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How You May Be Pushing Too Hard To Increase Sales Results

Written by: Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Article Overview: Did you ever believe that sales and farming have a lot in common? A story about a well-quoted 19th century American essayist may help you understand a better way to increase sales.

How You May Be Pushing Too Hard To Increase Sales Results

Did you ever believe that sales and farming have a lot in common? A story about a well-quoted 19th century American essayist may help you understand a better way to increase sales.

Dale Carnegie in his book "How to Win Friends and Influence People" shared a story about Ralph Waldo Emerson who was attempting to move a calf from a pasture into the barn. According to Carnegie, Emerson made "the common mistake of thinking only of what he wanted." The reaction of the calf was to become even more reluctant to move. Carnegie continued with the story that the housemaid who had "more horse sense or calf sense" immediately saw the problem and proceeded to place her finger into the calf's mouth. The calf allowed her to lead him into the barn as he sucked her finger.

Lesson learned is that you must consider the desires of your qualified potential customer first and yours second.

How many times in sales do sales professionals rush to push their qualified or not so qualified potential customers (a.k.a. prospects) into the barn door? Pushing and heaving is a lot of hard work and does not necessarily generate the desired results because the intended potential customer is just plain not moving toward signing on the dotted line.

Returning to the earlier story, think about the calf. He is in an environment where there is plenty to eat 24/7, fresh air. a lot of sunshine and let’s not forget the company of other calves and cows. Why would he want to go where:

He is unsure of food being available 24/7?
The air is not stale?
There is limited sunshine?
He is leaving friends and family?

So how can you get the potential customer to follow you to a potentially negative environment? Of course, you cannot stick your finger in the potential customer's mouth! However you can replace the finger with something else that is desirable. That something else is providing exceptional value through educating your customer.

To adopt this sales behavior suggests that you must have done significant research specific to:

1.Current market conditions
2.Industry market trends
3.Specific known issues to your customer

Unfortunately, what I am discovering in my sales coaching practice is that researching qualified potential customers is a sales skill set that many in sales are not actively using. Possibly, this is because they have not taken the time to construct a well integrated value statement as discussed by Jill Konrath in her book "Selling to Big Companies." This statement should be part of your overall marketing executive summary as advocated by Robert Middleton.

Whether a company is small or large, you must demonstrate why you should be hired before someone else. And the easiest way to do this is by your depth of knowledge specific to your potential qualified customer. Sales Coaching Tip: This is called education based marketing and the results include increase sales conversion rates along with a decrease in sales cycle time.

That knowledge triggers an almost automatic response as in the calf sucking on the finger in Carnegie's story about Emerson's predicament. Your only challenge is to have the right knowledge so that the milk is sweet and not sour so to speak. In other words, you cannot be saying what everyone else is saying or doing what everyone else is doing. Those actions will have you ending up like all the other gray suits out their pushing and shoving their qualified potential customers into the barn.

TAKE ACTION SALES COACHING TIP: Invest some time in conducting quality (in-depth) research that demonstrates your expertise about potential issues your customer is experiencing. Maybe even research your customer’s customers as advocated by Ram Charan in his book "What the Customer Wants You to Know: How Everybody Needs to Think Differently About Sales."

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Article Tags: american essayist, calves, cows, dale carnegie, desired results, desires, dotted line, farming, fresh air, friends and family, horse sense, housemaid, how to win friends and influence people, mistake, negative environment, pasture, prospects, ralph waldo emerson, sales professionals, sunshine



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