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Sales Success Takes Preparation, Observation, Concentration & Automation

Feb 05, 2015
Wes Schaeffer
Salesforce.com CRM Marketing Automation Sales Training Sales Enablement Keap Infusionsoft CRM

Our world is filled with mystery and miracles awe...and oblivion.

We get upset that we only get 25 TV stations when traveling through the sky at 600 mph at 40,000 feet with our shoes off sipping a cold beer while it's -40 degrees just 18 inches to our right.

Our stores are 224,000 square feet filled from floor to ceiling with enough food to feed a small city but we don't know where steaks come from (they're grown on trees, Silly!) or how bread is made (in the oven, duh!).

(We also don't know how our nation was founded as shown in the video below.)

In life, 50% of the businesses and sales managers and sales people and basketball players and doctors and lawyers and FedEx drivers and circus clowns you meet are below average. (I'm not being mean, it's just a mathematical fact. If there is more than one person working towards the same goal, there will be a #1 and there will be "everyone else.")

When it comes to making a sale happen, the average sales person cannot tell you what it takes—in detail—to generate a lead, nurture that lead into a hot prospect, confidently and proactively address their fears, concerns & objections to make the sale, deliver what was sold in a superior, noteworthy manner, then nurture that happy client into a raving fan that is telling the world about you.

Some will say

  • "Marketing isn't my job," or
  • "I've been in this industry since you were knee-high to a grasshopper. I just know what to do instinctively," or
  • "CRMs and email marketing doesn't work. I've kept paper and ink file since before the Berlin Wall came down and I see no reason to change," or
  • "I'm always prospecting and I know a good lead when I speak with them," or
  • "I'm great when I get in front of a decision maker. I just need more opportunities," or
  • "We have support people that install the stuff and support the client. I'm not here to hold their hands and service them. I'm the hunter!" or
  • "Cold calling / email marketing / direct mail / trade shows / PPC / SEO (insert whatever else in here) is dead. You just have to hustle and turn over enough stones / kiss enough frogs / throw enough sh*t against the wall and something is going to stick."

Too many people think that

  • selling is an art and not science.
  • what it takes to be great at sales is subjective vs. objective.
  • sales people are born, not made.

They are the "below average" sales people. (Don't shoot the messenger. I really am here to help. Great salespeople are not afraid of a little controversy and ruffling some feathers if it helps get to the truth. And that's really all we're after. Sure, we hope the truth leads to a sale, but it's better to have a prospect tell you "no" early in the conversation than weeks or months down the road.)

Successful selling is as formulaic and process-driven (and even automated) as making products like chains in a factory, as you can see below.

Great sales people are like great football player: violent on the field; Mr. Nice Guy off the field.

What I mean by that is you create "Win-Win" scenarios for your clients. That's the Mr. Nice Guy.

But you do everything you can to keep your competition from doing the same. That's the "violent."

Let's face it, if you are just 1% better than your competition, you get 100% of the money. If you do that enough to your competition, they will be out of a job, which is not physically violent, but it's emotionally crushing to be sent home packing and it feels like you've been attacked.

While there are plenty of people that will say "it's a big market with plenty of business to be had by all," those people are saying that from an unremarkable cubicle, not from their private jet taking them to their private island for a two-week vacation with their family.

It's up to you to decide the path to take.

It all starts with putting the science into the art of selling. (For me that began when I started following this free Sales Agenda for every appointment.)

After being in commission sales since 1997 and owning The Sales Whisperer® since 2006, I can tell you that the 5% that have taken the time to eliminate all distractions so they can concentrate as they observe their competition, their prospects, and their best clients to prepare to win by codifying, systematizing, and automating their sales processes are the ones making all the money.

Shakespeare seemed to make some beautiful pieces—the Art—within the confines of the sonnet structure—the Science. You can do the same with your selling process but you first must look deep and think deeper.

There are precise, exact reasons you can and do win and lose sales. So do the things that win sales and avoid the things that lose sales.

This is the beginning of not only your sales automation but your life. Because as soon as you stop working in your business and start working on your business, you can raise your prices, work only with people you like, get home in time for dinner and relax.

Sales, marketing, automation, success all go hand in hand. The sooner you learn to implement and synchronize them all, the sooner you'll meet and surpass your business goals.

If you need more help growing your sales, check out the following resources scattered around this site and a few others I operate, such as:

Good Selling,