The Problem With Exhaustion In Sales Teams
Talking with a sales leader last week at a well-thought of pre-IPO tech vendor, when I asked him what the biggest challenge he sees is in his sales team, he said:
“I see them so excited and invigorated at a sales kick-off or 8 week bootcamp, then after a few months of hard-knocks and set-backs, not many wins, they retreat. Their energy evaporates and it’s hard to get them up at that point.”
I see this quite a lot.
And it doesn’t take much scratching of the surface to see why.
Sales has historically been seen, and trained, as a high-octane numbers game. A Wild-West with a gun-slingers attitude, eat what you kill mentality.
This cultural approach to sales is an endemic recipe for huge highs and lows and ultimately disillusionment and for many, burnout.
A New Beginning
Sales should not be like this. In my experience, when I had a great way to engage with and ultimately open and close deals with key target accounts, it was far less “spray and pray” far more “sharp-shooting”.
Once you have an excellent process to get into key target accounts, immediately engage them and - using a particular sequence - take them all the way to project-creation and a signature on the contract, it’s FAR less stressful and an emotional ride, FAR MORE enjoyable, deep and fulfilling.
领英推荐
It would be like being a reasonably good tennis-player and thrashing around the court SOMETIMES hitting some amazing forehands with dipping, heavy topspin to win a point but most of the time not being able to.
With sales, like every other job function or career - PROCESS is everything.
Moving Beyond Energy And Charisma
I used to be taught that all you need is energy, enthusiasm and charisma to open and close deals. Of course, you need to sound interesting and interested, but who wants a local radio DJ bothering them injecting false charisma into their voice?
Instead, I have seen time and again, once you have an EXCELLENT initial engagement strategy, and can take someone through a process from lead-to-deal, you life is made 10x easier and more enjoyable.
The Process
I don’t want to give away the shop here, but I am happy to take you through a DRAFT of how I do it and what I teach to other SDRs and AEs. It honestly will make your sales career more enjoyable with immense revenue implications.
And neither do you need 17 multi-channel, touch-point, multi-thread yadda yadda ... just an ADVANCED, MATURE opening, advanced mature question sequences AND a special "hypnotic" close (clue: it makes them think they are already working with you!)
Feel free to AMA ....