“He has two million shillings he’s expecting but I doubt he’ll ever be paid.”
No, I’m not talking about frustrated vendor Sammy Kioko who accuses Machakos County of not having paid him for services rendered two years ago. Nor the hundreds of suppliers nursing similar wounds from the beast called pending bills.
This story is about a trainer, shared by his accountant. A story which illustrates the cause of sales burnout.
A tale of two debtors: understanding the cause of sales burnout
“He does training like you, and most of his customers are small Saccos and on average each owes him about 30,000shs, outstanding for between six months and two years.
I still do his books much as he hasn’t paid me either and promises to…but I can see he is struggling. He looks tired and emotionally exhausted. It is worryingly visible. He’s my friend but I may have to drop him as a client.”
This trainer is experiencing Sales burnout. Sales burnout doesn’t come from selling. It comes from chasing the wrong prospects. Choose better, sell lighter. Yes, selling can be tough – why make it brutal?
The accountant went on to explain the real tragedy: “When I dug deeper, I discovered he charges 10,000 shillings… sometimes even 6,000 per training.
So the 30,000 isn’t one fee — it’s accumulated debt across several sessions. From an accounting perspective, the administrative costs of doing the training at those prices and chasing the debts just doesn’t make business sense.”
The cause of sales burnout lies in who you’re selling to
Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with the Saccos. What’s wrong is the salesperson’s prospecting. The Sacco’s mean well. They want the training.
But for whatever reason – can’t or won’t- they just don’t pay. What that means is that they are simply the wrong prospect for him. But because he’s desperate, he keeps selling to them- sometimes even going door-to-door — digging himself deeper.
And yet ,continuing to sell to customers who cannot pay only compounds your stress and creates unsustainable business practices.
Read: Debt collection is in itself a formidable salesman
Sales doesn’t burn you out — poor prospecting does
Now then. Selling feels heavy when you’re guessing. It feels lighter when you’ve done your homework. And yes, the foundational homework is continual prospecting.
If you follow this blog you’ve heard it before and you will hear it again: prospecting is the first, and most important step in selling.
One practical approach to avoiding burnout is adopting the 70 to 30 rule in sales: spend 70% of your effort on qualified prospects who are most likely to buy, and 30% on prospecting or exploring new opportunities.
This ensures you are not wasting energy on prospects who can’t or won’t pay — and it directly addresses the cause of sales burnout by keeping your efforts focused where they count.
If you don’t prospect you die-you’ve got no one to sell to. If you don’t know who your prospect is, you die- you’re shooting in the dark, wasting ammunition: your time, energy, and sanity.
And so, you end up making desperate appeals like this one: “Let’s just see how we can move him. Yes, his rent is 25,000shs, he can’t afford our fee, and our breakeven move is a maisonette with rent of 60,000, but let’s just try and help him.” That isn’t selling. That’s self-inflicted punishment.
And it has happened three times now in a popular moving company here in Nairobi and the CEO is getting exasperated with the salesperson.
This is another clear illustration of the cause of sales burnout: targeting clients who cannot afford what you’re selling.
The wrong prospect is a marathon with no training-and the cause of sales burnout
Sales burnout doesn’t come from selling. You can’t survive in sales if you’re chasing the wrong people. It’s like entering a marathon having never run 5km. You are doomed before the flag drops.
Typically, your prospect is already defined for you by your employer. “Our prospect is anyone earning 80,000shs and above.”
Now you burn yourself out when you go shopping for prospects who ask in disbelief: “Ati, 80,000? Is that a loan or a salary?” That was an experience from a salesperson I once had.
Small wonder why this head of a premium account in an international bank told his Relationship Managers, “Yes the minimum balance to qualify for this account is 250,000shs monthly but don’t look for that. Aim for those that can afford 500,000shs. They’ll be easier to work with. Those comfortable only with 250,000 monthly are aspiring prospects and will struggle maintaining that balance.”
Causes of sales burnout-the case of an Investment Bank.
If you’re starting out in business, you evolve into clarity. You move from the known (who you think the prospect is) to the unknown (who actually needs and is prepared to pay for your services).
For example, as the retail head of a 20-year old Investment Bank here in Nairobi once shared. “We raised our minimum investment amount to 1million shillings within two years of starting. This was after burning our fingers looking for volumes, which we thought at the time, was what mattered.
We had many investors who had put in 100,000 shs but almost to a man they couldn’t go the long haul. Before even 12 months were over they wanted to withdraw because of financial constraints from basic financial needs like school fess and rent. It was frustrating and unsustainable for our business.”
This experience again highlights the real cause of sales burnout: chasing prospects who are wrong for your product or service.
The relief of finding your territory
Look at it practically. When you target residential areas where rent is 60,000 shs or where salaries hover above 80,000shs you feel much lighter.
The occupants of the house already appreciate your services and don’t haggle much over price but whether you match the value they seek in a move. As for the salaried, same thing: they feel special and want to know what’s in it for them. Selling becomes easier because you’re swimming with the tide not against it.
The positive consequences of selling to the right prospects are improved revenue, motivation, and long-term client relationships.
The cause of sales burnout — it’s about who you’re selling to
On the other hand, the wrong prospects exhaust you, drain you, and make you believe you hate selling — when in truth, you just haven’t met the right customer or are addressing the wrong one. This is the cause of sales burnout, and not selling itself.
Sales burnout doesn’t come from selling. It comes from chasing the wrong prospects.
“This sales job Is killing me?” If that’s you, possibly you are making selling a brutal grind by chasing dead ends.
Invest your energy instead, in defining and finding the right prospect, and you will find that the act of selling itself becomes a much lighter, more rewarding endeavour.
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