Most people in sales understand how important it is to have passion for who you work for, what you sell and the sales industry as a whole. But what should a sales professional do when they lose that passion? We're not talking about hating what you sell or not being happy with your employer but about losing passion for being in sales.

If you ever feel that you have lost or are losing your passion, you need to make some decisions.

Back to Day One

If your passion for being in sales is slipping away or is out right gone, it may be caused by the main reason you got into sales in the first place. Sales careers are often filled by people who, for whatever reason, can't find a job doing what they want to do. Many are in sales because they had to find a job that paid them what they needed and a job in sales was all they could find.

If you got into sales because you couldn't find a job doing what you wanted to do with your career, you started in a "passion deficit." Unless you continually added fuel to your "passion for sales" fire, it should be no wonder that you're in the passion-lacking situation you now find yourself in.

Since you can't go back to the past and decide against getting into sales, you have to decide to either figure out what it is that you want to do in your career or to find a way, any way, to rekindle your passion for sales.

What Changed?

Often times, people lose their passion for their job when something changed.

These changes can be major, like getting a promotion that you didn't really feel great about  or something minor like a small change to your compensation program. Whatever the change may have been, identify it and decide if it caused your evaporating passion for sales.

If you decide that a "change" caused your passion to slide, see what you can do to compensate for the change or to mitigate the effects of the change.

When the Tank is Empty

You'll know it when it happens. The time when, no matter what you do or despite your best efforts, your passion for sales is gone. Now what? Should you struggle through in a career that you find unfulfilling? Do you put on a happy face, focus on keeping a positive attitude and hope that your passion for sales returns some day? Or, is being honest with yourself, your employer, your sales team and your customers the best route to take?

It's really impossible to know for sure what the best route to take is because there are so many factors involved. In the best case scenario, you recognize that you don't want to be in sales any longer so you look for and find a job doing something that excites you. The pay is about the same and your new team is supportive and accepting.

In the real world, jobs are not that easy to come by and finding a job that pays you as much as a good sales job can is often a lot harder than most think it should be. However difficult it may be, staying in a job, any job, that you don't have passion for, is a sure fired way to negatively effect every other area of your life.