In Stress Less, Sell More: 220 Strategies to Prevent Sales Burnout and Maximize Mental Performance, celebrated sales leader and founder of the Sales Health Alliance, Jeff Riseley, delivers a practical and impactful handbook that makes it easy for sales teams to perform better and build mental health conversations consistently into their busy selling days.
In the book, you’ll explore ways to navigate the pressures and stressors faced by every sales professional. Its pages can be read day-by-day or all at once, and a companion website supplements the material found in the book with free articles,, and videos. You’ll also discover: - How to build an individual Mental Health and stress-management toolkit to improve mental resilience and sales performance. - Ways to overcome stressors in sales like lost deals, missed targets and buyers ghosting. - Helpful team-based changes that dramatically improve salesperson mental health - like quota relief during vacations
An essential guide to improving salesperson wellbeing and sales performance, Stress Less, Sell More will prove to be an invaluable resource for sales leaders, team leaders, salespeople, and sales teams looking for ways to make daily work life less stressful and more productive.
Table of Contents
How to Use This Book xv
January 1
Quota Relief 2
Compounding Health 3
PIP 2.0 4
Sales Sabbaticals 5
Intrinsic Motivation 6
Work Hard, Play Hard 7
Kobe 9
The Problem with Slack 10
Slack Hygiene 11
Eight Rules to Live By 12
Take Your Breaks 13
The Problem with Process 14
VP Sales Enablement 15
Interview Questions 16
LeBron James 17
Daily Vitamins 18
Advice from a Friend 20
Remove Your Blockers 21
Hiring Process Burnout 22
Sharing Bad Habits 23
Endnotes 23
February 25
Listen to Your Body 26
Stop the Hamster Wheels 27
Being Present 28
Sales Role Models 29
Recognition vs Praise 31
Treat Them like Family 32
Who Will Be More Motivated? 33
Two Tennis Balls and a Sock 34
When You’re Not 100% 36
How to End Stigmas 37
The Date Jar 39
Who’s More Responsible? 40
David vs Goliath 41
Rejection Handle 42
Dangerous Expectations 43
You Need a Hobby 44
Do Wellness Initiatives Work? 45
Save Past Experiences 47
Responding to Good News 48
Changing Jobs 49
Endnotes 50
March 51
“Grinding” in Sales 52
Fight Together, Not Alone 53
Motivation Bucket Checklist 54
Meaningful Work in Sales 55
Connecting through Failure 56
The Problem with Rewards 57
Pattern Interrupts 58
Steve Kerr 59
Am I Experiencing Burnout? 60
What Are We Doing? 61
Vulnerability Paradox 62
Revenge Bedtime Procrastination 63
Not Programmed to Exercise 64
Sales Is a Marathon 65
Stoicism and Resilience 66
Burnout and Control 67
“Squeezing” Salespeople 69
Formula 1 70
My Team “Looks” Healthy 71
Mindful Eating 72
Endnotes 72
April 73
Messy Humans 74
Exercise for $25,000? 75
Drinking Culture in Sales 76
Prioritize Mental Health 77
Collaboration in Sales 78
Sales Training Confusion 79
Lark or Owl? 80
Have or Have Not 81
Getting Mental Health Wrong 82
Languishing 83
Emotional Experiences 84
Napping in Sales 85
20 Extra Days 86
Don’t Be a Homer 87
Take a Mental Health Day 88
Control What You Can Control 89
Get Involved 90
Protect Your Players 91
Your To-Do List 92
Proactive Sales Onboarding 93
Endnotes 93
May 95
Say NO More 96
Recovery Metrics 97
Personal Growth 98
Unlimited PTO Is Not Enough 99
Contents ix
Climb Down into the Hole 100
