First big month syndrome: why salespeople slump after their first big pay day

My first big pay day

I was two months into my first sales job, in the City of London: cold calling potential investors, sending them a prospectus, then closing them on the next call. It was old-school sales, taking payments over the phone for large sums, and the top closers were making serious money.

I'd already been promoted from opening to closing, and my numbers were good. I was on commission only and had rent to pay. I'd been given the scrap-heap leads to start with, but I'd made sales, so I started getting some of the fresh leads. I was confident and excited. I knew I was weeks away from the first big pay day of my life.

I'd always earnt. I'd worked on building sites in the school holidays for cash in hand, then as an Army officer on a decent, but predictably uninspiring, monthly take-home. This was the first time my efforts, and they were considerable (12 hours a day on the phones, usually six days a week), were about to be rewarded in a big way.

The warning I didn't think I needed

One of the senior closers asked if I wanted a pint at lunch. He gave me a warning: don't fall victim to first big month syndrome.

I had no idea what he was talking about. He explained that he'd seen scores of salespeople come and go, and what usually broke them was the first big month. The culmination of all your efforts. The big pay day you're always working towards when you start in sales. You hit your short-term financial goals, or even beat them, and then you fall off. Some people never close a deal again.

I didn't think for a moment it would happen to me. I was stoic. One of my favourite lines was Kipling's: "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster / And treat those two impostors just the same." I'd already lived through far bigger, higher-stakes ups and downs. I couldn't possibly take my eye off the ball just because I'd made over £10k in a month.

Why do salespeople slump after a big month?

Then the money hit my account.

I didn't work any less. I didn't feel like I was doing anything different on my calls. But somehow I was different. I no longer had the same need to close that I'd had when rent was due and my numbers weren't there yet.

What I thought was justified celebration (lunch with the management, drinks in the evening, spending a bit at the weekend) was making it much harder to repeat that month. I was celebrating because I felt I'd achieved something. Like I'd arrived, like I'd started on the path to financial freedom. All of that was true, but I'd done nothing. I'd taken the first little step.

The next month, I did half of what I'd done the month before.

I did an after-action review on myself and saw what I'd done wrong. I'd let my mindset shift. I'd decided I'd already done the hard work, and that from here it would get easier. It doesn't. It never gets easier.

The warning signs

• You check your bank balance more than your pipeline.
• You've eased off prospecting, because next month "looks sorted".
• Calls feel easier. Not because you're better, but because you care less about the outcome.
• You take the long lunch on a Tuesday and tell yourself you've earned it.
• Somewhere in your head, you think the hard part is over.

The scoreboard goes back to zero

I got my numbers back, then took them further. But this is a trap any sales professional can fall into, and it takes serious mental discipline to avoid. You have to watch for it throughout your career, not just when you start out.

At the end of every month, the scoreboard goes back to zero.

You're only as good as your last game, whether that's a month, a quarter or a year. What you did last month is gone. It's irrelevant. Forget the money in your bank account. You're at zero again, and the game starts afresh.

Those who don't get this will be found out. They might last a few months, even a few years, but eventually a weak mindset and a lack of discipline catch up with them. They come unstuck, and then they change jobs, or leave sales altogether.

I saw it happen at that same company. An experienced closer, who'd been putting up good numbers for a while, had his best month yet and took home £30k. Then the boozing started, then the cocaine. He was in the office a couple of hours a day, and when he was there, he messed around. The next month he closed nothing. Then he stopped coming in for days at a time, and then he quit.

Why it's even worse when you work remotely

Remote, it's even worse, and even harder to catch. Nobody is looking over your shoulder to keep you focused. You're accountable only to yourself. You can spoof your call numbers and your email numbers, but you're only lying to yourself.

On remote teams I've run, I've seen so many salespeople close a couple of deals, then down tools and wait for their pipeline to come in. Guess what? The pipeline doesn't come in. Then they either get fired, or go two months without commission while they build it back up.

Why mindset beats talent in sales

This is why I always tell my teams that mindset is the most important thing in sales. I've seen technically and naturally terrible salesmen, abrasive and rude to clients, close numbers that technically and naturally brilliant salesmen could only dream of, because they had an ironclad mindset.

At every stage of your career, and especially when you're starting out, the most important thing to work on, bar none, is a stoic mindset. Whether you lose a deal you've worked on for months or close the biggest one of your career, the moment it's done, you move on.

When Roger Federer spoke at Dartmouth College in 2024, he pointed out that he won almost 80% of his matches but only 54% of the points he played. Even the greatest champions lose nearly half the time. Whether you double fault, get passed at the net or hit a highlight-reel backhand smash, it's just a single point.

The ability to forget your wins and losses quickly, and stay emotionally detached, is the most important skill to learn when you start in sales, and the most important one to remember as you progress. Get it right, and the rest (the right processes, goals that keep you motivated, your closing skills) can do their job. That's how you earn incredibly well over the long term, with very few bad months.

Read next: Selling by listening: the power of shutting up

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