Anything that is a "game" has two components. 1) the "outer game" or skills and techniques and 2) the "inner game" or the psychology associated with being successful. Many a tennis match has started 2 sets down and finished 3-2 because the leading player got over confident and relaxed his game. The losing player reached deep down and found the will to come back. Similarly football games are notorious for flipping 0-1 to 2-1 because the winning team gets too defensive and is quickly countered.
Even games like Chess have an inner game. Untimed they can last hours and out of frustration a player may stop thinking strategy and make a quick rash decision. Tournament Poker can last hours and cause players at the end to make large uncalculated gambles just to have the game finish. Many a person during a job search applies for job after job and finally ends up at a final interview with their dream employer and get pipped at the post by a better candidate. It's the will to keep going and start applying to new jobs despite the letdown that's needed to be successful.
Once you have food, water, a roof over your head you start looking for safety. Once you have long term employment, a stable place to live and a stable life you look to expand your social life. This often manifests in buying the latest gadgets, toys or clothes. Once you have all the gadgets you feel the need to be considered important. Once your self-esteem is at it's highest you feel the need to do something worthwhile.
Do you need money so desperately that you don't know what you'll eat next week? Have you had such a successful career that you're now looking to do something important? Perhaps you've been around the block long enough now you just want to make a difference? At each instance you need to think about what's motivating you to get into sales.
The next thing you need to do is set a goal. If you're goal is "I just want to make a lot of money" you have nothing to aim for. The best sales people are the ones motivated by an immediate goal. "Pay off my credit card", "take that trip to Vietnam", "save up enough money to start my own business", "buy that house outright", etc. Once your goal is a tangible number every sales call you make contributes to your desire to get that number. If you can live and own that number all the hard work you put into making sales will make sense. It's also important to think 1 or 2 goals ahead. Often your immediate need ("pay off credit card") isn't as important to you as what you really want ("take that trip overseas").
The next thing you need to consider with sales is that it is not the most respected profession out there. You tell people you're in sales and they look at you like you need to get a real job. But remember - Sales & Marketing are the only reason the other people in your company have a job. They exist to produce, count, manage or talk about widgets because you're selling them. Never forget that as a sales person you are important and that people rely on you, much as they may not want to take a call from you.
If your company has a product or service that solves a problem or helps generate profit or achieves a goal then you are selling a solution. People love to buy but they hate being sold to and it's important to remember that when you cold-call or visit a prospect. If the person on the other end isn't receptive it's them that's missed out on an opportunity to save money for their business or to have a problem solved. If the product your selling is good then it is useful to someone - and your job is finding that someone and convincing them that it is worth it.
There are far more sales people out there than you would imagine, and they're making sales from $20 to $200,000,000. So there are prospects out there willing to buy. You just have to work out how to get a hold of them and convince them it's worth spending their money.
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