9 "Success Tips" the Best Salespeople Ignore – #4

“Success Tip” #4: 'You need to get out there and sell this to everyone.'

This one's really easy for salespeople to get dragged into – and it’s a sure path to failure.

You join a new company; they outline a geographic area or business sector for you to focus on – and then they tell you to go and see everyone and anyone who might be even vaguely interested in what you sell.?

But here's the thing: Most salespeople follow this advice to the letter because they’re so desperate to be looked on favourably by their boss and anyone else who matters at head office.?

So, what happens is this - the salesperson starts working really hard and makes sure that when anybody looks over their shoulder, what they see is someone who is really busy – busy, busy, busy - putting in the hours, sending emails, making phone calls, hitting the streets and darkening doors.?

They are so eager to win the approval of their manager – to be the one that comes bounding over the hill, tail wagging, returning with the stick their boss told them to fetch clenched firmly between their teeth – that they bury the idea that a large number of these calls might be a complete waste of time – and they fool themselves that the mantras the management team spout – stuff like?“the more people you speak to, the more you’ll sell” and “it’s just a numbers game” are genuine sales truths.?

Of course, the sales manager has been telling every poor sap who has ever worked for him (who all failed) the exact same thing. He believes if he can just find the right person to execute his “sales strategy” properly and put in enough effort to convert enough prospects, that their commission target should be a doddle. A target, by the way, that you haven’t got a prayer of ever hitting and NO ONE ever will.?

Because you’ll always be battling against something that eventually runs out - TIME - and the hours in a day - and the days in a month - eventually run out for everyone.?

That's why simply being busy won’t help you hit target. If you run a marathon in the opposite direction to everyone else, working harder and running faster will never get you to the finishing tape – in fact working harder will actually work against you.?

Here's a great way to fix the problem:?

1) Understand why your current customers choose to buy from your business – and dive deeply into that understanding. Understand what it is that keeps them loyal to you, the results they have come to expect from your products or services, how YOUR company treats them and makes them feel. You do not have to grill your current customers with an interrogation. You just have to understand what the view looks like from THEIR side of the table.?

2) Then you build a model of your perfect prospect. You do this by knowing what your target market looks like, understanding how many genuine opportunities you can physically call on in a month, a rough idea of your conversion rate – and then by working out the average size that each opportunity needs to be to ensure you hit target. Then you put all your focus into only reaching out to prospects that fit that model. Don't be afraid to filter out prospects who don’t *qualify* for your time.?

Now, this might feel a bit odd at first, but once you’ve worked out how and who you help – and then make sure that out of that group you spend time with the ones who can also help YOU hit your target in the time available to you – you will find that your sales pipeline will start filling up with the kind of forecast numbers that will also deliver a huge sense of achievement and relief.

?Now this might require some level of support from the head honcho of the sales team.

And most head honchos don't want to be seen making changes to a sales strategy that they have created, even when it’s barely a strategy - and clearly not working.

(But deep down, they want you to hit that target by the end of the month, right? So, as long as you’re working to the target they’ve set you, then focusing on bigger opportunities and better qualified leads will just mean that you will be able to deliver that target even quicker than they were expecting. And if that doesn’t make everyone happy, including you... well, maybe you should consider working somewhere else.)

And if you don’t think it’s worth your time working out how your current customers benefit from working with you, then why the heck not? Who wants to deal with a?doctor who prescribes medicine, but doesn’t know what it really cures?

Even a slight knowledge of how your prospects benefit from what you sell will improve your sales message enormously. Work out how you help your current customer base, create a list of ideal prospects who need that help, and draw the line of who you’re willing to sell to right there. Those prospects will be far more responsive, and you won't appear desperate.

Your prospects are riddled with apathy and scepticism, and they only want to speak with people who can help them – and people who know how they help them. In my Breakthrough 2 Day Business Development Masterclasses, I help you build a solid, dependable sales pipeline - and I I do so with sales facts, not sales fantasy.

When you seamlessly integrate meaningful messaging and focused targeting with the other ingredients of my system, the results are extremely gratifying.

Tomorrow I'll attack “Sales Tip” #5:

'It’s all about the relationship, people buy people.'

?To your success,

Chris

chris-murray/2-day-business-development masterclass.com