By Michael J. Brooks

This article was born on an airplane, while I was traveling to a couple different Universities looking for their best sales man or woman. I am a big fan of the talent that comes out of Universities these days; but while in the air, I began to think of a common challenge with these future leaders. The top candidates have never truly experienced failure. They are so talented that they (for the most part) have gone through life being the best. In grammar school and high school they got the best grades, ran the fastest, were the captains of their sports teams, president or vice president of their class, won many awards and got a chance to fill their resumes with accomplishment after accomplishment. This is a good problem to have as a hiring manager. The challenge surfaces after you hire them. Most sales organizations hire in groups. When you put ten to fifteen individuals that fit this profile in a sales organization a very interesting dynamic happens. Not everyone can be number one. There will be a number ten and number fifteen. You then have to manage the reaction of these individuals when their world crumbles and they are no longer the best.

Twenty minutes into the flight I could put my tray table down and began to type up thoughts. My goal is two fold: I want managers who read this to recognize the importance of preparing top college graduates for failure and I want any top college graduate reading this to recognize that they need to condition themselves for failure in order to learn. No successful sales person has gone through their career without failing. I will walk you through a simple exercise below to capitalize on this.

I researched failure after the flight and found this quote stood out. I think it hits the nail on the head and sums up my thoughts.

“You must accept that you might fail; then, if you do your best
and still don’t win, at least you can be satisfied that you’ve tried.
If you don’t accept failure as a possibility, you don’t set
high goals, you don’t branch out, you don’t try – you
don’t take the risk.”
— Rosalynn Carter: Former first lady and author

Again, one of the biggest challenge I have as a Sales Manager for entry level Sales Associates is hiring the best of the best from Universities. Seems ironic doesn’t it? You would think I would pat myself on the back that this level of talent was recruited by my company. While most of them turn out to be top performers; I run into the same challenge over and over again. They have grown up in environments where they have always been the best. They had strengths in their personality, mind, competitive nature, drive, attitude and character that set them apart from their peers.

I spent time in a classroom at a Florida University that gave me more ammunition for this article. I witnessed something that may change employer challenges with entry level sales people. It was a Sales Professor that was driving students to their limits. She was almost forcing them to fail. I wanted to jump out of my seat with a standing ovation. Why was I excited about this? I was excited because I was witnessing someone conditioning my future sales people. She was teaching them that one of the greatest tools for sales development is falling on your face, picking yourself up and recognizing where you went wrong. You then gather feedback and apply it the next time. You then improve.

A lot of students and entry level Sales people do not know what to do when they fail. The kleenex come out. They want to curl up into a ball. They get angry and defensive. They go into denial. They hop on SalesGravy Jobs or other sales job sites because they think their job is unfair. They think their manager is picking on them. Their self esteem and confidence take a big hit. Their enthusiasm and attitude hit an all time low. If one of these has happened to you please keep reading.

Leave it to the good old wikipedia definition to point out an important fact. “In general, failure refers to the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective. It may be viewed as the opposite of success.”

The key part of this definition is that failure MAY be viewed as the opposite of success. It is the way you perceive your failure and the way you allow yourself to understand how to learn from it that prevents (failure) from meaning the opposite of success. I hope this article on the importance of understanding failure reaches thousands of University students looking to go into sales. I hope it reaches hundreds of thousands current entry level sales people. If it does then I want you all to complete this simple exercise. Ask your sales mentors, managers, or sales people that you know have been successful the following question: Have you learned more from the deals you won or the deals you lost? Now if you get one that could go on and on and on about the deals they have lost; you may want to ask someone else. The point is that any successful sales person should admire the question. They will think back and probably share a very vivid memory of a deal they lost and all of the things they wish they did different. They will remember the advice they sought out from their manager to improve. They may have even solicited feedback from the prospect on what they could have done differently. The successful sales person would have chalked the deal up as a loss; but, then chalked the loss up as an opportunity to cash in on the experience. This, my friends, is what you need to recognize if you want to get into the field of Sales. If you have just started out in Sales please realize that you will fail, in fact, plan on it. Your manager’s will be raising the bar, driving you, constructively criticizing you and at times make you feel like you can not get it right. Learn how to cash in on this and turn failure into experience.

I will leave you with a great quote from Thomas Edison, a very successful historical figure. “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”

Michael J. Brooks is one of America’s leading college recruiters. His new book Sales Blue Chips (Sales Gravy Press) will be released in late fall 2008.