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Bluebirds. It’s a term you don’t hear too much anymore, but it’s still a good one. The definition is hard to pin down but I’ll give it a try. Bluebirds: When a salesperson receives a large order that was gotten without a tremendous amount of work. Here’s an example. You’ve been working for six months to close a large order when out of nowhere a company you’ve never heard of before contacts you. Within one week you close an order with this company that is larger than the one you’ve been working on for six months. Bluebirds happen to all salespeople and when you least expect it.

Once, early in my sales career, I was talking to my sales manager about my results at the end of a good month. He said to me, “Scott, you had a great month, congratulations.” I responded by saying, “Well, if it wouldn’t have been for that big Bluebird my results would have actually been kind of stinky.” He was a big tall guy and responded by wagging his finger at me saying, “Every order you have to earn. The easy ones are payment for the really hard ones. Some are easy and some are really hard, but you earned every single one of them. Don’t ever diminish the value of your sales efforts, no matter how small or big.”

He was absolutely right. Nothing is easy in sales. At the end of the month, quarter or year you look at your results in total. How you got there is not the issue; the issue is that you got there. Think about it, you normally don’t get recognized for the really hard orders you close. You don’t go around trumpeting how great a salesperson you are for getting a really tough one. Conversely you don’t need to diminish your successes if they don’t require a large amount of blood, sweat and tears.

The attitude that your accomplishment is somehow less when you get a Bluebird must come from our Puritan backgrounds. If it feels good and it’s easy, it must be bad. Stop doing this to yourself. Give yourself a mental boost and accept and enjoy all your sales successes, no matter how hard, or easy, they are.

Tags: bluebirds

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