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Embrace the Suck

It seems as though human nature drives us to avoid the uncomfortable. In fact, corporations spend thousands of dollars creating and analyzing survey results that query customer experiences in order to provide them an experience of total satisfaction.

Are customer surveys making us soft? If things don’t go perfectly are we inclined to complain and demand retribution?

For door-to-door sales reps, our days rarely go as planned. Appointments fall through. Days we feel energized and motivated are bursting with torrential downpours. Customers change their minds and cancel. We work the entire day without a single sale to show for it. It’s almost a certainty that every day our plans don’t play out perfectly.

A friend of mine served in the Marines and related several unfavorable conditions he had to endure while spending time in the Middle East. His squad adopted a saying to help them tolerate the miserable conditions:

EMBRACE THE SUCK

Successful door-to-door sales reps learn to embrace the suck. Appointments will fall through, rain will pour, customers will cancel, people will be rude and days without sales are almost certain. Nevertheless, each of us can choose how to respond to these events. Will we learn from them and use them to better ourselves, or will we let these experiences erode our confidence and make us feel sorry for ourselves?

Being uncomfortable isn’t a bad thing…it allows us the opportunity to adapt and problem solve. The essence of door-to-door sales is learning from each sales opportunity and incorporating what was learned at the next door.

In my 17 years of experience, I know as well as anybody that the door-to-door sales experience can suck. However, I also know that learning how to embrace the suck has helped me to outlast adverse events on and off the doors. Life isn’t about learning how to avoid problems, it’s about learning how to deal with them.