Here's a scenario that'll hit close to home: What do you do when you were crushing your numbers just months ago, but now you can't seem to close anything and your confidence is in the gutter?
That's exactly what happened to Dhruv, a business development rep from Saint Louis. After figuring out his rhythm in Q1 and hitting strong performance numbers, he found himself in a two-month slump with low attainment and shattered confidence.
If you're nodding your head right now, you're not alone. Every sales professional faces these valleys, and how you respond determines whether you bounce back stronger or spiral further down.
The Confidence Crisis: When Success Breeds Complacency
Dhruv's story reveals a pattern I see constantly in sales organizations. After a strong Q1, he got comfortable. His dials dropped. He thought he had it all figured out. Sound familiar?
Here's the brutal truth: Success without discipline is temporary. The moment you stop following the process that got you there, you're setting yourself up for a fall.
When things started going sideways in April, Dhruv did what most salespeople do—he panicked. He started questioning everything, looking for new scripts on LinkedIn, using AI to find the "perfect" approach. Everything except the one thing that would actually help: going back to basics.
The Fundamentals Never Go Out of Style
I told Dhruv about John Smoltz, the Cy Young Award-winning pitcher who spoke at an event I attended. Smoltz explained that when baseball players get into a slump, they start changing everything—looking for magic pills, new techniques, secret solutions.
But here's what champions do differently: They go back to the fundamentals.
Take Kobe Bryant. Every morning at 4 AM, he'd spend three to four hours working on the same basic skills he learned as a kid. The fundamentals that made him great in the first place.
The same principle applies to
fanatical prospecting. When you're in a slump, you don't need new techniques—you need to execute the proven process with precision and discipline.
Process Goals vs. Outcome Goals: The Confidence Builder
When your confidence is shaken, outcome goals become your enemy. Focusing on "I need to close three deals this week" when you're struggling just adds pressure and anxiety.
Instead, shift to process goals:
How many calls will you make today?
Are you using your
five-step framework consistently?
Are you delivering your ledge statements with conviction?
Are you following up with discipline?
I shared with Dhruv my own experience from when I was 24 and going through a terrible quarter. I was so down I didn't want to come to work. Here's how I climbed out:
I started with 10-minute call blocks. Call for 10 minutes, then read three pages of an inspirational sales book as a reward. Rinse and repeat.
Within 30 days, I was performing well. Within 90 days, I was the number one rep in my region.
The key wasn't finding a secret technique. It was trusting the
process in shorter, manageable increments.
The Economic Reality: When Markets Tighten, Double Down
Dhruv's slump coincided with companies pulling back on spending. But here's what most reps get wrong: When markets tighten, you need to make more calls, not fewer.
The prospects with budget and urgency are still out there, they're just harder to find. That means more activity, not less. More discipline, not shortcuts.
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