Mid-year is approaching. I’m talking to a lot of people about where they are with quota performance. With too many, their hands start waving around, the stories start, the excuses start.
“We’re still seeing the effects of the economy, customers aren’t buying….” I know their peers in the same company are making the numbers, their competitors are selling, so I wonder.
“Our marketing programs and collateral are really insufficient, I don’t have the tools I need to be successful…” Again, there are a number of their peers faced with the same thing who don’t let this stop them.
“”We just don’t have enough leads….” I’ve never met a salesperson that has enough leads, so I wonder, what’s stopping them from prospecting.
“The dog ate my sales call plan…….”
I may be a little hardnosed about this, but there is only one thing sacrosanct in sales, it’s The Number. Our job, our responsibility, our obligation to our companies is to do everything possible to make our number. There are simply no excuses.
Everything else about sales is changeable, but we can’t change our obligation to make the number.
If we don’t have enough leads, then we have to do something. Can we get referrals, can we go back to past customers to see if they have a need? How do we start prospecting to find new opportunities?
If our customers aren’t buying, how do we find those that are? Can we create a different or more compelling value proposition. How do we find those customers that are buying? Let’s invest our time in those that are.
We don’t have the right materials and collateral—-well create it yourself! Never let materials, tools, collateral stop you.
There are simply no excuses to do everything you possibly can do to make your number!
Does this mean you’ll be successful? Well you won’t be successful if you don’t, that’s virtually guaranteed. But doing everything you possibly can may still mean you don’t make the number. But at least you have learned, you have solid data about why and you can leverage that data to improve.
Sales success is about leaving no stone unturned. It’s about figuring out what it tales to win and owning the responsibility for that. It’s about determination–not letting anything to keep you from achieving your goals. Sometimes it means we have to change our approaches. What has worked in the past may not be successful, so we have to figure out what creates success. We may have to develop new skills, we may have to change our process, we may have to go after different customers, we may have to be clearer about our value proposition. Everything in sales is open to change—except for making the number.
Are you prepared to change everything to achieve your goals? Are you totally committed to achieving them and will let nothing stand in your way?
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