Selling With Noble Purpose, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 16Sustaining the “High” of the Close

What is love when it's not for dopamine?

—Saurabh Sharma, Indian author and lyricist

We all know what it feels like. The contract comes through. The payment hits the bank account. You get the PO. It's the moment of the close, and it's positively terrific. It's when everything you've worked for pays off. It's a high. Literally. When you score a win, your brain releases endorphins, dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin, a cocktail of feel‐good chemicals that activate your brain's pleasure center and makes your whole body feel better.

This is not a bad thing. For most salespeople, it's a visceral whole‐body experience. That's why sales teams ring bells and high‐five each other.

The challenge is, that feeling can be fleeting. The high of winning a deal evaporates when the pipeline report looks bad, or a customer backs out. Your brain can easily tumble back to a lower‐confidence, less‐engaged version of yourself.

Hardly the right mindset for a sales call.

You don't want your sales team to be always grasping for that high. You want a sales team who can bring that high. You want a Noble Purpose sales team who can reverse negativity, who can stay confident in the face of setbacks, and who can lift each other up when things go wrong.

You want a team that is resilient.

Grasping for the feel‐good of a close might sound like a great motivation for a team, but in my experience, it doesn't promote the most engaging sales behavior. If you've ...