, in turn, helps reduce the noise created by the usual chaos of modern business and life happening around you.

3. Value time more than money and possessions

In 2021 (as a corporate seller), I grossed $1.07M in W2 income.

In 2022 (as a first-time solopreneur), I ended the year at $342,224, but I worked 33 days (264 hours) less than the previous year.

That was intentional, and I was ok making less (yes, even after taxes) because I wanted to free up my calendar for more living and less working. I could have quickly jumped into consulting or coaching and grossed over $1M for the year, but I didn’t want or need to do so.

I jumped off the “trade time for dollars” hamster wheel and am on a path to doing more while doing less by design.

Each year since then, those hours have continued to decrease while I look for different measurements of impact and growth:

• The amount of photos we capture (memory-making)

• Number of adventures we take in a year

• Revenue per subscriber/follower

• Number of concerts we attend

• Number of new members

• Positive feedback

• Retention rate

• Testimonials

• Referrals

It could have been a different story, though…

In 2019, when earning six-figure commission checks every quarter, I almost pulled the trigger on a Porsche 911 and a 4,000-square-foot luxury condo in a brand new designer building that would have set us back $3.25M.

I’ve seen many sellers, and let me try to say this kindly, who are a bit “past their expiration date” and miserable because they’re stuck wearing the golden handcuffs.

They prized the expensive lifestyle and jumped into it a bit too quickly. Before they knew it, the big home, the private schools, the costly zip code, and driving the kids to soccer practice in the Porsche Cayenne became “required” to keep up with the Joneses down the street.

A great principle to get comfortable with is living (well) on your base and investing everything else that you make. Your future self will thank you!

4. The obstacle is the way

“The CTO said it’s not going to happen.”

I had been working for nearly 18 months to get the largest healthcare brand in the world over the line, but the CTO was trying to squash it because they had already spent nine figures implementing another vendor’s software just 24 months earlier.

This principle has been present throughout my sales career, and I’m sure it has been for you, too.

It encourages inverse thinking, something fabulous to use for yourself when faced with an obstacle.

It’s also practical to encourage it with your prospects and clients using design sessions.

With the major healthcare account, we did just that.

The business leaders told us that not having functioning contact center software was costing millions of dollars. Still, IT did not want to undergo another migration, which they argued would be more timely and expensive.

Long story short, we created mini “hackathons” where we had an ally with one eager business unit. We invited regional IT staff to participate alongside business folks and contact center agents to have mini-build sessions with our software. We challenged them to create bots and backend integrations and highly aspirational ones.

After some brief training, they discovered that what generally took weeks became days, and what took days became hours. The business unit’s CIO was impressed enough to greenlight the project and get the CTO to approve moving forward with a two-year, seven-figure ACV deal.

When challenges come up with clients, use inverse thinking internally and externally to work through alternative ways forward.

5. Two ears, one mouth for a reason

We know strategic selling is an impact game that comes from effective listening and connecting. Like many, though, I suffered throughout my career of “listening” so I could respond rather than listen to fully understand.

A recent survey by Rain Group found that 68% of buyers are highly influenced by sellers who listen well, but buyers report that only 26% of sellers are effective listeners.

Here are some simple tips to talk less and listen more:

• ‍Get comfortable with silence

• Take a deliberate pause before you speak

• Repeat back what you heard and confirm it

6. Live as if you’ve died and come back (every minute is bonus time)

Knowing that death is inevitable (and not fearing it) is one thing, but it’s another to treat each moment as if you’ve already died.

I’ve never experienced the “I was dead for a few minutes, and they revived me” situation, but I did land in the hospital once with a stroke.

Luckily, there were no significant issues following that ordeal, but it gave me a different appreciation for what I usually took for granted.

Imagine taking this sentiment into every meeting or opportunity you have with others. How would you change your tone? Would you get frustrated? Would you have a self-centered agenda? What would you say differently, and how would you say it?

These are not just philosophical questions to ponder; they are practical questions that help us stay in check and focused on having more meaningful relationships with everyone we encounter.

With this approach, it’s hard not to find a genuine connection, be curious about learning more, better understand their perspective, and be more generous with your help.

‍BTW, The Daily Stoic is a must-have. I have been reading a daily passage from it for four years running.

‍See you next time!