Symptoms:
Jake was putting in about 60 hours a week plus some time on the weekends but was still worried that his sales and management production was not nearly as high as it could be. The family did not see him as much anymore and his "To Do" list was constantly growing. Despite all his hard work, the only thing he could conclude was that he needed to do a better job of "time management".
Symptoms:
Dan left his latest meeting with a prospective account knowing he had to make some changes. The Buyer was willing to talk about many things, but not what Dan wanted to sell, which was being provided by another firm. The upcoming election came up several times too, but Dan did his best to push past all the uncertainties surrounding that topic. It seemed no matter how hard he pushed his features, benefits or competitive advantages he was not able to move this buyer to consider a particular product because of a strong competitor and an unpredictable economy.
Symptoms:
Jennifer had just returned from her ten-year high school class reunion where it seemed that many of her classmates had some fancy "professional" job. The question "so what are you doing now?" had become almost too painful to answer when she told her former classmates that she was in "sales". No one seemed to respect her role in business development as an account manager, with some even going so far as to say, "I thought you wanted to become an English teacher, what happened?" The truth was Jennifer had tried teaching for a few years, but soon realized that she would never be happy spending the rest of her working days confined to a classroom. Now Jennifer had to get herself pumped up to start a new week, but the negative head trash from her peers had her wishing she could go back to bed.
Tom was looking at the standings and found his name in the usual spot about two thirds of the way down. Given the way his clients were behaving lately and the condition of his market, he felt lucky he wasn't closer to the bottom. Hey, at least I'm not a loser is what he kept telling himself. Sure, his company had launched some new programs to boost production, but he had given up on that quickly when his prospects had convinced him that they still weren't going to buy from him. After all, he was doing everything he could do and his manager really wasn't helping him much.
Symptoms:
Jody was driving away from her newly won account with that smirky smile of satisfaction on her face. She had walked her way through the process from the referral stage, onto discovery and fact finding, then qualification with a commitment to act one way or another, and finally the agreement to do business together.
She knew her self-satisfaction was a result of the actions she took only a few short weeks ago, after several nightmare appointments almost sent her to rock bottom. During those calls, she had been nervous about her lack of preparation and from not knowing where she was in her own sales cycle. All that should have been done did not get done because she kept telling herself she was "too busy" to spend the needed time on any one aspect of her business.
Symptoms:
Ellen felt blah, like the world’s color had vanished and everything was stuck between black and white in some all gray tones of reality. After 12 long weeks of working from home and trying to force herself to keep fighting the fight, Ellen’s commitment sagged to its lowest point ever. The constant barrage of virtual meetings and remote access sales calls created a sense that the sales world no longer felt like the same place she was so excited about three long months ago. Was this it? Was post pandemic selling how people were actually going to be doing business? Was Ellen’s personal touch and ability to connect with her customers going to be limited to email, voice mail and ZOOM interactions? To Ellen it all looked like the world had turned Battleship Gray faster than she could believe, and no, she did not like that color at all.
Mark is looking at his schedule and realizing the July 4th holiday is just days away. Oh, Oh! Is the quarter really almost over? And the year is half over too. The sales reports are bound to follow, and he is determined not to let his performance slip away. Mark has decided it's time to review and get his game plan back on track.
Jerry never felt compelled to trust or rely on technology. In his opinion nothing beats getting out there and looking someone in the eye or at least picking up the phone and chatting live with a prospect or a customer. No one ever refused to do business with Jerry, and in many of his customers’ locations he had free rein to essentially come and go as he pleased. No way email could be that important as long as Jerry could walk in, pull up a chair and talk about personal “stuff” before staring his pitch. Jerry thought email and all this new “webinar” and virtual selling stuff was just more trouble than it was worth and never going to be as important as that face to face visit. Jerry stuck to his guns and even managed to get one of the inside team to transcribe his emails, so he was not forced to adopt that new-fangled irritation into his sales game. And then Covid-19 arrived, and Jerry was lost.
Erin looked at her monthly sales report and did not like what she saw. Despite working harder than she had all year, the numbers told Erin that she could forget about getting her quarterly bonus. It seemed like each quarter turned out the same; one month that Erin thought would carry her to a bonus and two months that fell short. The pattern was frustrating for Erin as she tried to figure a way to break into the top performer group in her office. It seemed like all the wins she posted in the one good month stole the time she needed to prospect for the other two months. Besides, how could anyone be expected to stop the customer service fire drills that popped up all the time? Erin was beginning to feel trapped.
Most of Mike's potential accounts seem to be unable to make a decision on their own regarding his service. They claim they have responsibility, listen to his presentation, but then let him know there are "others" who have final decision-making authority. He is frustrated by this situation and usually just makes his presentation, anyway, hoping for the best. As a result, his closing ratio is poor and his sales cycle is exceedingly long.
