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Make a List, Delete Excuses

Guest post by: Linda Richardson

Article Overview: Selling is as much mind-set as skill set - especially today. Sure the economy has made it harder to conduct business and find and close opportunities. It has also made it harder to decipher what obstacles are due to the economy and what are due to our own performance. A 2009 DI study with 1600 corporate customers showed that customers attributed 33% of lost deals to things they feel were in the salesperson's control.

Make a List, Delete Excuses

Selling is as much mind-set as skill set - especially today. Sure the economy has made it harder to conduct business and find and close opportunities. It has also made it harder to decipher what obstacles are due to the economy and what are due to our own performance. Arecent DI study with 1600 corporate customers showed that customers attributed 33% of lost deals to things they feel were in the salesperson's control. With data like that it may be time to step back and take inventory of what we are and are not doing. One of my clients said he has banned the sentence, "Sales are down because of the economy," out of his sales team's vocabulary. He's not living in la-la land but rather he is asking the team to take charge of what they can control.

I think we all benefit from focusing extra hard on what's in our control. Start by making a list of everything you cannot control: number of customer calls, number of prospect calls, use of social networking to learn about prospects, pipeline to quota ratio, more specific ROI tied to solutions, calling former clients, calling clients who have changed companies, improved follow-up, and planning calls for the month down to each day, sprucing up one's appearance, making relationship phone calls, doing more research, higher sense of urgency ...

One salesperson who has implemented this approach says it has helped her stay in the game, and she has already exceeded her first quarter goal. An effort like this revs up competitive juices and improves results. You can also help your customers tweak their thinking toward what they can control. For example, once a customer's problem is on the table, use questions to get at what the short-term goals are, what the obstacles are, how in light of that their purchasing strategies have changed. With that information, brainstorm with customers how you can help them meet their short-term and long-term goals.

We can all benefit from making a list to help raise the bar on our own performance. I, for one, will work on building stronger bonds with customers and colleagues. What about you?

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Article Tags: Linda Richardson, Richardson Company, Sales Training



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