Yep, I said it. Sales people are cowards when it comes to performing the single most important selling skill - Prospecting.
I have spent the last 28 years working with salespeople, both in training workshops and, more importantly, in the field making sales calls one-on-one.
It is amazing how gutless sale people get as they spend more time in the field. I would think the opposite would happen, but it isn"t so.
Here is the typical scenario I have found. Perhaps your know someone whose career has taken this route. When a young salesperson starts out they are full of enthusiasm and a deep-seeded need for clients - the perfect combination. They Prospect like crazy, don"t know the "art of selling" too well, but stumble along and learn by doing.
As they get more and more sales skills training, they get further and further away from Prospecting and get much more comfortable with their client base. So they spend a great deal of time servicing their clients and not growing that base. They reduce their Prospecting calls. They rationalize that they should focus on existing clients.
In reality, they just don"t want to face the possibility of what they fear could be a rejection. They lose their guts. (There is a very positive secret to this aspect of the Prospecting process and I will share it at the end of this article.)
All too quickly they become gun-shy of the whole Prospecting phenomena since they have gotten comfortable talking to people they currently service - and know.
Avoiding rejection by avoiding Prospecting is really dumb. Of course people don"t necessarily want to see a new salesperson. That is not a rejection of you personally, that is simply a natural response. We all do that - especially when we"re interrupted at dinner by a telemarketer!
Our responsibilities as sale professionals, by definition, include growing our business, which means getting more clients and spreading the risk of lost volume over a larger base.
To get hung up over the idea of a rejection by a stranger is not only nuts, it"s counterproductive to your goals of selling, and thus earning more money.
That is why we call it SALES, folks. It is our job to change the attitude of the Prospect. This is why we go to all those sales training courses! That takes time and that is why we must Prospect.
To carry this even further, the experienced salesperson now stops asking for orders and simply hopes that his/her existing client base will, for some reason begin to make significantly larger orders, and maybe even throw them a couple references along the way. In this economy, that"s a good bet! As we"re seeing in our current presidential campaign - hope sounds great, especially when delivered well, but it"s not a very high-payoff course of action.
The experienced salesperson keeps getting indoctrinated in the latest sales techniques, so they are learning about making presentations, up-selling, value added selling, and the other buzzwords of the moment. But, they really aren"t in any position to use those new skills, since they have morphed into customer service specialists.
So all that training becomes a giant waste of time and money.
Meanwhile, some newly-minted, competitive salesperson with a lot of enthusiasm, but not too much field savvy, is out Prospecting on our experienced sales person"s client base.
What happens next is why so many experienced sales people are in trouble. The young person starts to sell into the market and steals clients. Since our experienced sales person has a finite client base because they haven"t been Prospecting, every lost client cuts into sales volume. They start to lose income and become somewhat desperate.
The desperation stems from the fact that they have been taught a lot of selling skills, but that is not what they needed. Selling skills are the second thing you must teach a sales professional.
The first thing is Prospecting, since Prospecting is the only skill that will put a sales professional in a position where they can use all their other selling skills.
Most sales professional have never been taught Prospecting - they have learned it on their own. That is not necessarily the best idea. It leads to great inconsistencies and no organized system.
The workshops I am doing these days are all focused on highly-experienced field sales professionals, people with well over 20 years experience in their various industries.
So tell your friends in sales to wake up and get to work. The answer is simple. Find a complete Prospecting system, learn it, and implement it.
Prospecting should be a continuing and ongoing activity so you never have to worry about a diminishing client base. Let the other guy worry about that.
Look, in commercial and industrial sales rarely is your client base static. If you"re not expanding your base, are you willing to bet your income that your competitors aren"t? Have you signed a "non-aggression" pact with the guys who want your customers? Sounds stupid, doesn"t it? But that"s what a lot of salespeople are betting on.
In our current economy everyone is trying to cut costs. Your well-developed selling skills keep the heartbeat of your client base pumping, but without Prospecting for new customers you are missing out on buyers who are looking to increase value for their purchasing dollar. Prospecting gets you in the door.
If you don"t have an explosively powerful Prospecting System, look at our BLITZ CALL System at www.blitzcall.com. Think of it as Prospecting for Knuckleheads. If you can"t build your customer base with the BLITZ CALL, then you don"t want a larger customer base. It"s that simple. You don"t need to consult your physician or turn your head and cough before you try it.
Then you will learn the best kept secret in selling - It doesn"t take guts to Prospect, it only takes a system!
Sell Well and Often,
Bill Truax
Bill@blitzcall.com
© Copyright 2008 WJ Truax