competitiveselling

3 Ways to Create Your Own Luck in Sales

Fri, 10 Mar 2023 22:31:51 GMT

Do you think it's possible to create your own luck in sales? Or do you rely on having the "luck of the Irish"?

We can all likely agree that when it comes to sales, “luck” is largely a product of the choices we make.

What are some of those choices?

Choosing to be proactive daily
Doing your homework to call and connect with a purpose
Asking smart questions to navigate to the Decision Maker

All of these things are choices we have to make on a daily basis. Decisions about how to spend our time, whom to spend our time with, and what activities to focus on in order to set ourselves up for maximum success.

In sales, success doesn't just from effort alone but from a combination of effort and luck .

Since most of us can't rely on the "luck of the Irish" alone, here are three ways to help you create your own luck:

#1. QUALIFY OPPORTUNITIES LIKE YOUR PAYCHECK DEPENDS ON IT.

Qualifying opportunities will significantly improve your close ratios. Without it, you risk pursuing leads who aren’t a good fit for the product or solution you’re selling due to budget constraints, organizational challenges, or other factors. Just like an attorney who claims “they win 95% of cases” because they only go after cases they can win, you should also stay focused on prospects and customers in your sweet spot.

#2. KNOW YOUR “NO” RATIO

A huge part of getting "lucky” is putting yourself out there. We as sales professionals need to get the no's to get the yes's we are looking for. The problem is many stop too soon. Figuring out your no ratios helps you determine when your luck will turn. Ask yourself: Did I get enough No's today? If not, your next call could be the luckiest one of the day!

#3. ALWAYS PRE-CALL PLAN. BECAUSE THE ONE WITH THE BEST PLAN WINS!

Preparation does not guarantee success, but without preparation, your chances of succeeding are slim to none. When you use your time wisely to plan and prepare, you’re not just passively awaiting opportunities, you’re taking a proactive stance. Chase them, relentlessly, refine and improve your game, grow and learn from your failures, then continue chasing. So, there may be some truth to the older saying “the harder you work, the luckier you get.”

Join the conversation on LinkedIn and share with us a time when you had the "luck of the Irish" behind you and closed the deal?

SMOKIN’ TOO MUCH HOPIUM

Tue, 12 Oct 2021 14:57:14 GMT

(REACTIVE HOPIUM VS. PROACTIVE REALITY)

We’ve all heard statements like these. They give us a glimmer of hope:

• “I like what I see so far and will get back with you.”

• “We will have a decision by next week.”

• “I haven’t had time to look at the proposal but will look at it tomorrow.”

Hearing these can make us feel we’ve accomplished something, when in reality we are hoping and building pipelines based on wish lists. We do not have any concrete evidence that we can count on these opportunities

Many of us fall into a trap of seeing our pipelines through a cloud of hopium smoke, when our focus should be on staying in control of the sale. Hope clouds reality and hope is not a strategy.

So what is this hopium thing? Hopium is counting on and forecasting sales that are out of our control. But how do we know when we have lost control of the sale? It’s very easy to figure out. Hopium is when the prospect has control and we are relying on them to take the next step instead of doing it ourselves.

What can we do to avoid hopium? We must make sure that we end every meeting or conversation with a potential customer with a mutually agreed upon “Next Set Time.”

What do we mean by a Next Set Time? A Next Set Time is simply a mutually agreed upon date and time, which is on the prospect’s calendar and ours, to talk or meet again in order to move the sale forward. It is a very common practice for salespeople to ask the prospect when a good time is for them, rather than proactively leading the sales call and suggesting a time.

We want to be the ones asking for a meeting or conversation on a specific date and time because it allows us to maintain control of the sales process. It shows the prospect we are very interested in doing business with them -- people like to feel wanted. Plus it shows our time is just as valuable as the prospect’s time. What happens is it changes from just gut feel to evidence our prospect is playing ball with us. This is being proactive in sales.

Without a Next Set Time, we cannot rely on that prospect for income. We don’t get paid on wishes and hope, but we do get paid on what becomes reality. Having too much Hopium in our pipelines, or being overly optimistic about the business we expect to come in, leads to not prospecting enough. We become comfortable and reactive. We risk creating a desperation rollercoaster when business slumps.

Think about the following:

What are proactive activities?

• Prospecting over the phone (gaining new accounts and growing existing accounts)

• Spending face to face time with prospects and customers (looking for new business)

• Strategizing your next call and planning how you will win the business, including getting that critical Next Set Time

• Networking and attending new events

• Closing sales!

