Let’s talk about sales, and why the new year always feels like a repeat performance.
Greek myths rarely have happy endings. They are mostly cautionary tales, reminders of how the Gods treated humans like toys. One myth, in particular, perfectly captures the life of a salesperson: the story of Sisyphus. He was condemned to push a massive rock up a hill, only to watch it roll back down again, forever. That is exactly what we face in sales.
We push that giant rock—the annual budget—up the hill every year. We grind, we hustle, we celebrate the results at year’s end, and then what happens? The rock rolls back to zero. Every January, or whenever your company decides the fiscal year begins, you stand at the bottom of the hill again, staring at the same heavy stone. And your sales manager will always say: “Don’t tell me about your last deal, tell me about your next deal.” That has been the universal sales manager mantra since the role was invented.
The tension, pressure, uncertainty, and foreboding in sales never let up. Maybe you had a great year last year. You made President’s Club, you stood on stage at the convention, you pocketed a fat bonus. Congratulations—but so what? That was then. This year is a brand-new race. Or maybe last year was a disaster. You barely scraped by, you nearly got fired, and you made little money. Tough luck—but again, so what? That was then. This year, the rock is waiting, regardless.
So, here is the real question: how are you going to roll that stone this year?
Deals are always out there. The business exists. The only question is: will it come to you? If your strategy is to sit by the phone, hoping for an email enquiry to arrive or for marketing to deliver a steady stream of leads, then you are fooling yourself. That is not sales. That is passivity. And to be blunt, that is what the losers do. Winners know they must take action, not wait for lightning to strike.
This is where Grant Cardone’s idea of the 10X Rule comes in. Grant is a sales trainer in the US, and his book has had a big influence on how we think. In our office, we even put a huge signboard on the wall: 10X Your Thoughts and Actions.Why? Because the truth is, most of us fall into the rhythm of rock rolling. We get used to small, incremental gains—classic kaizen thinking. Kaizen has its place, but let’s be honest: small steps will not vault us ahead of our rivals. They are also improving incrementally. If we want to leapfrog them, we must think exponentially.
That is the essence of 10X thinking. The mindset that got you last year’s results will not take you much further. If we want to reach a higher level, we must break out of that cycle and think ten times bigger. And then, crucially, we must act ten times bigger. Genius ideas sitting in your head, unexecuted, are worthless.
Of course, it sounds easy. For the first thirty seconds, it is easy. But then the discipline required to sustain it kicks in. And that is where most of us fall short. Sales managers have a critical role here: they need to drive this thinking every single day. That means looking at every angle of the rock-rolling exercise.
Ask yourself: who bought from us recently? What similar companies have the same needs but do not yet know us? Why are we not calling them? Are we avoiding it because we are afraid of rejection? Do we think the low success rate makes the effort not worth it? If so, we are making excuses, not sales.
Let’s flip the thinking. Imagine we had the cure for cancer. If your family or friends were suffering, would you be shy about picking up the phone to tell them? Of course not. You would feel an obligation to reach out. Well, our firms may not cure personal cancer, but they do cure corporate cancers—the inefficiencies, the gaps, the problems that drag companies down. If we do not believe that, then we should not even be in business. But if we do believe it, then there is no reason to hesitate in contacting companies who have not yet heard of us. We owe it to them to let them know we have the solution.
This is how we overcome the fear of rejection. We remember that we are not intruding; we are helping. We are bringing the cure. And if we approach sales with that conviction, the fear evaporates.
So, how do we put 10X into practice? Start with mindset, but do not stop there. Take massive action. Ten times the calls. Ten times the meetings. Ten times the follow-ups. Activity drives opportunity, and opportunity drives results. The more buyers we see, the more business we win. That is the math of sales.
Yes, the rock rolled last year. It is rolling again this year. But we do not have to repeat the same tired rhythm. Let’s ask ourselves: how can we 10X every stage of this process? From the first call, to the first meeting, to the proposal, to the close. That is how we roll the stone not just up the hill, but higher than ever before.
So, let’s do it. Let’s roll the rock 10X harder, 10X faster, and 10X higher this year.
