Growth Dynamics Get Down

Good afternoon, welcome to another fast tip for Friday. Today's topic is one where it's the end of the week, I hope everybody's had some success prospecting. I hope someone has advanced the opportunities in their pipeline to the point where you can expect to collect a decision on the next call, you've done enough fact finding, you've done enough discovery or diagnostic interview and work and now you're at that step in the process where it's either time to fish or cut bait, or we're gonna get a yes or no, but either way, we're going home for a decision.

It was early Monday morning and Brett was lying awake in bed, worrying about his upcoming week. Although his business and personal life was running about average so far this year, he had fallen into the habit of replaying past failures in his head, worrying about every little thing on his numerous To Do lists, and allowing a constant stream of negative internal talk. All of this was causing him a lot of anxiety and stress, both before and during many of his business development meetings.

Do you ever get caught up with warm leads? You have hope but cannot get the win? If so, this is the topic for you.

Do you prefer hotdogs or steak? I bet you said steak.

In this episode of Fast Tip Friday, Charlie talks about the analogy of Steak and Hotdogs to encourage your sales efforts.

Chris is concerned about his sales team. They are active, they are selling, and sales are up but margins are way down. The business model allows reps to be flexible in the field and sell at the prices they feel appropriate. But something is missing, and Chris is unsure how to help his field reps get more margin. He doesn't want to kill the ability of his reps to set pricing in the field, but doesn't know what information they need in order to be better at the task.

Symptoms:
One of the most common objections salespeople get is about price: "That's a bit more than we were thinking about paying." "Your prices are kind of high." "That just doesn't fit our budget" are typical comments. Salespeople tend to be very quick to take these comments at face value. They assume these price objections are the real issue standing between them and an order, so the path of least resistance is almost always to begin dropping their price to get the sale. And, more often than not, once the price issue has been "resolved", more resistance comes to the surface.

Face it; sales is difficult even for the best in the profession. For many sales provides too many opportunities to give up or make excuses for not making quota or just setting an appointment for a sales call. Being significantly successful in business development requires a commitment to being significantly uncomfortable a significant amount of time. You must learn that without risk of failure there is little chance of experiencing the rewards that top producers enjoy, and frankly, for many that cost is too much to pay.

Symptoms:
Carlos believes that sales success is simply a game of numbers, and his commitment to relentless

prospecting has proven him right quarter after quarter, year after year. However, all that prospecting creates problems, for Carlos often finds himself so overwhelmed by follow-ups and open opportunities