It’s not generally a hot take anymore to raise awareness for mental health. Everyone needs to take a pause and be aware of your current wellbeing. Unfortunately, sales is often a place where mental health still has a stigma. This should not be the case. Sales is a highly stressful job that requires acute attention to your mental wellbeing in order to be successful.
I had the opportunity to talk with my longtime friend Paul Krauss in an episode of the Beyond Presales Podcast. Paul Krauss MA LPC is the Clinical Director of Health for Life Counseling Grand Rapids, home of The Trauma-Informed Counseling Center of Grand Rapids. Paul is also a Private Practice Psychotherapist, an Approved EMDRIA Consultant , host of the Intentional Clinician podcast, Behavioral Health Consultant, Clinical Trainer, Counseling Supervisor, and Meditation Teacher.
The Stoplight Strategy for Mental Wellness
One particularly effective framework we discussed for maintaining mental health comes from Dr. Nicole Kane’s “Panic Proof” approach. It uses a simple traffic light metaphor to monitor your mental state:
🟢 Green Zone: You feel grounded, curious, empathetic, and present. Your digestion is normal, you’re not defensive, and you can focus easily.
🟡 Yellow Zone: Warning signs appear and you feel your blood pressure rising. You’re “wired but tired” and you become defensive or irritable. At times your digestion may change, and you worry excessively about situations that otherwise might not have caused any anxiety.
🔴 Red Zone: You feel overwhelmed, your blood pressure is high, you might feel hot or cold, your digestion is disrupted, you feel numb or hopeless, and small issues seem insurmountable.
The key insight is recognizing when you’re in the yellow zone and taking action before reaching red. I’ve known many people who view the yellow zone as just the way that life is, and they believe it is no cause for concern. Many presales professionals push through yellow, leading to eventual burnout that damages both their wellbeing and performance.
In reality, you should be living in green and learning to recognize when you’re yellow is the only way to avoid moving to red. Yellow isn’t a destination. A traffic light doesn’t sit on yellow. It will automatically go to red unless you intervene (this is where you can be different than the traffic light).
The Healthy Mind Platter
Research from Dr. Dan Siegel suggests humans need a balanced “diet” of mental activities:
- Sleep time: Quality rest
- Physical time: Movement and exercise
- Focus time: Concentrated attention on tasks
- Connecting time: Social interaction
- Play time: Enjoyable, unproductive activities
- Downtime: Relaxation without purpose
- Time in: Self-reflection and introspection
Most presales professionals excel at focus time but neglect the other six elements. This imbalance eventually undermines the very performance they’re trying to optimize.
The Professional Impact of Mental Wellness
Research consistently shows that balanced professionals outperform their burnout-prone colleagues:
- They make better decisions under pressure
- They build stronger client relationships
- They demonstrate greater creativity in problem-solving
- They communicate more effectively
- They stay in roles longer, reducing turnover costs
According to recent surveys, about 44% of US employees feel burned out at work, with 51% feeling “used up” at the end of the workday. Somehow this doesn’t trouble most employers and bosses. Yet employees who report positive work-life balance are three times less likely to seek a new job.
Taking stock of your mental wellbeing isn’t selfish and shouldn’t earn an eye-roll from bosses. Taking steps to improve mental wellbeing will likely keep you in the role longer and make you more productive at the same time!
Practical Applications for Presales
How can presales professionals apply these insights?
- Implement regular check-ins with yourself using the stoplight system
- Schedule recovery time after intense periods of work
- Create boundaries between work and personal time
- Build in “creative margin” for unexpected challenges
- Develop restorative hobbies that engage different parts of your brain
Consider this: when you’re in your best mental state, your demos flow better, your discovery conversations yield deeper insights, and your relationships with both customers and teammates strengthen naturally.
Perhaps most importantly, recognize that maintaining mental wellness isn’t “soft” or optional. You must take stock if you want to be at your best.