Neuroticism is considered one of the Big Five personality traits, characterised by a bent to experience negative emotions reminiscent of anxiety, fear, and despair. Individuals with high levels of neuroticism are sometimes more sensitive to emphasize and more more likely to react negatively to challenges.
This trait can, and does, significantly affect job performance, mental health, and overall life satisfaction. Exacerbating mental disordersincluding comorbidity – Coexistence of multiple disorders.
The negative consequences of neuroticism are generally transmitted to the general public health system, where the general economic burden of neuroticism is prolonged. Left behind related expenses Along with the treatment of common mental disorders.
For sales professionals, the inherent uncertainty of the job — reminiscent of long sales cycles, complex negotiations, and reliance on commissions — can create a breeding ground for neurotic tendencies. This is very true for B2B (business-to-business) salespeople, whose job may be very different from the buyer salespeople all of us interact with.
A consumer salesperson, for instance, can sell you a automotive – a process that may take a couple of hours at most, with minimal repercussions if the deal falls through. However, a B2B salesperson can be liable for selling a fleet of vehicles to a big company, or a wholesale shipment of parts to an automaker.
These deals can take a protracted time to shut and involve large transactions, complex products, multiple stakeholders and unpredictable outcomes. All this adds to the large uncertainty.
B2B sales jobs and neuroticism
Our comprehensive studywhich included roughly 1,700 B2B salespeople and 24,000 non-sales professionals, found a transparent correlation between B2B sales roles and increased neuroticism. Research shows that constant uncertainty in B2B sales jobs triggers defensive emotional responses that, when activated steadily, can reinforce and aggravate the nervous system over time.
Some characteristics of B2B sales jobs are at the basis of this trend:
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Complex customer needs: B2B salespeople often take care of clients who've multifaceted requirements that require tailored solutions. This can result in lengthy decision-making processes and unsure outcomes.
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Longer sales cycle: B2B sales cycles can last months, with success depending on quite a few variables, including the choices of varied stakeholders throughout the client's organization.
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Negotiating Toughness: B2B sales often involve tough negotiations with clients who're experienced in getting the perfect deals. This can create a high-pressure environment where the salesperson's success is consistently in danger.
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Variable Compensation: Many sales roles rely heavily on commission, meaning financial stability is directly tied to performance. This uncertainty can increase stress and anxiety, especially during times of low sales.
Mental Health and Safety: Lessons from Construction Work
The deleterious effects of chronic uncertainty in sales work—namely, personality changes that may result in mental disorders—needs to be treated like all other workplace hazard.
Just as the development industry takes steps to guard staff from physical harm, corporate organizations should consider protecting their employees from psychological harm, especially in high-pressure roles like B2B sales.
While construction staff wear helmets and protective gear, sales professionals need mental and emotional protection to attenuate the risks related to their work.
The first step for each individuals and firms is to acknowledge the risks related to B2B sales rules. For employers, this implies recognizing that these roles can have a major impact on mental health – just as some jobs can pose physical risks – and backing this up by offering support to employees. For employees, this implies accessing the facts and using them to make informed profession decisions, in addition to considering their very own mental health when accepting a brand new job.
Sales organizations can take proactive steps to support the mental health of their employees. This could include access to mindfulness programs, gym memberships, or mental health counseling, in addition to ensuring employees have time to make use of these services. Providing paid personal days may allow employees to take day without work after they need a mental health break, helping to advertise a healthy work-life balance and forestall a rise in burnout.
Managers may play a crucial role by redesigning sales roles to cut back aspects that contribute to uncertainty and neuroticism. This might include simplifying sales goals, offering clearer feedback, or providing more stable compensation plans in order that salespeople are less depending on commissions.
Regular mental health checkups are also essential. Just as safety inspections are routine (and sometimes required by law) in physically demanding jobs, psychological evaluations needs to be standard practice in sales organizations. By repeatedly assessing employees' levels of neuroticism and other personality traits, corporations can discover when intervention is required.
Finally, offering training programs that equip salespeople with skills to take care of long sales cycles and difficult negotiations can function each a developmental tool and a preventative measure against neuroticism. These programs not only enhance job performance but additionally provide employees with strategies to administer psychologically damaging stress.