Oh, just a little bit more. Ah, just a little bit. It's January 8th, and that's what I'm looking for. Wow, we've done it. We've completed the first week of January.
We did! And do you want to let people know at home what we did?
We did so much! We did so much! We did too much, possibly. Push ourselves to the limit, but we're here.
Actually, one of the things that people can use to get through those times is little addictions. They might not be what you think. So today, we're going to talk about addictions. And I'm going to read you something here.
This is from Seneca, one of your friends and mine. I like him!
“We must give up many things to which we are addicted, considering them to be good. Otherwise, courage will vanish, which should continually test itself. Greatness of the soul will be lost, which can stand out unless it disdains as petty what the mob regards as most desirable.”
Very beautiful. So, when I think about this in the world of sales, the thing that springs to mind is dopamine—the dopamine addiction. I definitely think, as a generation, we are addicted to dopamine, and our attention spans are... sorry, what's happening over there? That was just a little side joke.
Our attention spans are dwindling.
So, what does the dopamine addiction look like in sales? What could that be? It could be chasing LinkedIn likes or notifications. It could be sitting and scrolling TikTok at your desk. What else could it look like? It could look like the booking of a meeting. It could look like the closing of the deal.
Have I already said that?
No, you didn’t. Could look like hitting the target, the stretch target, or getting the promotion. But you’ll notice what I’m talking about: the thing I planted my dopamine flag in, the goal ahead.
But what is fulfillment? Fulfillment is just a promise with yourself to delay happiness. "Oh, I’ll be happy when..." I hear it all the time: "I’ll be happy when I hit commission." But actually, be happy now.
Exactly!
So, I've talked about this before—there's this idea of neuroplasticity. You can reprogram your brain to actually fall in love with certain processes. So, is the dopamine most useful in the getting or in the doing? Does that make sense? I can actually try to get better as a salesperson by gamifying the sales approach.
Today, what I'm going to focus on is using mirroring or labeling, handling objections better, or talking about clarifying things better. I’m falling in love today with the process of getting better. That’s where my dopamine response is going to come from. And what you’ll find is it's a much more consistent process. You’re not then saying, "Well, I’m only going to be happy when I book a meeting."
Oh, two days have gone by, I haven’t booked a meeting. Three days, I haven’t booked a meeting. Instead, a meeting is just a byproduct of the job done well. The deal closed is just a byproduct of the process done well.
Do you get what I’m saying?
I get what you’re saying, and it’s about making a promise with yourself. The promise isn’t necessarily, “I’m going to book a meeting.” Obviously, there’s something in positive self-talk and saying, “You can” and achieving “You can.” But I think that goes more to, “Oh, I’m not going to get a meeting today. I’m not going to close that deal.” Then you probably won’t.
But just making that promise with yourself, and it’s about that feeling at the end of the day of, “I made the promise, I said I was going to do X. I put the work in, what I could control, I was going to control.” And that’s where the dopamine comes in—that satisfaction of like, when we tick off the boxes that we were planning to do in the morning, we look back and say, "I’ve completed the morning that I said I was going to do that and I’ve done that. I made that promise to myself, and I’ve kept it."
And I feel like I’ve got all this evidence of things I’m going to do, which helps you move forward as you move into the year and get better.
Yeah! Having that stack of evidence that you are who you say you are, that’s kind of what you’re saying, right?
Yeah, exactly. The only other thing I want to mention here is the idea of taking things professionally instead of personally. Dopamine can also come from being liked, being accepted by the tribe. If you’re thinking, "I’m trying to break into that enterprise deal, and I’m up against these other three companies, and if they just accept me and we close that deal, that’s where all my validation and dopamine are going to come from." But what if it doesn’t happen?
And actually, being okay to just separate that out and take it as it’s professional, not personal. They haven’t rejected you—they just didn’t have a need for what you do, or they decided to go in a different direction. It’s professional, not personal. And they might have liked you.
It’s the 8th of January, so it’s probably a good time to say, “People buy from people they like.” What’s your thoughts?
I think the reality of that is—there are a few different ways you can look at it. The other way people say it is, "People buy from people like them." But actually, I would go one step further and say, you don’t matter in the whole process.
You know what I mean? Like, you sit down with a therapist. The therapist doesn’t go after everything you say and say, "No way, that happened to me. Me too. That happened to me, and your dad left? Oh my God, my dad left. You got burned out? Same, guys, same." That’s not what it is.
No, the therapist actually doesn’t know anything about you. They’re just a vessel for you. They’re holding up the mirror, nudging you along, making sure you’re challenging certain things along the way. But you’re almost not an interrupting component of the process.
So, I’d say people buy from people, but almost people just buy from themselves, from ideas they’ve already got, biases they’ve already got. You’re just there to be a mirror for that person. The best salesperson is a chameleon. The best salesperson is a lazy river, just nudging them along the way.
You’re sat there, your little lilo, and I’m just going, nudge, nudge, nudge. You’re going around again. Wow, don’t mind if I do.
Yeah.
I’ve been Jack Frimston.
I’ve been Zach Thompson.
Remember, you will die.
And I’ve got tiny little social workers for her.
