Episode Details

How do you prepare your mindset and create the discipline to be effective every single day?

That’s what Jeff Vellas asked on a recent Ask Jeb episode, and it’s the question that separates the pros from the amateurs in sales.

Sales is the hardest profession in business. It’s the only job where you have to go out and find rejection and bring it home every single day. Every ask you make carries the potential to be rejected at a deep, painful level.

That’s why we get paid so well. And that’s why most people can’t hack it.

But the ones who do? They’ve figured out the secret.

Find Your Carrot

My friend Will Fratini from ZoomInfo nailed it when he talked about what motivates him, or what his carrot is. His five-year-old daughter once bought him a carrot Christmas ornament, and he carries it with him everywhere as a reminder of why he shows up every day.

Here’s what matters: Your carrot needs to be specific and tangible. Not some vague “I want to be successful” nonsense. I’m talking about something real. A commission check of X dollars. A boat. Generational wealth through real estate. A college fund for your kids.

Think of it like an old-time horse and carriage. You put a carrot on a stick in front of a stubborn horse, and suddenly it’ll go forward even when it wouldn’t before. That’s what your carrot does for you when everyone else is giving up.

Your carrot is what pushes you past the point where giving up would be completely justified. It’s what separates the best from the rest.

The Hard Truth About Sales Discipline

Let’s be clear about what sales discipline actually means. You have to show up every day and do a certain number of activities. Every. Single. Day.

And to do those hard things consistently, you need that carrot.

It’s about sacrificing what you want now (which is easy) for what you want most (which requires doing hard things). I want to do things that are easy. But to get what I want most, I’ve got to do things that are hard.

That’s the entire game.

The Scottie Scheffler Example

Look at Scottie Scheffler, the PGA golfer. When he makes a bogey, he bounces back with a birdie or better 62 percent of the time. The rest of the field? Less than 18 percent.

Why? Because Scheffler is crystal clear about what’s important to him. He knows his carrot. He understands what fulfillment means. When something goes wrong, there’s no cascade of “everything is wrong.” His ego doesn’t take a hit because he’s focused on what matters most.

He picks himself back up, brushes himself off, and keeps moving.

What most people don’t know is that it wasn’t always this way. When he first brought on his caddie, Ted Scott, Ted told him straight up: “I’m not working for you unless you get the attitude, temper, and anger under control.”

Think about that. The caddie refused to work with him unless he fixed his mindset first.

That’s how important

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