I’ve been pondering an e-mail I recently received. In it, the young salesperson described his most pressing challenge: the sales roller coaster. When things go well, he’s up, emotionally, and when things don’t go well, he’s down. The swings from up to down were wearing on him. His real question is one every salesperson must confront and successfully resolve: How do I manage to keep my emotions up and my energy high?

The overwhelming majority of field salespeople perform at a fraction of their potential because they have never been systematically exposed to the best practices of their profession. Instead, they have been expected to “learn on their own.”