Work life balance for sales people� realistic or a pile of steaming dung?

Seems to me that there’s been a lot in the press recently work life balance. So many people have thrown their hats into the ring that I’m beginning to think that it’s the precursor to some sort of twilight world of badly dressed, Brut drizzled, 70’s wife swap party.

Even David Cameron has been on record saying that people are more interested in work life balance today than money and possessions.

Really?

See, as a sales training specialist I meet thousands of people every year and I think the politicians are right that there has been a change and they are right that people are TALKING about work life balance but they are WRONG in their intepretation of this information…

Here’s the world according to Gavin…

• People are richer than ever
  We are. Just face it. Look at the luxuries people take for granted these days that people would not have dreamt of thirty years ago… holidays abroad, meals out, binge drinking, designer clothes, house styling, coffee shops etc etc.
• People have short memories
  People say money is important when they don’t have any but once they have it (most) people don’t see it as that important. If you can afford to drink coffee at Starbucks you’re not really worrying about money therefore you start to worry about other stuff, “Ooh, I feel unhappy. It’s all so bad. Things used to be better”. Take the money away and most will quickly tell you that they want the money back and start saying they’re short of cash!
• People want possessions – more than ever
  Don’t kid yourself otherwise. I see car parks full of BMW’s. I see shelves full of designer clothes. I see young people starting out in life with massive flat screen TVs. People want possessions.
• People don’t want work life balance they want less work for the same possessions
  That’s the truth. We’ve got it better so we want to work less. But we want the stuff too. People aren’t talking about forsaking stuff for this so called balance – they just want more for less. I believe we’re creating a society that expects something for nothing.

So why these thoughts on a sales training blog? Because it’s fools gold. Don’t buy it. Don’t believe it. Don’t subscribe to it. If you want stuff, if you want possessions, if you want to buy yourself a comfortable living, if you want to retire comfortably at some point in the future you have to do your time. Least in sales you do. Sales is not some reality tv instant gold rush. It requires consistent hard work and consistent effort.

Sales hurts and this is where you start to pay…