I remember I had just gotten drafted by the Mariners and my childhood dream had finally come true. Riding buses from small town to small town, with the boys, crappy food, and no-name hotels. It was the part of the dream I never saw if I was being honest, but it wasn’t the non-glamorous lifestyle that threw me off the quickest — it was being mentally and physically ready to play and pitch all the time. That taxed me the most, especially within. There is a level of stagnant anxiety that starts to settle in. It’s the thought, “I’ve got to be ready to go” and if I am not feeling it, that is my fault, not theirs.
I think there was a stretch of 28 straight days where we had a game to play. Not complaining at all because that is what it takes to get to the next level, but it was a shock coming from college baseball where you play 3-4 games per week, fly everywhere, and get meal money handed to you as you leave the charter bus.
When your whole livelihood is based upon your ability to perform, and perform well day in and day out, you start to look at failure differently. The ones who progress throughout the minor leagues and the ones who stay stuck aren’t much different in talent, but vary greatly in consistency — they vary in their ability to bounce back after failure, bad at-bats, or bad outings. They have the unique ability to perform the next day even when the last 3 days haven’t gone their way.
There are three major separators I witnessed between those that stayed stuck in a slump, and those that were able to perform despite the negativity from the previous day or weeks.
Principle 1: Routines Win — Especially When Results Don’t
I recently heard Freddie Freeman — All-Star first baseman for the Dodgers — talking on ESPN about his routine every single day that he goes to the ballpark. He arrives early, gets in the cage and ONLY hits front toss. Not only that, he never wants his exit velocity to be over 88mph, which isn’t very fast. His reasoning: “I don’t ever want to over-swing — I want to focus on making the best contact I possibly can.” From there he does defensive work then gets in the batting cage before the game. Same thing, every single day. It never changes. Ever.
When I heard this it reminded me of someone I played with — Andrew Moore. Andrew was a top draft pick in 2015 and I was fortunate enough to room with him on the road. Andrew was the same way — he did the same thing in his routine, every single day. He was incredible. Beyond the physical routine he had a mental routine that shook me. I remember I was struggling and I asked Andrew what the key to consistent success was and what his mentality was like when he pitched. He told me: “Conviction. Every single time you throw that ball you have to be 110% convinced that is the right pitch to throw. If you aren’t — you don’t throw it. Every single time.”
So why does this matter for your sales people?
Routines are the key to long-term success and breaking slumps, bad days, and bad months. The market is going to go up and down. You are going to run into multiple people that do not want to buy, no matter what — it’s just a part of the game. One thing I know for sure is that Freddie Freeman and Andrew Moore didn’t care what was going on around them — they were going to show up and do the work that has made them successful, over and over again.
Sales isn’t about the latest and greatest terms, manipulation, or groundbreaking techniques — and neither is baseball. Those things have a time and place, but it’s mainly about your routines that you consistently do. Not just when things are going right.
Your sales people don’t need a cutting-edge approach — they need more reps doing the basics. They don’t need a new CRM; they need more outbound calls, more conversations, and more appointments.
Stick to the routine that works. Do it when the market is good and when the market is bad. Overtime you will wake up and be a hall of famer.
Principle 2: You Don’t Have Enough Data Yet
You ever looked at the stat sheet for a major league team after April? You have All-Stars hitting .180 and guys you’ve never heard of hitting .404 with 8 home runs. The season doesn’t end after April — it ends in September. The game of baseball is about long-term success, day in and day out. Not short-term bursts.
I remember being involved in a company that always talked about a “90-day RUN.” It hyped people up and motivated them for 90 days — and then what? Everyone lost momentum. Of course there are times for extreme action, but that often leads to burnout and lack of motivation after the run is over.
We can’t judge our sales success or failure too soon. The data will do the talking over the long haul.
It isn’t about insane production for a month — it’s about consistent production over time. Too many times we judge ourselves based on what just happened. We have this short-term sales memory that plagues us. We only remember what we have just done or accomplished. That is great when you are rolling, but it is bad when you are going through a temporary slump. The fix? Track data and trends over months and years — not days and weeks.
We have to set our sights on a long-term vision. An eagle can set its sights on prey from 2-3 miles away — it has a gaze that doesn’t quit even though the target seems far off. We must be the same. Lock in on the long-term. Lock in on doing the tasks that will produce results and don’t judge your tree that lacks fruit too soon.
Fruit takes time. But the only surefire way to make sure a fruit tree never produces fruit is to cut off the water source, cut off the sunlight, and uproot the tree. Sales people do the same thing. They judge their fruit too soon — before the water can go from the drip system into the rocks, into the root system. They wonder why there’s no fruit before the nutrients have even saturated the roots.
Don’t judge too soon. You don’t have enough data yet.
Principle 3: Shift Your Perspective — You’re Not Being Buried, You’re Being Planted
I have a friend who played in the NFL for 10 years. I remember calling him one time when I was just going through it — bad day after bad day, difficulty after difficulty. I had just become a father and it was an overwhelming time. He listened so well. After I got everything out of me, he paused and said with a calm voice: “Sometimes you just have to go through pain.”
I was so thrown off. I was ready for a motivational speech about how everything has a purpose — and he hits me with, “sometimes things are just painful.” That moment shifted my perspective. It showed me that pain is pain. Sometimes there isn’t a magic pill — it’s just about enduring until the end, enduring through things that hurt and enduring through bad seasons.
We must endure with a renewed perspective.
My favorite analogy to drive this home: you aren’t being buried in life — you are being planted. Buried screams forgotten. Planted screams potential. Both burying and planting look identical — shovels, mud, dirt, and digging — but both yield wildly different results. If you were to watch two people in a garden you wouldn’t know which is which until you knew what was going into the ground. When you know what is going in, you know the result it’s going to produce.
Our sales people need to see every call, every appointment, and every closed door not as being buried — but as being planted. Planted to develop a root system that is going to hold their future fruits. Two-thirds of a tree is beneath the surface. A massive tree needs an even bigger root system.
We must flip our perspective on pain, slumps, and bad times. We aren’t being buried in those seasons — we are being planted. Planted to prosper and produce more than we could ever ask, think, or imagine.
Next time you think you are in a slump — stick to your routines, analyze data over the long-term, and shift your perspective on your current pain.
You are being planted, not buried, my friend.
If you would like to bring this message to your corporation, sales team, or SKO event, you can fill out a form at lancethonvold.com or email me directly at info@lancethonvold.com. Can’t wait to hear from you.
Blessings, Lance