Mental Health Cost Calculator 101
Uncle Ben 103
Stop and Check 104
The Wim Hof Method 105
The Power of “Yet” 106
Visualizing Sleep 107
Where Is the Off-Ramp? 108
Toxic Sales Dashboards 109
Sharing Openly 110
Why Are You Angry? 111
Components of Hope 113
Not Feeling Motivated? Read This 114
Impact of Job Security 115
Being Supportive 116
Choosing the Right Type of Meditation 117
Endnotes 117
June 119
Craft, Mind, and Body 120
Who Do You Want to Be? 121
The NFL and Sales 122
It’s Showtime! 123
The Power of Appreciation 124
Grab an Umbrella 125
Corporate Greed 126
Learning a New Skill 127
Be Like Mike 128
What Are You Feeling? 129
Endnotes 129
July 131
Back from Vacation 132
Your Signature Move 133
Empowering Sales Teams 135
Top-Down, Bottom-Up 136
Eustress vs Distress 138
Benefits of Meditation 139
Emotional Literacy 140
Compound Resilience 141
Block the Sales Dashboard 143
Upper Limit Happiness 144
The Right Action 145
Hearing vs Listening 146
Distanced from Work 147
Competing Perspectives in Sales 148
Top Performers 149
The Bus Stop 150
Overtraining 151
Afternoon Coffee 152
Email Apnea 153
Theory X or Theory Y 154
Endnotes 154
August 155
Uncoupling from Fear 156
Courageous Vulnerability 157
Mindset Matters 158
Praising Effort and Learning 159
Perception and Targets 160
Becoming a CEO 161
ABCs of Anxiety 162
Sales and Masks 163
Five Dysfunctions of Mental Health 164
Your Voice Matters 165
Mindset and Algorithms 166
The Anxiety Cure 167
Action Thinking 168
Interview Candidates 169
Dark Horses 170
Wellness Day Problems 171
Social Impact 172
Get in Touch 173
Delivering Bad News 175
Stop Making Excuses 176
Endnotes 176
September 177
Stop Wasting Time 178
Suicide Prevention 179
Push-Ups and Sales Burnout 180
Sales Biases 181
Types of Sales Stressors 182
Swing Votes 183
Fear of Loss 184
Doing the Dishes 185
Control Your Information 186
Bad Outcomes of Success 187
The Pre-call Ritual 188
Needs vs Wants 189
Sales Needs Emotion 190
Drinking on the Job 191
Playing the Long Game 193
No One Is Wearing Shoes! 194
High Strain Activities 195
Stop Aiming for Perfect 196
Intermittent Fasting 197
Input-Focused Mindset 198
Endnotes 199
October 201
You Don’t Need Years of Experience 202
Starting the Conversation 203
No Brakes 204
What Is Empathy Really? 205
30 Days of Sweat 206
Ryan Reynolds 207
RATT 208
Working for Workers Act 209
Stop Comparing 210
Your “Spidey-Sense” 211
More Sleep = More Sales 212
“I’m a Failure” 213
Seasonal Changes 214
Maybe They 215
Trust Recession 217
HALT 218
Be Kind to Each Other 219
Did I Matter? 220
Fix Yourself First 221
Hope in Sales 222
Endnotes 222
November 223
Buyer Mental Health 224
Mastery Manipulation 225
Super Mario 226
Failure in Sales 228
“Feeling Lucky” 229
The Drivers 230
Seeds of Growth 231
Planning to Miss 232
Story Editing 233
Instant Gratification 234
Don’t Speak Up 235
Rehearsal Loop 236
Small Actions Matter Most 237
Buyer Ghosting 239
Challenging Experiences 240
The PIP 241
Becoming a Chameleon 242
The First Call 243
Jeff Goldblum 244
The Off-Season 245
Endnotes 245
December 247
Your Inner Citadel 248
Building Empathy 249
Law of the Lever 250
Bad Is Stronger than Good 252
Keeping It Objective 253
Finding the Present 254
How Supported Do You Feel? 255
Naïve Realism 256
Stress-Enhancing Mindset 257
Sleep Best Practices 259
Endnotes 260
Afterword: Salience Bias 261
About the Author 263
Index 265
