Mid-year is such a turning point for a sales team. You can notice trends, problems, and opportunities. However, those problems can be magnified when the sales team is behind in its mid-year goal. On the individual level, sales professionals often feel pressured to push harder to meet assigned quotas as we reach mid-year. The instinct to push through can be strong, driven by anxiety, uncertainty, doubt, and fear. External pressures, market fluctuations, and competitive landscapes add to the mental burden. But what if there was a way to avoid the pressure or at least minimize it?

In our work with sales teams, we have seen the top salesperson assume the position that they “gotta get it done.” We have also seen the reps on the bottom of the ranking go into this “duck and hide” mode since they believe they cannot find enough buyers and want to keep their jobs. Neither perspective works long-term and even contributes to burnout and resentment.

So Why Do We Assume This Pressure Mindset?

Mental entrapment is a common phenomenon where our bodies and minds react to stress with a sense of urgency, making us feel like we need to act immediately. This response can cause anxiety, a racing heart, tunnel vision, and an overwhelming pressure to “do something” right away. In sales, this often leads to a frantic push to close deals, leading to burnout and strained client relationships.

Take A Breather And Simplify Your Approach

Instead of succumbing to the instinct to push harder, consider taking a step back and acknowledging that your buyer will do what they will do. Think of it as letting go of the outcome to get the outcome.

The simplified approach uses this mindset as an advantage. In our work over the years, we have noticed that every buyer makes some basic commitments if the deal will stick without buyer’s remorse. Most sellers are concerned that openly discussing aspirations and concerns will backfire, and they will lose the prospect.

Not every prospect will articulate their needs and wants clearly and openly. That is why many sales enablement tools use AI to identify feeling states and buyer sentiment. These tools make a difference in achieving quotas, so they are a piece of determining the deal’s quality. HubSpot found that salespeople who use AI to identify buyer emotions and sentiments are 52% more likely to be over their goal. The catch is that the identification is after the fact and does not account for how emotions are labeled differently around the world.

Simply put, frustration might be labeled as disappointment by the buyer. Alternatively, the real-time moment is in the person-to-person sales conversation and hearing the buyer acknowledge that they are committed or not committed to a particular stage or aspect of the sale. Companies with complex and/or disruptive technology need to be able to use both the technology tools and good, old-fashioned human interaction as buyers experience uncertainty and other friction points.

Good, Old-Fashioned Human Interaction Can Unstick Sluggish Deals

With the Core Commitments^©, there are ways to assess, plan, and interact with your buyer to reduce those feelings of panic and pressure.

1. Pause and Reflect: Before making any major decisions, take a moment to pause and reflect on the current status of the deal. Are you acting out of panic or strategic intent? What evidence shows you the buyer is committed? This brief pause can help you avoid hasty decisions that may not benefit you in the long run.
2. Reconnect with buyers: In your communication (conversation, email, phone, or text), ask your buyers if they are still engaged. For example, are they still committed to changing what they already do? Do they still believe they need a better solution or springboard to meet their goals?
3. Review and reassess with your buyer: The Next Steps Matrix^© allows you to collaborate with your buyer and address concerns before they become objections. It is not unusual for people to reverse their decision-making. Make this a nonjudgmental discussion and identify with them what changed their minds. By working collaboratively, the salesperson does not have to interpret the behavior. It is an open conversation.
4. Plan for next steps: This simplified approach is far from passive. Use the Core Commitments^© in planning and pipeline reviews to see what commitments are missing, what evidence supports confirmed commitments, and how to interact with the buyer to get a clear “yes” or “no.”

Practical Steps to Implement This Simplified Approach

Embrace Strategic Downtime: Allocate specific times in your week for strategic thinking and planning. Use this downtime to analyze your pipeline, identify key opportunities, and refine your approach. This is not about taking breaks but creating space for high-level thinking.

Focus on High-Value Activities: In the pressured mindset, there is a tendency to chase all deals as if they are equal. Instead, identify the deals as:

• A-level: there are three or more commitments and solid evidence from the buyer
• B-level: there are two to three commitments and a path to gather information or evidence
• C-level: (where you have zero to one commitment and limited evidence) to determine if it is just a new prospect or just hanging on

By concentrating on what truly drives results, you can be more effective with your time.

Why Simplifying Works

The instinct to act immediately under pressure can lead to hasty decisions and burnout. By approaching the situation with mindfulness, you can break free from the paralysis of mental entrapment and determine which deals are moving along the buyer journey and which deals need to be let go.

Simplify And Stop Pushing

At this mid-year checkpoint, resist the urge to push harder despite the doom tales of how the team is behind. You can navigate the rest of the year with clarity and purpose by pausing to reflect, reconnecting with buyers through a review process, and planning your next steps. This mindful approach will help you meet your quota goals, build stronger, more sustainable buyer relationships, and set you up for long-term success.

When you think about sales effectiveness at your organization, does it seem like you are close but just missing those unique elements that give you that competitive edge? Looking for a way to understand how your buyer thinks, decides, and reveals information? At The Nova Consulting Group, we believe that professional selling is a craft. With the Advanced Sales Conversation^©, you have those missing elements that move your salespeople from competency to mastery. With our deep understanding of what makes and sustains high-performance organizations, we provide integrated solutions that do not replace your sales methodology and yet advance a progressive selling mindset. Be bolder, more insightful, and get results. To learn more about how to master the craft of sales and encourage sustainable high performance, call  (617) 933-7249 or email info@novaconsultinggrp.com.

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