Altruism Is The Cure For Sales Anxiety

The Dalai Lama once said the cure to anxiety is altruism – he is correct.

Altruism can simply be characterized by selflessness and concern for the well-being of others.

When you start to get anxious what happens?

It becomes all about YOU.

“I don’t have time to update the CRM – it’s a waste of my time.” 

“People are going to hate me if I call them out of the blue.” 

“I’m going to miss my target if I can’t get this deal to close.”

“If this economy doesn’t rebound… I’m going to lose my job.”

“If I lose my job… my family won’t be supported.”

As we begin to spiral downward, these intrusive thoughts become increasingly more personal and our level of anxiety increases.

Countering Fight Flight Freeze With Altruism

We often respond to this heightened level of anxiety by doing one of three things:

• We do nothing and crumple under the weight of these thoughts (FREEZE).
• More often – we work harder… and harder… and harder… until we burnout (FIGHT).
• Or we run away from our problems or try to find ways to distract ourselves (FLIGHT)

When we’re “anxious” our emotional brain (limbic system) has taken over and we are no longer thinking logically because our prefrontal cortex is shutting down. Our emotion brain is taking over because the anxious thoughts running through our head make us believe we are in danger.

Without our prefrontal cortex it becomes nearly impossible to problem solve.

One of the best ways to prevent this from happening and build resilience to these intrusive thoughts is to ensure our mindset towards our daily tasks is primarily focused on helping and serving others.

This means embracing altruism in our sales role.

When we keep our mindset focused on helping others it becomes harder for your emotional brain to take over and get anxious, because YOU are not in the picture.

If YOU are not in the picture and not the focus, then YOU cannot be perceived by your brain as in “danger.”

I outline how you can execute this mindset shift in this article – Purposeful Work: Find Your Purpose in Sales.

In addition to that article – I have also recently launched an online course to help sales teams improve sales performance through better Mental Health. You can view the course outline by clicking below.

Online Course: Improve Sales Performance Through Better Mental Health

About The Author

Jeff Riseley is currently the Founder of the Sales Health Alliance and Mental Health Advocate. With over a decade of sales experience – Jeff understands the importance of Mental Health in achieving peak sales performance.

Jeff combines his sales (Sales Knowledge Institute) and Mental Health expertise to improve sales performance through a mix of sales mentorship and mental health best practices. His strategies have helped sales teams improve their sales process, while helping them become more motivated, resilient and better equipped to tackle stressful events within sales.

He is currently delivering these strategies through on-site workshops, coaching and speaking engagements. To explore working with Jeff contact him at [email protected]