You dread picking up the phone. Following up feels like begging. Prospecting leaves you feeling like you need a shower afterward.
That’s not a hustle problem. That’s a posture problem.
Ray Higdon says it plainly: if sales feels exhausting, it’s because you’re chasing. Exhaustion is a clue, not a life sentence. And there’s a two-part fix.
Step 1: Learn Posture and Stop Chasing
Posture is the ability to manage the energy of the conversation.
That’s Ray’s definition. Memorize it.
When a prospect pulls away, the untrained rep leans in harder. They get more eager, more desperate, more pushy. And that energy poisons the conversation.
When they pull away, you pull away. That posture of not needing the sale is exactly what makes people more interested. That’s the power of non-desperation.
Here’s the shift: stop trying to close everyone. Instead, just see who’s open.
When that becomes your goal, prospecting stops being a grind. You’re not performing. You’re sorting. Following up with someone? No big deal. Reaching out cold? Just part of the job.
The dread disappears when the desperation does.
The “Shower Feeling” Is a Diagnostic
If you feel gross after a prospecting call, that’s data. You came across as eager, needy, or desperate.
That’s repellent marketing at work. You’re repelling the very people you’re trying to attract.
The solution isn’t a new script. It’s a posture reset. Get honest about whether you’re leading the conversation or chasing it.
Step 2: Build a Lead Flow While You Prospect
Posture alone won’t fill your pipeline. You also need leads.
And here’s the catch most people miss: marketing takes time to generate leads. Months, sometimes. That doesn’t mean you wait.
If your marketing isn’t generating leads yet, keep going. Don’t quit. But go get the leads yourself in the meantime.
Ray built his business by going for 20 nos a day. Nobody was reaching out to him in the beginning. So he reached out to everybody. Three or four months in, he started generating consistent leads. A year in, he was generating over 3,000 leads a month without ads.
He didn’t get there by refreshing his screen. He went and got the leads while the marketing was still building.
Use Every Channel Available
We’ve never had more access to people than we do right now. Social media. Email. LinkedIn. Direct message. You don’t have to work the mall or do the three-foot rule if that’s not your style.
But you do have to reach out. Consistently. While your content is still finding its audience.
Don’t abandon marketing. Run both tracks in parallel.
Step 3: Close Better So Every Lead Counts
Here’s the stat that changes how you think about lead generation:
If you’re not postured when leads arrive, you could be losing 30%, 50%, even 80% of the sales you could have made.
Think about that. You spend months building a pipeline, and then blow it because you’re chasing again the moment someone’s interested.
A postured person who generates leads ends up on the company leaderboard. That’s how this works.
There are reps generating tons of leads who never make it. And there are reps with smaller pipelines who consistently win because they know how to close without pressure.
You need both. Learn to close. Build your posture. Generate leads. Do them simultaneously.
If you’re ready to go deeper on the posture side, Ray’s 90-minute training covers posture, persuasion, and closing in full. You can watch it free at Posture, Persuasion & Closing the Sale.
And if you want to understand the mindset behind going for the no instead of chasing the yes, pick up Go For No For Network Marketing. Ray co-authored it and it directly addresses the fear of rejection that drives most chasing behavior.
Posture Check
Sales shouldn’t feel like a performance you dread. If it does, that feeling is telling you something.
The exhaustion lifts when the chasing stops. And the chasing stops when you truly internalize that your job isn’t to close everyone. It’s to find who’s open, lead the conversation, and get out of your own way.
Build your posture. Build your pipeline. Do both.
Stop chasing. Start closing. A postured person with a pipeline doesn’t just survive in sales. They lead it.
Ready to stop dreading prospecting? Watch Ray’s free 90-minute training on posture, persuasion, and closing at higdongroup.com/posture and start showing up as the leader in every conversation.