What are reactive activities?

• Answering emails to serve customers

• Firefighting

• Servicing existing accounts, without upselling or cross-selling

• Administrative duties such as cleaning out your office during prime selling hours

• Busywork that is not a high impact activity

When we snuff out hopium, we can structure our days and become better forecasters of what business is coming in. Our pipelines are no longer just wish lists. Make it your goal to be realistic and be the one in control of the sales process by gaining a NST. Good selling out there!

Two Actions to Take to Remove Your Own Hopium:

1. Ask yourself honestly, if you were to lose your #1 prospect or customer, do you have enough to make it up or could you make it up in a relatively short period of time?

2. Look at your pipeline and your calendar. How many prospects have your name in their calendars (with a date and time to speak or meet with you) in the next two weeks?

Selling Resiliency

Tue, 12 Oct 2021 14:43:03 GMT

“As long as everything is exactly the way I want it I’m totally flexible!”

It’s funny but it’s also true. We can all relate to this quote on some level.

Think about it: when everything is going as planned, it’s easy to keep a good attitude and be as flexible as needed. But what do you do when things are out of your control and you need to deal with them anyway?

2020 threw us a lot of curveballs that we were left to figure out how to handle. Every aspect of our lives was upended.

Workwise, we all had to deal with sudden shifts and drastic changes like working entirely from home while dealing with added personal and professional stress like schedule changes, working in the same rooms as our spouses, learning new technology, taking care of kids or other family members at home, distractions like dogs barking, construction going on nearby, or unreliable internet connections.

Our normal routines were flipped upside down. This is where resiliency comes in. Oxford defines resilience as “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. The ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity. ”

2020 and the sudden reliance on virtual selling filled a lot of salespeople with uncertainty, doubt, and fear. This included us! Change has a way of making these kinds of emotions come to the surface.

But instead of ignoring these emotions or feelings, we all need to embrace the negative, feel the pain, and take a moment to analyze our feelings. Then, we need to flex our resiliency muscles and do our best to spring back into shape.

While everyone experiences change differently, these are five common stages people go through as they deal with change:

Immobilization
Denial
Incompetence
Acceptance
Testing new behaviors

Let’s take a quick look at each.

Immobilization

At this stage, you might feel shocked and think: “I can’t believe this is happening. What am I going to do?” You feel frozen in place or immobilized, with overwhelming negative thoughts about the situation.

For many inside and outside sales professionals 2020 felt like the end.

Outside sales pros thrive on interacting with prospects and clients in-person, but that abruptly stopped. You were forced to do everything remotely. It was a shock to the system and you were left thinking, “How am I supposed to build and maintain my relationships now?”

Even inside sales pros experienced a somewhat similar type of immobilization. You lost the easy camaraderie you were used to having. The bond between teammates when you got off a great call and celebrated by high-fiving each other was gone. Or, if it wasn’t such a great call, you were there to support one another.

Denial

“Everything will get back to normal soon. I’ll just wait till I can see my clients again.” It’s a natural reaction to deny situations that make us uncomfortable or require us to change what we’re used to doing.

Virtual selling wasn’t anything new when March 2020 hit. But for a lot of sales professionals, it was this idea of being forced into a specific way of selling that didn’t sit well. You might have wanted to keep doing what you had always done.

Incompetence

“Yikes, I’m never going to hit my goal in time for the end of the quarter. I can’t do this; I just don’t get it.”

When you’re learning something new, or adapting to change, it can be frustrating. You want to be successful immediately, but there’s a learning curve that requires patience, practice, and persistence.

Acceptance

At this stage, you’ve finally given in to the idea that this new way of doing things is here to stay and you need to change. Now you’re thinking, “How can I be successful? What can I change right now to move forward?”

This doesn’t mean you have to figure it out on your own. It’s very much the opposite. Asking for help is okay and encouraged. Working with other colleagues or a mentor gives you a different perspective and a different way of looking at change. This will only help you become more resilient.

Testing new behaviors

Change is hard. It takes time. You’ll make mistakes. But, when you embrace the messy and learn from each experience, you will do better. The key to making progress is focusing less on making things perfect and more on simply getting started.

You may still be going through these five stages right now, and that’s good. They’re your pathway to embracing change and developing resilience.

Remember, sales is an evolution; how we sell has to be ever-changing, too. That means being open to the newest tools, technologies, and tactics that will help you build your resilience even in the toughest situations.

Note: This is an excerpt from our soon-to-be-released book, Competitive Selling: The Guidebook to Resilient Virtual Selling .