--- title: Are You Avoiding the Wrong Pain? | The Sales Blog description: The reason you are not calling your client to discuss the major issue you have in producing the outcomes you promised is that you believe the conversation is going to be painful. So you avoid it. The reason you aren’t talking to your manager about the challenge you are having producing results is that you […] image: https://www.thesalesblog.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/shutterstock_24054274-copy.jpg --- ### [Now booking SKO meetings for 2026/27! 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So you avoid it. The reason you aren’t talking to your manager about the challenge you are having producing results is that you believe the conversation will be unpleasant. You would have to discuss the areas in which you are failing. No reason to deal with that. [The reason you aren’t picking up the phone](http://thesalesblog.com/blog/2011/03/03/the-real-reason-you-hate-cold-calling/) and making your calls is that you believe that the work of prospecting is painful, and you would prefer to do something else that looks like work instead. So you do [make-work](http://thesalesblog.com/blog/2011/09/23/it-feels-like-work-but-it%e2%80%99s-not/) instead. The reason that you are avoiding calling your client to pass on your rate increase is that the client may be put [at-risk](http://thesalesblog.com/blog/2011/06/16/the-at-risk-column-and-what-to-do-about-it/) and the conversation disagreeable. Might as well wait it out. The reasons you don’t get out of bed when [the alarm clock](http://thesalesblog.com/blog/2010/04/30/the-technological-innovation-guaranteed-to-double-your-sales-results/) sounds in the morning is that you associate pain with missing that sleep. So you slip back into a warm, comfortable sleep for nine whole minutes. #### A Little Pain Now, Or a Lot of Pain Later We humans are pleasure-seeking creatures. We are even bigger pain avoiders. We try desperately to move away from pain and towards pleasure (or comfort). But “avoiding pain” gets us in trouble. By seeking to avoid some pain now, we set ourselves up for much more pain later. It’s painful to call your client to discuss the areas in which you are failing. But it’s even more painful to lose the client over something that you could have (should have) improved were you to have addressed it head-on. It’s equally painful to speak to your manager about the areas in which you are struggling and to ask for help. But it’s even more painful to lose your job because you did nothing to improve your results. It’s difficult to [get started prospecting](http://thesalesblog.com/blog/2012/03/08/the-most-difficult-part-of-prospecting/). But without breaking the pain of getting started now, you will later suffer from a weak pipeline, missed quotas, and worse. You may seek the comfort of nine more minutes in bed. You may hit the snooze button to avoid the discomfort of getting out of bed, but you will later suffer the pain of having not made time to exercise, to develop yourself, or to do what you know must be done. Successful people are spectacular are making future-oriented trade-offs. They happily deal with a little pain now so that they can avoid a great deal of pain later. By tackling issues when the pain is small, they stave off having to deal with much larger problems later. They deal with the right pain, instead of later dealing with the wrong, and much more detrimental, pain. #### Questions What small pain is it that you are avoiding now? What are the implications of not dealing with that small pain now? What happens when the issues goes unresolved? Outside of sales and business, what are the discomforts you are avoiding and what are the repercussions of avoiding them? ###### Tags: [Sales](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/tag/sales) [2012](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/tag/2012) Post by [Anthony Iannarino](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/author/anthony-iannarino) on April 2, 2012 Written and edited by human brains and human hands. ![Anthony Iannarino](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hubfs/ai-blog-profile-crop.jpg) Anthony Iannarino is an American writer. He has published daily at [thesalesblog.com](https://www.thesalesblog.com) for more than 14 years, amassing over 5,300 articles and making this platform a destination for salespeople and sales leaders. Anthony is also the author of four best-selling books documenting modern sales methodologies and a fifth book for sales leaders seeking revenue growth. His latest book for an even wider audience is titled, The Negativity Fast: Proven Techniques to Increase Positivity, Reduce Fear, and Boost Success. Anthony speaks to sales organizations worldwide, delivering cutting-edge sales strategies and tactics that work in this ever-evolving B2B landscape. He also provides workshops and seminars. Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn, X or Youtube. You can email Anthony at [iannarino@gmail.com](mailto:iannarino@gmail.com) [Follow me on my website](https://www.thesalesblog.com/anthony-iannarino) [Follow me on Facebook ](https://www.facebook.com/thesalesblog) [Follow me on LinkedIn ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/iannarino/) [Follow me on Twitter ](http://www.twitter.com/iannarino) [![AISA-square-ad-SKOs-26-27](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hs-fs/hubfs/AISA-square-ad-SKOs-26-27.jpg?width=400&height=400&name=AISA-square-ad-SKOs-26-27.jpg)](https://www.thesalesblog.com/authority) [![ai-cold-calling-video-sidebar-offer-1](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hs-fs/hubfs/ai-cold-calling-video-sidebar-offer-1.jpg?width=318&height=179&name=ai-cold-calling-video-sidebar-offer-1.jpg)](https://www.thesalesblog.com/free-cold-calling-video) ![salescall-planner-ebook-v3-1-cover (1)](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hs-fs/hubfs/salescall-planner-ebook-v3-1-cover%20(1).jpg?width=768&height=994&name=salescall-planner-ebook-v3-1-cover%20(1).jpg) ### Free Sales eBook: Sales Call Planner Planning your sales call improves the likelihood of making a successful call, and it demonstrates to your dream client your professionalism. 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What we’re doing right now **is working**, even in this challenging economy. **Would you like some help?** [![Solve for Sales](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/2922376/d3a4938b-2008-4a27-8b44-7b2223f6d035.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/2922376/d3a4938b-2008-4a27-8b44-7b2223f6d035) ### Join my Weekly Newsletter for Sales Tips Join 100,000+ sales professionals in my weekly newsletter and get my *Guide to Becoming a Sales Hustler* eBook for FREE! --- ```json { "@context" : "http://schema.org/", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Anthony Iannarino" }, "dateModified" : "2022-06-16T3:23:39 PM", "datePublished" : "2012-04-02 20:33:47", "description" : "The reason you are not calling your client to discuss the major issue you have in producing the outcomes you promised is that you believe the conversation is going to be painful. So you avoid it. 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