---

Guest post by: Dave Kurlan Become an Author

Tweet

---

---

Our four-year old son asked me to play baseball with him today, a beautiful, calm, but chilly fall day. He couldn't find the oversized whiffle ball that I used to pitch to him all summer so we used a significantly smaller, regulation size rubber ball. I told him it might take a little while to get used to the smaller ball and he would have to watch it very closely.

He swung, connected and clobbered the first 4 pitches I threw, hitting them farther than ever. He was more effective with the more difficult smaller ball. Wow!

Let's make this a Baseline Selling story.

When salespeople are struggling, management often changes the strategy in an attempt to make it easier on the salesperson. I'm guilty of having tried and failed at this strategy too. Let's have him call on smaller companies. Let's have her call lower in the organization. Let's have him sell something smaller to begin with. Let's give her the flexibility to sell it at whatever price she needs. You already know that these strategies don't work.

Why not give your salespeople a smaller ball? Make it more difficult. Increase the expectations. Demand more. Raise the price. Aim higher in the organization. This serves to improve their focus, understand that their job is on the line and get the job done where they were unable to before.

Play small ball.

Related Articles

  The CEO Who Needed to Hire Salespeople
  The Sales Force with Over Achievers Who Don't
  The Essence of Sales Effectiveness
  How Do Sales Professionals Stay Motivated?
  Your Salespeople Can't Even Do That?
  Leaders Get Paid for What Their People Do
  How Many Salespeople Shouldn't Be in Sales
  H.U.G. Your Sales Reps
  The Prospect Isn't Talking With Any Other Salespeople
  Scare Yourself Successful
  Manage Your Salespeople by Working Smart, More Stack Rankings
  Top 10 Reasons Why Salespeople Let Price Drive the Sale
  Recruiting Top Sales Pros is now HARDER, not easier
  Call Reluctance - Causes, Factors and Predictors
  Overcome Call Reluctance - Get Your Salespeople to Prospect
  What Have Your Salespeople Been Listening To?
  How to Sharpen Your Edge Using Fear
  Everyone has a plan. Some plans are better than others because they contain all or most of the necessary steps and sequence them in an appropriate order. Most plans have gaps where steps should be and the sequence doesn't lend itself to success. One area where we see this occur repeatedly is when companies are about to hire a Sales VP or Director AND
  Boston Ballet and Money Tolerance - What it Means to Your Sales Force
  New Metrics for the Sales Force - Unusual Thoughts for Unusual Times

Related Forum Posts

Making Money in 2011
Re: Quote of the Day - "When you find the niche you love, that b
Re: Specific Strategies To Raise PR Levels?
Re: Books for Business Owners
Re: Marketing potential of virtual worlds

Share this article. Fund someone's dream.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

3 Key Reasons A Business Needs To Keep Books

••••••>Creative Titles Creation for Great SEO

Maximum Impact Restaurant Greening

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.