Each selling squad member brings to a sales call or pitch a certain level and kind of energy. I refer to this as “selling energy.” Your selling energy on any given day may run the gamut from tortoise to hare.

Reflect on the last selling squad you put together. During Execute, how was your team’s selling energy? What was each person’s selling energy? And how did your team’s individual and collective energy impact the outcome of the sales pitch or meeting?

Movie director Woody Allen has been quoted as saying that 80 percent of success in life is showing up. You’ve put great time and effort into coordinating your team’s collective knowledge, planning, and practice. How you and your team “show up” to perform on game day is just as important.

Personal Selling Energy

Take this quick True/False quiz to help determine your personal selling energy:

1.   I need coffee to get going in the morning.

2.   I often zone in and out of client meetings.

3.   I crave carbs and snacks to keep me going through the day.

4.   I tend to feel sluggish mid-afternoon.

5.   I get headaches and don’t go anywhere without a bottle of aspirin or pain relievers.

6.   I feel tired but wired at the end of the day and average fewer than eight hours of uninterrupted sleep.

How many trues did you score? Because you are a high-achieving sales professional, you may have missed that for this quiz, you were aiming for a low score. The fewer trues you counted, the better.

How do you think your last selling squad would have scored as a group?

Selling Energy in Sales Meetings

Presence, or your ability to be present and not absent, impacts your ability to conduct an effective meeting. Sales professionals tend to enjoy adrenaline and action and are generally not known for their heaping amounts of patience. And so it may follow that one or more members of that selling squad were large consumers of coffee or other caffeinated energy drinks, fast food, and energy snacks high in sugar or carbs. If this is true, some or all of the time, let’s look at how this translates into the energy level you bring to a meeting.

Reflect on your recent client meetings. How often did your selling energy include some or all of the following feelings: tired, foggy, irritable, impatient, and anxious? Consider the ways in which these feelings may have impacted the meeting. Consider how they may have detracted from your efforts at building trust, credibility, and commitment.

Now, let’s take a set of feelings opposite to those above—for example, energetic, focused, positive, patient, and steady. How would this kind of selling energy have changed the tone and set the stage for more effective sales meetings?

With greater awareness, you can connect your selling energy to what you eat, drink, or do before, during, or after an effective sales meeting. You may have the opportunity as a selling squad leader, depending on your selling squad’s openness to the concept of “wellness,” to model and influence more powerful selling energy in sales meetings. Holistic health coach and founder of Crave Nutrition Sandy Dalis helps clients, including professional salespeople, make a connection between what they consume and the direct effects on their sleep, mood, energy, and overall well-being. She suggests the following steps to boost selling energy:

   Get a good night’s sleep: Do this not just the night before a big pitch but on a regular basis. How many hours of sleep do you typically get on a weeknight?

The National Sleep Foundation reports that, “when we sleep well, we wake up feeling refreshed and alert for our daily activities. Sleep affects how we look, feel and perform on a daily basis, and can have a major impact on our overall quality of life.” (National Sleep Foundation, 2015)

We need “at least 8 hours a night of uninterrupted sleep to leave our bodies and minds rejuvenated for the next day. If sleep is cut short, the body doesn’t have time to complete all of the phases needed for muscle repair, memory consolidation and release of hormones regulating growth and appetite. Then we wake up less prepared to concentrate, make decisions, or engage fully.” (National Sleep Foundation, 2015)

Contrary to some workaholic perceptions, the time that we spend sleeping is far from “unproductive.” Sleep plays a direct role in how full, energetic, and successful your life can be. Get the sleep your body needs to be your best self and arrive focused and present. (Dalis, “Interview with Sandy Dalis,” 2015)

   Manage alcohol consumption: It’s not my goal here to judge or be “Danny Downer.” Alcohol has become the glue that bonds many colleagues—especially for a selling squad the night before a pivotal customer meeting, since they rarely get to see one another. It’s important to know that alcohol disturbs sleep patterns. This, in turn, can affect your focus, mood, and ability to execute the following day. There may be fewer stories to tell in the office, but you will be thankful you won the business by going light or passing altogether the night before an important sales meeting.

   Hydrate: Americans are chronically dehydrated. Many of us respond to this feeling by reaching for a cup of coffee or some other form of caffeine. This is ironic because dehydration can cause headaches, heartburn, anxiety, moodiness, and insomnia, which doesn’t help with tip #1. Hydration experts, including Dr. Fereydoon Batamanghelidj, suggest setting a daily goal of drinking one-half your weight in water ounces. (For example, someone weighing 150 pounds should target drinking 75 ounces of water daily.) (Batamanghelidj, 2008)

   Eat healthy: If for a full day Practice meeting the morning session involves coffee and donuts, and your lunch includes fast food, consider this: eating nutritionally deficient food promotes illness and provides inadequate fuel to keep you going.

Fast food is, well, fast. It is convenient in that it allows team members to eat quickly while preparing for or getting to the meeting. How you eat impacts how you perform. Sandy Dalis recommends avoiding “fake,” heavy, fat-laden meals that make you feel sluggish. Rather, eat a healthy meal of “real food,” packed with sustainable energy like healthy protein. Consuming your meal at least 45 minutes prior to a meeting avoids indigestion and hunger pangs. (Dalis, “Interview with Sandy Dalis,” 2015)

Another note about food. Foods with strong odors, like garlic, onions, or curry, can distract your customer or colleagues.

   Breathe: Take a nice big inhale—yes, right now, inhale deeply . . . and exhale completely. Do it again. How does that feel? When was the last time you did that? Sometimes we are so busy and stressed we actually forget to breathe. Dr. Andrew Weil explains that “Practicing regular, mindful breathing can be calming and energizing and can even help with stress-related health problems ranging from panic attacks to digestive disorders.” (Weil, n.d.)

When you make the connection between how you live and how you feel, you will be on your way to harnessing the power of your selling energy. So, challenge yourself and encourage your team to pick and commit to one or more of the healthy practices above. Small steps lead to big changes, and the outcomes at stake here are significant.