Burnout In Salespeople: This Is Why Sales Professionals Are More Likely To Experience Burnout.

Burnout In Salespeople: This Is Why Sales Professionals Are More Likely To Experience Burnout.

A burnout at the workplace is not an uncommon phenomenon. Several studies are there to support this fact. But When compared among employees working in different sectors in the same organizations burnout in salespeople is highest.

As per the research, 67% of respondents from sales admit that they experienced burnout or are close to feeling it.

There could be several causes responsible for this which we will elaborate on later in this article.

Burnout is hampering the performance of salespeople and to avoid this you need to tackle this problem as soon as possible. Because you are the leader and you have to take care of your people.

Excited? Continue reading…

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY BURNOUT?

Burnout is the feeling of exhaustion due to prolonged stress related to work, performance, and exertion. In another word, it is mental and physical exhaustion caused due to work stress.

Feeling tired, sick, negative, sad, or anxious after prolonged and continued work are the sign and symptoms of burnout.

Instead of getting good pay person may feel hopeless and dread going to work.

EFFECTS OF BURNOUT ON FAMILY LIFE AND PROFESSIONAL LIFE.

Workers feeling burnout may experience reduces job satisfaction, lowered job performance, feel demotivated while going to work, feel anxious and depressed.

These employees are more likely to take sick leaves or stay absent without any solid reason.

At also get into your house. When at home you feel irritated with small stimuli, may end up yelling at your children and spouse.

You avoid going out for work or hanging out with friends.

CAUSES OF BURNOUT IN SALESPEOPLE.

There are several causes of burnout I mention a few below,

1. HECTIC WORK SCHEDULE LEADS TO BURNOUT IN SALESPEOPLE.

Salespeople have a highly hectic work schedule. Some people even admitted that they feel that they are working round the clock. They have to pick the call even when at home or during nighttime as they want the customer’s convenience.

Though they have assigned working hours it is on paper only. Many a time they have to leave early from home and come late at home. Sometimes they have to stay out for days in order to bring good sales to the company.

This hectic work schedule causes a lot of mental and physical stress which leads to burnout in salespeople.

2. CONTINEOUS TRAVELING LEADS TO BURNOUT IN SALESPEOPLE.

Salespeople are always juggling from one place to other. There is a lot of traveling inside the country and sometimes internationally.

Continuous traveling can be exhausting because of not getting proper food, rest, and sleep which eventually leads to burnout.

3. PRESSURE TO PERFORM LEADS TO BURNOUT IN SALESPEOPLE.

Sales personal always have pressure to perform directly from superior officials or indirectly subconsciously. Because how much sales you bring decide how good you are at your job. It also affects your promotions, appraisals, and your value in the company.

Pressure to perform is most likely to cause burnout in salespeople.

4. COMPITION.

They have to face competition which leads to more performance pressure. For example, there are several similar companies out there that also have their own sales executive.

That means salespeople have to compete with other salespeople to bring sales to the company. This again makes it worse.

They have to be extra sharp, prompt, and creative to beat the competition. This leads to more hard work, more sleepless nights, and more travel.

5. JOB INSECURITIES LEAD TO BURNOUT IN SALESPEOPLE.

Salespeople have the most unstable and insecure job conditions. Companies are always in need of high performing employees in the sales department.

And it is but obvious because high sales are directly proportional to high income and also high growth.

If for any reason employees’ performance gets reduced they face the wrath of management which leads to either less pay or one may end up losing a job.

To stay productive all the time they find themselves working extra hard. Which creates extra mental and physical stress and leads to burnout.

6. CONTINEOUS REJECTION AND FOLLOW UP FROM CUSTOMERS.

Dealing with customers is not easy. In view to convincing people, you have to face rejection several times from customers. You have to approach them several times for followups.

They may let you wait for hours or may behave rudely or may turn defaulter. This makes life more stressful.

7. TOXIC WORK CULTURE.

Toxic work culture is responsible for high stress. In this case, the working culture in the company is toxic and can affect the mental health of the employees. This leads to burnout in salespeople.

8. DISTURB FAMILY LIFE.

Because of your hectic schedule, it become hard to keep family life and personal life balanced. Your spouse and children keep complaining about your unavailability for them.

You don’t get enough time to enjoy delightful moments with your family. This creates the feeling of missing out and dissatisfaction. Which eventually leads to burnout.

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TIPS TO MAINTAIN HIGH PERFORMANCE WITHOUT GETTING BURNOUT.

Following are the measure you can take to not get burnout,

AS A LEADER THIS IS WHAT CAN YOU DO.

If you are a leader It is your moral responsibility to look after the health of your employees. Do this to keep your employees high-performing and in good health.

1. KEEP YOUR EMPLOYEES MOTIVATED.

Find ways to motivate your employees. They have high chances of getting demotivated and sad because of the hectic and stressful life of sales professionals motivation becomes a must for them.

To motivate your employees, you can try different things, like taking care of their needs and wants, asking them about their problems and helping them to fix them, giving them rewards when they bring good deals, arranging frequent get-togethers and in-house parties. Giving them bonuses and other benefits like insurance and mediclaim along with decent salaries.

2. TAKE MEASURE TO EASE THEIR STRESS.

As we established before sales is a hectic job which leads to high stress caused by different factors. You as a leader have to take the measure to ease them so that they don’t feel burnout.

For example, you can provide them with more helping hands by recruiting more people or bringing in more interns, you can assign them fixed working hours, more rest periods, allow them to take leave.

Or you can give them higher salaries to increase their job satisfaction. This will help you to avoid the salespeople getting the feeling of burnout.

Because they are working under you they always expect praise and kind words from you.

3. FREQUENT ASSESMENT OF HEALTH AND JOB RELATED STRESS.

You need to arrange a meeting or one-to-one talk with your sales team members to talk about their health.

Ask them about whether they are experiencing burnout or not, what is their mental health. And if they are experiencing some kind of stress or feel demotivated ask them what you can do to help them feel better later don’t forget to implement it.

AS A SALES PROFESSIONAL HOW WILL YOU AVOID GETTING BURNOUT.

If you yourself are working in the sales department and experiencing the signs and symptoms of burnout lately, the following tricks can help you,

1. SELF MOTIVATION.

Self-motivation or intrinsic motivation is the most important factor to stay happy, positive, and high performing. The motivation that comes from outside sources is temporary and will fade as time passes but intrinsic motivation is long lasting.

Find the way to keep yourself motivated in day-to-day life. Because it is not feasible to leave a job every time, you have a family to take care of.

2. PERSONAL CARE.

Personal care helps you to stay in good mental and physical health. Take proper rest, sleep, eat healthy food, lift weight and pay attention to grooming.

3. TALK TO MANAGEMENT.

If you are experiencing burnout approach the management, talk to them, and tell them your problem. So that they know what’s going on with their employees.

Take the days off and spend quality time with your family, if required visit a therapist.

4. JOB SWITCH.

If nothing is working out for you and still feeling burnout think of switching your job.

If you think that sales are not your cup of tea and you got into the wrong profession consider changing it to the one you truly enjoy.

5. BALANCING BETWEEN WORK AND FAMILY LIFE.

I know it is hard but try to maintain the work life balance. Because your family is also important and you must find ways to balance your family and work life.

For example, try not to bring your work to the home, try not to miss important days such as birthdays, anniversaries and family get-togethers.

Whenever possible take days off to spend time with family, hang out with friends, and attend family functions.