The 7 Laws of Modern Sales

Practically every profession has some laws (if not, then Guidelines) that practitioners must abide by....that is, except for the so called 'sales profession'.

• Marketers have increasing laws around Privacy and Permission. GDPR etc.
• Finance professionals must adhere to all manner of laws around compliance (Sarbanes Oxley) Governance and Reporting (GAAP etc).
• Human Resources, - Workplace Law, Employment Law. Labor Regulations etc.
• Health care professionals – laws and regulations everywhere you look.
• Sales professionals – zip, zilch, nada. Aside from the laws that everyone must follow in business there are no specific certifications, qualifications or LAWS that govern the conduct of sales people.

Sales has always been a strange anomaly (in so many ways) and throughout my 3 decades of sales experience, I have witnessed some reoccurring themes and unwritten laws of the universe that always seem to be at play.

Thus, I’m now going to present my view of 7 well known “Laws” that I believe must be observed if you want to be successful as a modern sales professional:

1. The Law of Attraction (LoA) :

LoA states that you will attract into your life whatever you focus on, meaning that whatever you give your energy and attention to will come back to you. What you give is what you get returned, and I have personally realised my greatest sales successes through selfless actions, and by being focused on helping the buyer get what they want.

The most consistently successful sales people have always intuitively understood that we must: “create value BEFORE you we to extract value”…...and that means NOT focusing on your own quota or commissions.

The incredible power of the LoA cannot be underestimated, and it will bring unimaginable positivity and prosperity back to you as a by-product of simply focusing on the right things.

Sadly, the vast majority of my 30 year has been a constant battle against the principles of LoA. Why? Because I’ve nearly always been measured and managed (and rewarded) on vendor self-interest. Vendor business leaders must quickly WAKE UP and change the focus to cusotmer success outcomes of they will not reap the amazing benefits of LoA.

Create value before you try to extract value – Brian Halligan (CEO HubSpot)

2. The Law of Reciprocity (LoR)

LoR says that when someone does something nice for you, you will have a deep-rooted psychological urge to do something nice in return. Also known as the Law of Sowing and Reaping, allows us to receive as a result of what we give or do, and that’s why LoA and LoR work so well together. In a business context, if you want to change what you are reaping them you have to change what you are sowing.

In my experience, when modern B2B people switch the focus to giving, instead of receiving, then sales success begins to happen.

“Modern selling is about what you bring to the table, not what you can swipe from the table when nobody is looking"

3. The Law of Diminishing Returns (LoDR)

The LoDR is an economic principle that states that in a production process, as one input variable is increased, there will be a point at which the marginal per unit output will start to decrease, holding all other factors constant. In effect, this is what is happening now in the world of B2B sales….declining returns from the same (and now outdated) processes. 63% or the worlds B2B sales people are failing to meet or exceed quote and that trend increases in the wrong direction at pace.

As Einstein said, the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expect a different result….so why the hell are so many of the worlds so-called business leaders making no effort to change the process? Are these senseless people unable to step back and see that their 1980’s approach to sales no longer works with modern buyers? Apparently, these same senseless people are happy to accept the ‘diminishing returns’.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein.

4. The Law of Motion

LoM states that a body at rest remains at rest and a body in motion remains in uniform motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an external force – sales success for me has always been about knowing when I need to push hard at the beginning of the month/quarter in order to establish that all important sales momentum. Month/quarter end always means that the clock resets on your quota and it’s back to $0, and I’ve seen so many sales/business people that have failed to understand the importance of exerting the right level of effort to generate the much needed motion for sales success. 

Once momentum has been established, then it just becomes a fine balance to simply keep the motion moving forwards at the right speed.

“The momentum of continuous action fuels motivation whilst procrastination kills motivation” – Steve Pavlina

5. The Law of Propinquity

LoP is not well known, and it states that the greater the physical (or psychological) proximity between people, the greater the chance that they will form friendships or romantic relationships.

In my sometimes overly simplistic way of thinking, sales people that fail to go and meet their buyers where they are (nowadays on social platforms) then they have no chance of ever building those coveted relationships.

'Visibility creates opportunity' and if you don’t get in front of your customers then don’t be surprised when they form a relationship with your competitors - many of whom are meeting their (and yours) prospective buyers where they are 'learning' about solutions to business problems.

6. Law of Unintended Consequences,

LoUC states that actions often have effects that are unanticipated or unintended.

In modern sales parlance, it strikes me that it’s virtually impossible to have sales people focused (measured, managed and rewarded) on revenue/quota attainment and commissions without there being some unintended consequences.

Seems obvious now, but these old models nearly always accentuate that “next deal” ethos along with a dreaded dog-eat-dog culture where unnatural acts are committed often to hit some irrelevant internal KPI.

If you subscribe (as I do) to the old ‘what gets measured gets managed' then you cannot be surprised when self-interested sales folks are unable to practice the LoA or LoR. Their self-interest precludes them from ever being able to properly focus on creating customer outcomes/value because their self-interest is too prominent, and that’s more akin to the LoDR

7.    Pareto Law (PL)

Put simply, PL states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes, and we have all heard that 80% of revenues tend to come from about 20% of customers. So, why are so many sales leaders still focused so heavily on chasing shiny new logo’s….often at the expense of those high value existing clients?

Everyone knows about the old 80/20 rule, and yet far too many businesses ignore it. Very few business leaders have a sensible strategy about which clients they pursue or why, and that’s a disaster just waiting to happen. We must ALL be crystal clear about a) our unique value proposition, and b) where, how and with whom that value proposition is best applied. Most businesses only need 40 new customers each year, and yet they chase 400…anything that looks like a potential buyer is pursued and that approach simply throws scarce company resource into the toilet.

Despite how much we all seem to over-complicate it, business is really not that difficult. The above ‘Laws’ serve to highlight that if we follow some of these well established concepts and principles (in effect, going back to the basics) then we ‘will’ become much better aligned with our prospect buyers.

Play the long game, be patient, put aside self interest, and create value before we attempt to extract value then it will come back to us in spades. Yes, this mindset requires a definitive ‘leap of faith’, but for those that can organise their sales execution models around some of the above-mentioned Laws, then they will be the big winners in the customer-first economy.

By Graham Hawkins

(Author, Speaker, and CEO of SalesTribe)

SalesTribe

SalesTribe is the first business of its kind (globally) which has been designed specifically to assist B2B sales people, many of whom now require career guidance and access to new career opportunities. 

SalesTribe also helps small businesses get access to the best sales resources to help accelerate growth, reduce 'time-to-revenue' and reduce the cost-of-acquisition.

• Sales people need new opportunities. 
• Small businesses need access to ‘on-demand’ sales best practices.
• SalesTribe makes those connections.

www.salestribe.com