Are Salespeople Happy?

I think there is a direct correlation between sales and happiness. Miserable people just don’t make good salespeople. Two of my favorite bloggers, Scott Adams and Guy Kawasaki are both blogging about Happiness.

Dilbert’s blog post is on the Happiness Formula. He outlines 3 key happiness influencers and claims that you can only accomplish 2 out of 3 with one that will always suffer. These include:
1. Income
2. Relationships
3. Health

What I like about all 3 of these is the control and power we have to create them in our lives. Sales is pretty black-and-white. You either make your numbers of you don’t. Can salespeople make all 3 of these happen in their lives or does one of these usually suffer as we work hard at the others? Here are some examples of how one usually suffers:

Sales Heavy Hitter Takes a Beating on the Relationship Front: You may be at the top of your game and generating the most revenues for your team. You are working all hours, adrenaline is pumping. Your working hard and partying hard which taps your health. Eventually, your relationships either deteriorate or suffer because you are just not showing up the same way anymore.

Sales Mojo Is Lost because of Love: You fall in love. It’s the relationship you’ve waited for and you’re so psyched about this new person in your life. You spend evenings on the phone with each other, days teasing each other with provocative texts, and your delicious emails take the place of prospecting emails to customers. You are losing focus, momentum and drive because you’ve been floating on the love cloud.

Stay Clear from the Sales Negative Virus: You are in your third week of feeling lousy. Your ears are still plugged from the ride back from the Vegas sales kick-off and your voice is still so raspy that customers barely understand your name. You feel like a giant nose when you talk and walk around and your forecast is looking grim where things are falling out faster than coming in. You’ve missed enough days and your sales are showing it.

How do you balance all 3 of these? And could you balance them better if you lived in one of the 20 happiest countries in the world?  Check out the World Map of Happiness.