Prescriptive drugs, like Adderall, Vyvanse, etc.
Do they help with your productivity in sales? I have severe ADHD and considering looking into getting a prescription. I’m in sales and I feel like it would help me get locked in each and every day. A little bit worried about the side effects, would appreciate any and all opinions!
I see people mentioning they use it and end up being #1, President’s Club, etc. and I’m not doubting them. But from my experience, and having a huge sample size from working with dozens and dozens of sales teams for almost 2 decades, everywhere from being a BDR at the start of my career, to a Director or VP level, to co-founder, and as a consultant, I’ve been able to see a wide spectrum. Generation to generation, various geographic locations, along side or managing,etc.
And most of the time, I can tell who’s on adderall if they don’t flat out tell me (usually happened when I was alongside them and not their leader, but still occasionally will admit it).
And they all share a similar pattern. They trick themselves into thinking they’re productive by doing a bunch of grinder work, but are horrendously inefficient at achieving outcomes.
For example, they’ll build these exhaustive prospect lists all organized with the proper fields, up to date email addresses, phone numbers, LinkedIn, and a bunch of “custom research”. Theyll create new email templates, slide decks, and other redundant sales materials, They’ll draw up these elaborate documents with all these benchmarks, detailed descriptions of their strategy, a plan B, C, and D…basically a whole bunch of bullshit..
But then their calendars are empty, their pipelines are dry, and they have a bunch of long drawn explanations as to why this is the case. Basically anything and everything to avoid actually selling.
Then they also have this delusional perception that they’re more charismatic and that other people love hearing the sound of their own voice as much they do, talking 240 words per minute, and saying the same thing 5 different ways in these painfully long monologues.
And then there’s the other physical appearance aspect that they don’t think anyone else notices and prospects are obviously professional and won’t point it out. But the dilated pupils, the constant lip licking, and this overwhelming nervous energy while other people are talking —which I can only describe as looking like as soon as someone is speaking they’re going to lunge at them and other times looking like they’re already premeditating a response after someone else says their first sentence.
I’ve been pitched by many SDRs, AE’s , Managers, etc over the years and let me tell you, I can always tell when they’re on the stimulants. It fucking sucks to listen to. But they can never tell how disinterested I am and probably think it’s going really well because their tunnel vision and numbed emotional senses kill their ability to read the room.
Like I said, I acknowledge there’s those that might go undetected and they smoke it while taking it, but I would confidently say they’re outliers (or have high tolerances or just take minimal doses).
But over time, just never had a good experience working with, leading, or being pitched by the archetypical tweaker sales guy or gal loaded on adderall and Red Bull.
I think it does an excellent job of convincing the user that they’re in peak form and highly productive…but I also think it’s because they forget one of the most important aspects of sales which is they’re in the business of convincing other humans to part ways with their money. Trust, likability, respect, and credibility are the strongest things you need to establish to do that. Being an over-eager, suspiciously friendly, motormouth isn’t a good way to do that.
What a great comment right here. I took adderal once while I finishing my masters and it helped me greatly in that one day. Being doing sales for 15+ years and always wondered if I would do better if taking it daily at work.
So glad to read a coherent and experience based comment like yours.
I do feel tired many times. Coffee sometimes feels like just not enough. But I know what I do best at sales; champion building. That human connection, understanding what prospects are not saying and ability to read the room is just not something that adderal can help me with
Absolutely, thank you for saying that.
Your point about being tired sometimes is interesting because most people are. It’s very human. Very relatable. People here who interact or have interacted a lot with many C-Level executives (especially after 1 PM) will know what I’m talking about), but you’ll notice a majority of the time they appear relaxed, a bit drained, even a bit sleepy.
They also don’t have much patience to humor long rants and want you to be concise and get to the point. Even when they speak / text / email it’s like they charge by the word. Kind of how we are even with loved ones when we’re tired.
They have maybe a window of 3 hours a day where they’re fired up…but the rest of the time, they’re “human”. I think of every vendor or rep I bought from, every colleague or leader I respected, and none of them were these Energizer Bunny mavericks.
Point is, especially in sales, the more human-like and natural you come across, the easier it’ll be to breakthrough resistance and establish a connection. The Wolf of Wallstreet and the hundreds of hustle culture Grant Cardone clones on LinkedIn have created a false perception of what a successful sales professional is.
The top performers I know to this day are so unremarkable and ordinary it would blow your mind. I can even see how they could come off as lazy. But that’s why they do well. They’re just like everyone else.