As a sales professional, do you take full responsibility for your actions? Do you take full responsibility for what happens to you? You are responsible for your actions, your decisions, and what happens to you. Blaming yourself or anyone else, using excuses, and denial only hurt you and keep you from being able to succeed. But the people who are supposed to support you just make things more difficult, and they don't do what they say they will. Ok, so you know this to be true. That just means you're responsible and as a responsible person you take action to get it done yourself.

When you focus on being angry and blaming others and what doesn't work you can't be focused on what does work or how to make it work. That misplaced focus is keeping you from getting the results you want and from succeeding. When you know you can count on others count on yourself and devise a plan for getting the things you need done handled. Develop your own systems and resources to accomplish the work and get the sales you need.

But you had no idea the potential prospect would react that way. Really, if it's the first time that's perfectly ok. You just had a great learning experience. Take the time to think about what went well and where things started to turn south. Knowing what you know now what will you do to prepare to handle this in a better way next time?

If this has happened several times before you really need to figure out what you're doing that is causing that reaction. I'm amazed how often sales people have the misguided notion that when something goes wrong that you need to ignore it and doing what you've been doing until you get different results. That isn't going to happen. If something goes badly you need to stop doing that in that way; or you can expect to continue to get results.

But you did that because someone else told you to do it. As your mother would say if someone told you to jump off a bridge would you? You will be told to do a lot of things that supposedly worked for someone else. But if the person telling you is an extrovert and you're an introvert, if their values are radically different than yours, if their behaviors are very different from yours, etc. does it even make sense that it would work for you?

You have to succeed in sales based on your own values, behaviors, and attitudes. If something doesn't feel right to you remember that's just your little inner voice telling you that you shouldn't be doing this. Listen. Not listening just gets you in trouble.

You are responsible for finding your own way that's right for you to succeed in sales. You are responsible for taking the actions you know you need to take when you need to take them. And you are the only person who can really hold yourself accountable for taking those actions. Your actions are either happen or don't happen as a result of your motivation. When what you're doing isn't motivating to you it may be a signal that you aren't doing the right things in the right way. When what you're doing is motivating for you it will be much easier for you figure out how to make it work for you. And because it's motivating to you it will be almost impossible for you not to take action.