Symptoms:
Bob found himself staring blankly at his calendar. The year was nearing an end and the speed with which the year had flown by surprised Bob again, just like it had each of the last 15 years, since he had started in this business. As he considered what kind of year he would have, Bob ran through the list of all the opportunities he had won, and all of those he had lost. What had been the difference between the two outcomes? Even more confusing to him was why some had seemed to be on board after the first fifteen minutes before he ever presented anything. Not wanting to think about it another minute, he closed his calendar and just sighed, "You never know."
Diagnosis:
Bob's frustration and resignation is typical of a sales person in any business that does not have a selling system he can rely on. Sure, he has years of experience, but has Bob really had 15 years of experience or one year's experience 15 times over and over again? By not understanding why his presentation was successful with some prospects and totally ineffective with others, Bob can only hope the presentation works the next time he tries to impress someone.
It had become much easier to just say the prospects that declined his offer were misguided or not sophisticated enough to see the value of Bob’s offering. The math made sense, the numbers were laid out right there before them and everyone knows how the product works. Bob just didn't understand why something so logical wasn't easy to believe and buy into.
Prescription:
First, Bob and others like him must learn the value of a repeatable and measurable sales process. If its repeatable, then we can improve it with slight adjustments. If its measurable, we can objectively determine, which adjustments are truly beneficial. This “trial, assess, adjust” improvement cycle is how we can build an optimized sales process that is both efficient and effective for each of us.
Bob's other frustration is caused by his constant reliance on the logic of his solutions. Buying is highly emotional, yet many sales processes count on logical demonstrations or numerical calculations to convince a prospect to make a decision to buy. Connecting your offer to an emotional situation or condition will provide more urgency in buyers and help them to drive the sales process forward, rather than forcing a salesperson to talk them into submission. The most efficient and effective professionals have a consistent sales process and have learned to connect their process to the emotions of the prospect in front of them.
People buy for their own reasons, not yours.
Critical Thinking:
Can you make your own list of opportunities that you have won, lost or maybe haven't collected any decision on? Do you know the commonalities between each category?
The Drill:
Final Thought for the Morning:
“If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.” ~ Lord Kelvin
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” ~ Anonymous
Your Top 3 Goals & Tactics for the Week
LAST WEEK: Update us on how things went last week with your stated Goals and GD Tactics.
THIS WEEK: Please share your Top 3 Goals for this week and the GD tactics you plan to deploy.