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Sales Stamina - When Do You Give Up?
by Marcella McMahon
Sales Stamina - When Do You Give Up?
by Marcella McMahon
Consultant and Motivator
Over the weekend, my husband and I had a friend in and were playing Scrabble. Mid-game the two of us played unbelievable turns in a row, leaving our friend, Dan, lagging in points. Suddenly Dan’s attitude changed – his face became stoic and he could hardly speak. His frustration level was excessive. He had assumed defeat. He finished out the game by taking huge risks – so huge they were actually stupid – like trying to pass ‘Zxcluy’ as a word. He ended up missing several turns and a ton of point due to his defeatist behavior. Of course he lost, but he held some of the highest points tiles and certainly had a chance to come back and win.
This led me to think of the clients I coach and how they often sport the same defeatist attitude early on, giving up on prospects or their job because they get turned down several times in a row. We all encounter an occasional bad turn, but ask yourself, “Do I give up when I should forge ahead?”
Sales success takes persistence - persistence to move through the negative. Sometimes persistence is confused with aggression; however, aggression is not necessary to successful sales. Aggression in sales occurs when you focus on self. In opposition, Customer First Selling offers a consultative approach and puts the focus on the customer’s needs more than the salesperson’s.
Persistence with a consultative approach will create sales success. By focusing on the customer, you’ll never be accused of being an aggressive salesperson even when you don’t stop after being told ‘No.’
Try doubling or tripling your average number calls to the same prospect, as long as the prospect has a need for your product or service (even if they don’t realize their needs). You may not even realize that you’re giving up too early and with a call or two more to the same prospect, you could win the sale.
Lillian "Peg" Entwhistle
Lillian "Peg" Entwhistle decided to move to Hollywood to become an actress. She worked hard to get in movies, but after a year at it she had only landed a bit role, which after the cutting room finished with it, was merely a cameo. So she gave up. Peg is well known today, however. She is the first person to leap from the Hollywood sign committing suicide. The irony of it all is – if she had just held on one more day, she would have found a letter in her mailbox offering her the lead role in an upcoming production.
One More Call Just think how many times you have given up on a prospect when only one more call would have given you the sale. What is the highest number of times you’ve tried selling the same prospect? Do you give up after the first ‘No’ or the third?
Years ago, listening to a motivational talk radio station, I learned an important lesson about giving up. An office supply sales rep was intent on getting one of his city’s largest company’s business. On the first call, he was turned away because they already had a source. This sales rep did not take the walking papers the prospect was offering. He offered to be the back-up to the current supplier, saying that he would fulfill any orders the other supplier could not bring to fruition. Again the prospect said, “No thank you, we have a back-up already too.”
The rep still didn’t give up. He set up a monthly call to this prospect in his calendar, and faithfully made the call. Each and every month he was told “No." The prospect was frustrated at the calls and sometimes didn’t even take them.
A year went buy and the frustration turned into humor. The sales rep would say, “Hi, this is Jim from ABC Office Supply, I’m just calling for a dose of rejection – I haven’t fulfilled my quota this month.” After almost two years of this, he and the prospect were friendly and guess who started receiving orders? Yep, Jim. Not only that, but after a blowout with the current supplier over a mistake, instead of going to the back-up, the prospect gave the million dollar account to Jim.
Greek historian Plutarch wrote, Water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow. Successful salespeople are the continually dripping water. They are not turned away by the negative, but persist in the midst of the word ‘No.’ Hollow hard rocks.
Sales Stamina Sales is a career that can take vitality out of us. I know, first hand. We get into a routine of drumming up sales …or a routine of complaining about sales and why there aren’t enough customers.
When is the last time you tried something new in your approach? Don’t let your fire die. Try something new - learn a new skill. Learning has a way of keeping us refreshed and our fire blazing. If you haven’t been great at reading body language or never paid attention to it, try reading Dennis Kyle’s articles on Reading Body Language. Or when is the last time you focused on Listening Skills or Customer First Selling.
Never give up If you begin to feel like Peg, ready to throw-in the towel after a reasonable amount of failure, remind yourself of the fact that if she just persisted one more day, she would have succeeded. And of Jim and the power of stamina in the face of ‘No’ makes the difference in achieving goals. Know that the ‘No’s of the world lead you closer to orders.
If Jim had stuck to his usual number of calls to a prospect, he would have given up months or years before he won the sale. Use humor and persistence instead of aggression to win your sales. And keep yourself refreshed with motivational and educational sources like articles, books, and tapes.
Review
1. Don’t assume defeat.
2. Never take ‘No’ as the final answer.
3. Focusing on the customer never gives the air of aggression.
4. Sales success takes persistence.
5. Hollow hard rocks.
6. Don’t let your fire die.
7. Make a monthly practice of learning something new.
[PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION]
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Marcella McMahon
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